FILMBRATS - REVIEWS

To describe this movie with a simple summary would be destructive, but I’m going to do it anyway because that’s what I almost always do. Ellen had sex with her ex-boyfriend. This potentially small event quickly becomes escalated as she tells her blabbermouth friend Laura who proceeds to tell Patrick. Ellen meanwhile tries to get a handle on the whole situation from all angles and futilely attempts to sever the “relationship” with ex, Chris.

So, that’s that. What the movie really captures is how a great number of post-collegiate twenty-somethings live. They’re at the brink or currently within the quarter-life crisis stage that’s increasingly becoming more common in today’s youth. The struggle for identity, acceptance, meaning and truth all are incredibly important. The last part of that equation, “truth,” is a very touchy subject in the movie and is dealt with in a surprisingly realistic way. Those that seek it are the ones unwilling to speak it. This creates a lot of unnecessary tension within the scenes. I don’t mean unnecessary in that they shouldn’t be in the film (because the confrontational moments are some of the most compelling), but rather in that the characters are so frustratingly stubborn in their convictions and so caught in their little games and social masks to get to the point. The conversations are extremely believable, honest portrayals of everyday interactions. You won’t find another movie that does it this well.

The realistic approach carries over to the rest of the very small-scale production. This is about as cinema verite as you can get in a fiction film. The glue of the movie is the real interviews conducted with various people of the same generation. They offer the most insight and truth. That’s great, because one of the main criticisms I have about the movie is that I’d like to see more real emotions conveyed to us from the characters. When Patrick masturbates in the shower, what does he think afterwards? Is there a sense of secret disappointment or shame or is there relief in releasing frustrations and fulfilling fantasies? The characters hide. However, what the filmmakers (who are also the cast) Joe Swanberg (Patrick), Kris Williams (Laura), Kate Winterich (Ellen) and Kevin Pittman (Chris) don’t show us through facial expressions is made up for in showing us close-ups of how body language can be an effective tool to discovering someone’s true feelings and current moods. The running theme of bare feet speaks depths of the nakedness and vulnerability that the characters, especially Ellen, possess.

And nakedness is a good word to use here. One of the unique aspects of the film is its lack of inhibitions when showing the sexuality of this generation. To some extent, this could be considered a fault or in your face over indulgence. But when you realize that the majority of today’s cinema skirts around nearly everything this movie places front and center in an attempt to bring true life to the screen, it becomes less a gimmick and more of a manifesto. Even so, there are going to be a lot of images here that will disturb people, but if you’re of the right mindset it’s incredibly easy to get used to these images and take them as part of the daily lives presented (just as they should be).

I can’t really say the movie is perfect. In fact there is one sequence that I found a little gimmicky. When Patrick is calling his work on the phone, the film cuts away every time he speaks, going to various shots of him in the city assumedly going to work. When he’s not talking, we see him lying in the bed close-mouthed on the phone. It doesn’t fit very well with the rest of the narrative and gives off the appearance of being there because it’s “cool.” Another complaint is something of a necessary evil. The relationships in the film are extremely ambiguous. I understand that’s part of what our generation goes through sometimes, but as an audience trying to grasp what’s going on with these people we’ve never seen before, it can make things confusing and take us out of it. It would be better to establish the relationships and then deal with the emotional backlash and hidden feelings that comes along with that so we don’t have to pull away from the narrative and figure things out.

This movie is about completely avoiding conventions. That’s what makes it so interesting to watch. There aren’t the normal events/conflicts foiling the progress of the main character. There are no good guys and bad guys. It shows you a side of life virtually unseen (or in some cases probably never before seen) in cinema. But it’s not for everybody. This movie is for people of our generation. It shows how people in their early to mid-twenties deal with their issues. The characters and especially the interviews talk about all of our doubts and fears as we still attempt to discover what we want to do when we grow up. They give great examples of how to get so much pleasure out of the simplest things. The film isn’t great in that you can deconstruct the meaning of its individual shots. Instead, it’s great because it resonates with you. You’ll remember it well after you’ve left the theater for all the right reasons. This movie gives validation to so many people out there who just might think they’re alone.

Note: I am friends with three of the filmmakers/stars. In fact it was Joe who started this very site you’re reading and brought me in on the ground floor. I mention this in the interest of full disclosure, but I still stand by all the above comments. If his film sucked, I would have stated so, or probably just ignored reviewing it for the site. I don’t get paid for my work here, so I have nothing to really gain by inflating a score or his ego. The filmmaker’s best critics are his/her friends, so my judgments on the movie are sincere and meant with the best of intentions.

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