Insanely accomplished and ambitious film by Alexander Bello. He’s set a new standard for what can be accomplished by a young g director with passion, drive, and work ethic. Complexity, ambiguity, big themes that never feel didactic. Saskia Sommer produced the hell out of this and the film is beautifully lensed by Grant Bennett.
I can’t wait to see what all the folks involved continue to make.
My cat loves this movie.
Masterful compositions, confidence in telling a universal story through visuals and abstractions, the main character’s walk into oncoming traffic.
Really fantastic stuff (though I do miss the humor from Kokorev’s earlier work).
Very excited to see what he does next.
This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.
The backrooms aspect is very cool and genuinely feels like we’ve entered into a dream turned material. It makes me excited to watch Backrooms videos on YouTube, which really feels more like the ideal medium for this than a feature film…
The drama / therapy stuff felt very one note and cobbled together to give it weight and make it more than just entering a weird liminal space experience (I think a version of this where it’s Chiwetel Ejiofor and…
Director’s Note, 1/23/24
I started to imagine an entry in a film book of the future. Like an obituary, but memorializing something that hasn’t become yet… Except, there is actually so much history that led up to this, and I’d like to honor that.
The last 15 (!) years have been about the dream of getting the movie shot... Now it’s (nearly) done and will be world premiering at SXSW! I have no idea what 2024 will bring, but I’m…
