The Transcendents

Watch this movie for the brilliantly performed monologue by the great Savannah Welch. It's the culmination of a character's descent in depravity. Like pealing away the layers of an onion. It's wonderfully written and the director really allows Welch to do her thing with an extremely long push in that stays at this insane close on her depraved face as she sets up a totally cathartic final act of the film.

Admittedly, I'm an editor so I pay attention to editing more than most people and most people don't pay attention to it at all -- nor should they. But the editing here has a very specific style that impressed me -- (a lot of this has to do with the DP and Director's style of shooting).

First -- In the scenes that take place in the modern day, there's a Bam/Bam "Smash Cut" style. Pretty much seems as though it represents the main character's anger and lack of focus on a revenge journey.

Second -- In the past, the scenes are clearly done with a heavily roaming handheld technique. I saw an earlier review that says this has to do with memory. It COULD. But I took it as a send off to "rock documentaries". In the past you see the band (The Transcendents) being formed and much like other rock docs, the camera crew is just lucky to be in the rooms and happy to grab whatever shot they could.

Finally -- There's these LOOOOOONG dolly shots that move into character's brains without any cutting. The characters go from being unreliable narrators to truth tellers before our very eyes. Its fascinating.

These three styles in editing, amongst many others in other departments make this film incredibly unsettling and a unique way of telling a haunting story of the past and present colliding.

This movie is a touching story about broken people. It really doesn't fit inside any one genre. It's funny but tragic. Exploitative yet sensitive. Trashy and artful. Grainy and colorful. The characters are ghosts and full-blooded human beings.

A lot of it feels familiar. But I can't place where it's borrowing from. At the risk of sounding ridiculous, it's almost like if Roger Corman made Days of Heaven. Or somehow if Malick made a Corman script.

All that to say: I'm glad I rented it. (I think. I really don't know what I saw)

You can't do movies anymore like this. (not that this movie is not good) but you can't expect people to fall into a trance and get lost in a film. This is a super moody movie that you really need to not have other distractions when watching. I had my daughter crying, had to turn it off -- turned it back on, couldn't remember what happened. My husband starts yapping about a sports game -- had to turn it off. Turn it back on and can't remember what I was watching. It's not that people don't have patience anymore, but they are simply too distracted by other people to focus. I'm sure this movie is great in a nice air conditioned dark movie theater, but that's not how I saw the movie. And that's not how most people will see the movie.

Trippy film with a plot about tracking down a mysterious band. It follows the same structure of Eddie and the Cruisers in where you have the past (the formation of a band) colliding with the present (where the hell is this band now?). Unlike EATC, however, we never hear the band's music. (One single chord on a sitar at the end). I think this choice works really well as The Transcendents' (the band) music is not important to the story. (I'm also pretty sure that with all the well known musicians in the film, they could have had some great original music if they wanted to)

Which brings me to the acting. All the musician/actors are terrific. But the performance by Savanah Welch in the lead role is jaw droppingly good. Her character, Kim, doesn't start out as much (kinda bratty and annoying), but as the film builds momentum, the layers of her character are peeled away and you get this broken beauty that's hanging on to life by threads. LONG MONOLOGUE. (If you've seen Paris, Texas you'll understand.). The film probably has a debt to Paris, Texas as well with its weird leading man and desolate landscapes and long monologues.

Also, this isn't a movie about a cult. I don't know why the trailer looks like it's about a cult. Don't expect a story about a cult.