I'm a pretty conventional movie consumer. I like beautiful settings, sweeping melodramas, scenery-chewing performances, bombastic scores, and all the other trappings of a big budget.
But that doesn't stop me from appreciating what Clarke does in this no/low budget microdrama. Stripped of all the expensive distractions and frills of a typical Hollywood production, TPS focuses wholly on the human elements of its story: a man and a woman on a date, each with their own agenda, each with their own hang-ups.
Clarke's gift is that his perspective on such bare human drama is so deep and textured that he is able to tease out an extraordinary range of tones, vibes and themes out of the simplest of human interactions, backdrops and props. It's just two people and some toys in an apartment, but this movie travels the full movie spectrum, from romcom to existential horror. Credit goes to his stars as well: there are no false beats here. The rhythm is slow, almost to the point of painfulness, but the awkward silences are pregnant with humor and menace for those who can endure them.
