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As crowdfunding and technology make filmmaking more accessible and streaming services make the moving image ubiquitous, more and more films are being born that defy categorization. “Two Plains and a Fancy,” the latest feature from duo Lev Kalman and Whitney Horn, is one such movie. This self-described “spa Western” follows three travelers, Ozanne (Laetitia Dosch), Alta Mariah (Marianna McClellan), and Milton (Benjamin Crotty), as they travel through 1893 Colorado searching for hot springs.

Continue reading Comedic Western ‘Two Plains And A Fancy’ Is A Meandering, Cringey Slog [Review] at The Playlist.

Following their Nineties-set dissertations-and-denim feature L for Leisure [2014], Lev Kalman and Whitney Horn have created another wry document of contemporary languor via fashions past with their self-categorized “Spa Western” Two Plains & a Fancy. Set in 1893, Two Plains concerns three explorers—a geologist, a watercolorist, and a con artist-turned-mystic—and their quest: to visit the best hot springs Colorado has on offer. What ensues is a tenderfoot’s journey around sublime vistas, featuring chance encounters with time travelling inventors, a brothel populated by ghosts, and a possessed cat, all to the sound of casual chatter on the topics of rock formations, experimental painting techniques, and the “sub-natural”. Conversation is the bread and butter of Horn and Kalman’s pleasure cruise as the trio wax lyrical regarding the varying satisfactions of their trip, their intellectual statements and observations are at times competitive, and their appreciation of the natural world borders on performative posturing.

It is infrequent — but not totally rare — to come across a film where a singular, simple formal decision fully encapsulates the underlying ethos and intentions. While it would be unwise to pick just one of the panoply of idiosyncratic features that make up Two Plains & a Fancy, the most immediate of these is the choice to film this movie, placed in a setting recognizable as a certain version of the Old West, in handheld, sun-kissed 16mm. Rather than focusing on the grandeur of the desert and capturing the sweeping vistas, directors Lev Kalman & Whitney Horn aim for something decidedly less conventional, which does more to fundamentally alter the viewer’s sense of a particular time and place than a whole host of so-called revisionist Westerns.

For those who have seen Kalman and Horn’s previous feature, L for Leisure, this comes as no surprise. Two Plains & a Fancy carries itself...

Kicking off last night with Sorry to Bother You, Brooklyn’s BAMcinemaFest brings the best in new American independent cinema to New York. Along with festival favorites like Madeline’s Madeline, Skate Kitchen, Minding the Gap, Leave No Trace, Support the Girls, and Relaxer, it is also home to a number of world premieres. One of our most-anticipated is Lev Kalman and Whitney Horn’s Two Plains & a Fancy, and today we’re pleased to premiere the first clip and poster.

Starring Benjamin Crotty, Laetitia Dosch, and Marianna McClellan, the western comedy marks a return for the filmmakers to the festival after L for Leisure back in 2014. Set in 1893 in the mountains of Colorado, the journey follows a trio of NYC’ers who are looking for relaxation as they encounter a number of peculiar characters. The first clip, which shows off Horn’s own beautiful 16mm cinematography, features a discovery followed by some fireside conversation.