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Time distorts in unsettling ways in our exclusive new clip from Gazer, the dark neo-noir thriller in the vein of Memento centered around a potentially unreliable narrator.

Metrograph Pictures releases the film in theaters on Friday, April 4, 2025.

The neo-noir thriller follows “a young mother (co-writer Ariella Mastroianni) who, due to a unique condition that progressively affects her perception of time, is trying to save money for her daughter’s future before it’s too late. She takes a risky job from a mysterious woman with a dark past, which leads her to become entangled in a tense web of revenge, deceit, and murder.”

Marcia Debonis, Renee Gagner, Jack Alberts, and Tommy Kang also star.

Watch the clip below that introduces Mastroianni’s character, Frankie, as she weighs her options when faced with a dubious proposal for fast cash. Whether to take the risky job is the least of her problems; startling visions signal murder ahead.

Gazer opens in theaters on April 4th, courtesy of Metrograph Pictures. Shot on 16mm with a shoestring budget over the course of two years, the film is not only a masterful example of DIY filmmaking, but an inspiration to those who are looking to forge their own path to festival screenings and distribution. I recently caught up with Ryan J. Sloan and Ariella Mastroianni, and we discuss the making of Gazer below:

"Gazer follows a young mother (co-writer Ariella Mastroianni) who, due to a unique condition that progressively affects her perception of time, is trying to save money for her daughter’s future before it’s too late. She takes a risky job from a mysterious woman with a dark past, which leads her to become entangled in a tense web of revenge, deceit, and murder."

Starring Ariella Mastroianni, Marcia Debonis, Renee Gagner, Jack Alberts, Tommy Kang Directed by Ryan J.

After two years of filming on weekends throughout the early days of Covid, Ryan J. Sloan and Arielle Mastroianni’s new film Gazer is finally coming to theaters after a successful festival run. Written by Sloan and Mastroianni, and directed by Sloan, the filmmaking duo dive into a strange and paranoid world with a unique take on thrillers that harken back to the days of early Cronenberg and other genre masters.

In the film:

A young mother with a unique condition that progressively affects her perception of time, is trying to save money for her daughter’s future before it’s too late. She takes a risky job from a mysterious woman with a dark past, which leads her to become entangled in a tense web of revenge, deceit, and murder.

In our exclusive clip from the film, our unreliable narrator has a strange, fleshy interaction…

Watch now:

Ariella Mastroianni,...

Frankie (Ariella Mastroianni) spends much of Ryan J. Sloan’s Gazer staring at strangers so she can maintain some grip on reality. Barely hanging on to a poverty-wracked existence, she finds a sense of meaning in creating backstories for those she surveils. After believing she has seen a woman, Paige (Renee Gagner), being threatened in an apartment building that she watches, the sylph-like Frankie gets sucked into an increasingly baffling mystery that threatens to completely upend her life, while also illuminating aspects of her past for viewers.

Located somewhere near the intersection of The Conversation and Memento, Sloan’s feature-length directorial debut marries the former’s obsession with watching to the latter’s meditations on the nature of perception. Like both films, it jolts the wandering, obsessive nature of its main characters with an interruption of violence and sews confusion throughout.

The stated reason for Frankie’s behavior is that...

Gazer, the dark neo-noir thriller in the vein of Memento, has shifted into a new release date. With it comes a moody new poster.

Metrograph Pictures will now release the film in theaters on April 4, 2025. The film was initially set for February 21, 2025.

Gazer is directed by Ryan J. Sloan.

The neo-noir thriller follows “a young mother (co-writer Ariella Mastroianni) who, due to a unique condition that progressively affects her perception of time, is trying to save money for her daughter’s future before it’s too late. She takes a risky job from a mysterious woman with a dark past, which leads her to become entangled in a tense web of revenge, deceit, and murder.”

Ariella Mastroianni, Marcia Debonis, Renee Gagner, Jack Alberts, and Tommy Kang star.

Daniel Kurland wrote in his review for Bd, “In fact, the film feels like a very post-modern deconstruction of many of Alfred Hitchcock’s films,...

Metrograph Pictures has released a new trailer for Gazer, a dark neo-noir thriller with shades of Memento as it centers around a mother afflicted with a condition that causes blackouts and distortions in time.

Gazer releases in theaters on February 21, 2025. The film is directed by Ryan J. Sloan.

The neo-noir thriller follows “a young mother (co-writer Ariella Mastroianni) who, due to a unique condition that progressively affects her perception of time, is trying to save money for her daughter’s future before it’s too late. She takes a risky job from a mysterious woman with a dark past, which leads her to become entangled in a tense web of revenge, deceit, and murder.”

Ariella Mastroianni, Marcia Debonis, Renee Gagner, Jack Alberts, and Tommy Kang star.

Daniel Kurland wrote in his review for Bd, “In fact, the film feels like a very post-modern deconstruction of many of Alfred Hitchcock’s films,...

"Focus. What do you see?" NYC's Metrograph Pictures has revealed the official trailer for an indie mystery thriller titled Gazer, marking the feature directorial debut of filmmaker Ryan J. Sloan. Now set for release in February 2025 in limited theaters if anyone's intrigued. This very grainy, old school, lo-fi thriller follows a young mother who, due to a unique condition that progressively affects her perception of time, is trying to save money for her daughter’s future before it's too late. Ariella Mastroianni stars as Frankie, a young mother with dyschronometria, who struggles to perceive time but is also a keen observer. She uses cassette tapes for guidance on a daily basis. She takes a risky job from a mysterious woman with a dark past, which leads her to become entangled in a tense web of revenge, deceit, and murder... The film stars Mastroianni with Marcia Debonis, Renee Gagner, Jack Alberts,...

Premiering earlier this year at Cannes Directors’ Fortnight, Gazer marks the directorial debut of Ryan J. Sloan, who co-wrote and produced the paranoia thriller with his star Ariella Mastroianni. Shot on 16mm over weekends over the course of two years, it’s quite a feat of independent filmmaking and now it’ll see a wider audience thanks to the Metrograph Pictures release beginning February 21, 2025. Ahead of the release, the first trailer has arrived for the film also starring Marcia Debonis, Renee Gagner, Jack Alberts, and Tommy Kang.

Here’s the synopsis: “Gazer follows a young mother (co-writer Ariella Mastroianni) who, due to a unique condition that progressively affects her perception of time, is trying to save money for her daughter’s future before it’s too late. She takes a risky job from a mysterious woman with a dark past, which leads her to become entangled in a tense web of revenge,...

The tension within Ryan J. Sloan’s indie directorial debut “Gazer” is almost unparalleled: Of course the IndieWire review pointed to comparisons between Martin Scorsese, David Cronenberg, Brian De Palma, and Christopher Nolan when it came to decoding just how thrilling the feature is.

“Gazer,” which was among our favorite movies at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival, premiered during the Cannes Directors’ Fortnight. Metrograph Pictures later acquired the North American rights to the neo-noir heist thriller, with Head of Metrograph Pictures David Laub saying in a press statement just how much writer/director Sloan’s vision echoes cinema history.

“‘Gazer’ is a movie born of cinema and those who love it,” Laub said, deeming the feature “a brilliant homage to the unforgettable New York thrillers of the 1970s and 1980s.”

Well, we couldn’t agree more. Sloan, who co-wrote the film with breakout lead star Ariella Mastroianni, filmed “Gazer” over weekends...

Arden Cho is embracing life’s imperfections with her latest gig.

The Teen Wolf alum has landed a starring role in audio rom-com series Imperfect Match, set to launch May 2. The project hails from entertainment company Meet Cute, which focuses on scripted romantic comedies in the audio format.

Imperfect Match centers on Violet Kang (Cho), a celebrity matchmaker tasked with the formidable assignment of finding a partner for playboy billionaire Dante Gargano, who runs the leading dating app Cache-You. When Dante crunches the analytics and realizes that his own ideal match is nowhere to be found on his app, he enlists Violet’s help, presenting her with the daunting challenge of setting up the impossibly cynical bachelor.

“I had so much fun doing this audio rom-com, especially with a script as smart as this one,” said Cho about the series that Meet Cute describes as You’ve Got Mail crossed with Emily in Paris.

Exclusive: Minnie Mills, star of Amazon YA series The Summer I Turned Pretty, is moving into the audio world.

Mills is starring in Dump Him!, an audio rom-com series from Meet Cute.

She stars as Ruby, who by day is an average jaded college sophomore, but by night she’s “Venus,” the anonymous campus radio’s relationship expert dispensing advice to lovelorn undergraduates. When Ruby’s boss tells her he’s replacing her with an a cappella hour because Venus “has no impact,” Ruby tells that night’s caller to dump her boyfriend.

Impact achieved: the next morning, campus Queen Bee Paige has dumped high school sweetheart and fellow a cappella star, Parker. Parker, deranged with grief, decides to track down Venus and expose her true identity, and he knows just where to go for help: resident nerd and big-time nobody, Ruby. She’s that geek majoring in investigative journalism,...