To me, this is not a "microbudget film", it is simply film, and it is the work of a seasoned, natural filmmaker operating outside of capitalism, becoming an important bit of counter-culture. The craft is razor sharp, in fact this is an aesthetic filmmakers today, even on budgets, are driving to emulate in their desperation for the authentic. They are shoplifting the styles of the past attempting to consume it. From the inherent subversion of the existence of DIY filmmaking at all, the beauty is how the forms contrast. The naturalism is profound, and this hint of Herzog or Weir-esq poetry that seeps in the scenes that builds to the transcendent. I found the performances the sort of pleasure I get out of Mike Leigh films, or Italian films, everyone is memorable and the characters are lived-in. There is a fly on the wall quality that this is going on with or without a camera capturing it, high praise, yet the formalism comes through at key moments, across these perfect, tight compositions. I am reminded of Sidney Lumet saying a great filmmaker realizes that you only need one or two close-ups across an entire film, but they must be at the exact right moment. When you are involved in the film festival circuit, the true indies, they're often quite good, and not disposable as one assumes. So I have seen films like this that weren't given new life, or life at all. But history brings things into light for a reason, and here, it is the sheer integrity of the filmmaking. Every moment of the movie felt that everyone involved was treating it like the most important film in the world, and that reads twice as big from the David v Goliath feat of its existence.
