There isn't the slightest feel that this is a first film. The way things are framed, and the rhythm of the edits are first class.
The main actors are superb. There is no story to speak of, just enough events to serve the purpose of the thing, which is to allow a visit into a world where every quality of being is less. The setting is a small, remote trailer park in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. Other areas of the country claim eminence in poverty and ignorance, but in historical terms it all began in the hollows of those mountains — all the reduced wisdoms of blindness that surround us.
We meet a young man, the young woman who falls in love with him and the owner of the trailer park. That owner exploits our hero while being only half a peg up toward the completeness of spirit of the clearly intended audience. The mission of the film is to take us into that world, and it succeeds amazingly well. There is no irony; everything is played as straight as the lives portrayed.
The scenes in the trailer park are perfect. They do the job with precision and economy. Later, there is a voyage into a seamy environment which triggers events, changing things. This, it seems to me, is not done as well. I think that is because by then we are used to having the world presented to us through the eyes of trusted characters and this scene is just a collection of images. We lose the association with the main character.
Endings in films are rarely done well; endings in this kind of film are especially hard. The film creates a world and puts us in it. How do you end a world? What reason do we have to leave other than the rent in our theater seat is up? Story takes a back seat, so there is no story to end. We have the characters who connect us to this world, so the ordinary way out is to end the character. It is the weakest element of the project.
"Breathless" within "Pink Flamingos" is how I would describe this. Let's hope this crew has as much success as the makers of those films. They've earned the next step.
Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 3: Worth watching.
