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Movie review: GAZER (2024)
Did you know that New Jersey law prohibits customers from pumping their own gas?
What is the sound of one eye blinking?
GAZER (2024) Ryan J. Sloan / Writers: Ariella Mastroianni & Ryan J. Sloan / Cinematographer: Matheus Bastos (2.35:1) / Designer: / Composer: Steve Matthew Carter / Editor: Ryan J. Sloan & Jordan Toussaint / Cast: Ariella Mastroianni, Renee Gagner, Jack Alberts, Marianne Goodell, Tommy Kang, and Marcia DeBonis / Distributor: Metrograph Pictures / Rated R / Length: 114 min.
dyschronometria, aka lost time syndrome noun
1 : a condition in which individuals struggle to accurately perceive and estimate the passage of time.
2. : an arcane condition that rookie screenwriters Ariella Mastroianni (who also stars) and Ryan J. Sloan (who also directs) first hit upon and, working backwards, then proceeded to fashion a narrative around.
It took a beat to get acclimated. The sight of an attendant pumping gas suggested another era, until the location became apparent: it’s illegal for customers to pump their own in New Jersey. When we first catch sight of titular starebot Frankie Rhodes (Mastroianni), the Sunoco attendant is minutes away from the unemployment line. Never mind that in a moment of clarity, Frankie swore she spotted a man physically assaulting a woman through a window of the apartment building across the street. What matters most to her shift manager are speed and accuracy, two traits a zonked-out Frankie is not capable of exhibiting. The boss calls it daydreaming. But if anything, fantasizing about other people's lives is what keeps Frankie in the moment.
Frankie never leaves home without her Walkman. Her illness, such as it is, compels our sad, hollowed-eyed heroine with the pixie trim (probably self-cut) to record and play back cassette tapes as a reminder of how to function, what to look for, and when to take her medicine. They’re also the only form of communication she has with Emma, her young daughter. Emma is staying with a grandmother (Marianne Goodell) who has no intention of returning the child. Frankie's doctor tells her to prepare for the worst and suggests she spend her final days in a hospice for the cognitively impaired. She refuses, knowing full well that it would mean never seeing her daughter again. It would also spoil the film’s only shot at a happy ending, no matter how forced and implausible.
What are the chances that the same woman she saw getting knocked around (by her brother) would attend the same Survivors of Suicide Loss group that Frankie frequents (even though no one she knows has taken their own life)? Over dinner, Claire (Renee Gagner), the woman in the window, offers Frankie a chance at easy money. (The bouncy hand-held coverage appears to have been captured by a cameraperson standing on a diving board.) In exchange for $3000, Frankie is to drive Claire’s car to the middle of nowhere, leave the keys in the ignition and the door unlocked, and touch base in the morning. We witness tampering with U.S. mail, breaking and entering, and grand theft auto, and still, the greatest crime of all is the filmmakers’ refusal to spring for a tripod.
Frankie spots Claire’s batterer on the bus, and instantly assumes the role of Nancy Drew, Junior G-Woman! Her condition prevents her from holding a job as uncomplicated as a gas pump jockey, yet the writers expect us to believe that in the final stages of her life, Frankie has the wherewithal to mount a criminal investigation. To their credit, the filmmakers steal from the best — Scorsese, Lynch, Cronenberg, Nolan, etc. But they never manage to add their own fingerprints to the mix. The most fun to be had here is in checking off the film’s wide array of inside references. Sloan has difficulty sustaining suspense, and the overall pace frequently bottlenecks. What further taints the experience is the feeling that the director is so in love with his images that he can’t bear to shave so much as a frame off the running time. **
Now playing exclusively at Angelika Film Center & Café - Carmel Mountain
Here's something you might be interested in.
Movie review: GAZER (2024)
Did you know that New Jersey law prohibits customers from pumping their own gas?
Movie review: GAZER (2024)
Did you know that New Jersey law prohibits customers from pumping their own gas?
What is the sound of one eye blinking?
GAZER (2024) Ryan J. Sloan / Writers: Ariella Mastroianni & Ryan J. Sloan / Cinematographer: Matheus Bastos (2.35:1) / Designer: / Composer: Steve Matthew Carter / Editor: Ryan J. Sloan & Jordan Toussaint / Cast: Ariella Mastroianni, Renee Gagner, Jack Alberts, Marianne Goodell, Tommy Kang, and Marcia DeBonis / Distributor: Metrograph Pictures / Rated R / Length: 114 min.
dyschronometria, aka lost time syndrome noun
1 : a condition in which individuals struggle to accurately perceive and estimate the passage of time.
2. : an arcane condition that rookie screenwriters Ariella Mastroianni (who also stars) and Ryan J. Sloan (who also directs) first hit upon and, working backwards, then proceeded to fashion a narrative around.
It took a beat to get acclimated. The sight of an attendant pumping gas suggested another era, until the location became apparent: it’s illegal for customers to pump their own in New Jersey. When we first catch sight of titular starebot Frankie Rhodes (Mastroianni), the Sunoco attendant is minutes away from the unemployment line. Never mind that in a moment of clarity, Frankie swore she spotted a man physically assaulting a woman through a window of the apartment building across the street. What matters most to her shift manager are speed and accuracy, two traits a zonked-out Frankie is not capable of exhibiting. The boss calls it daydreaming. But if anything, fantasizing about other people's lives is what keeps Frankie in the moment.
Frankie never leaves home without her Walkman. Her illness, such as it is, compels our sad, hollowed-eyed heroine with the pixie trim (probably self-cut) to record and play back cassette tapes as a reminder of how to function, what to look for, and when to take her medicine. They’re also the only form of communication she has with Emma, her young daughter. Emma is staying with a grandmother (Marianne Goodell) who has no intention of returning the child. Frankie's doctor tells her to prepare for the worst and suggests she spend her final days in a hospice for the cognitively impaired. She refuses, knowing full well that it would mean never seeing her daughter again. It would also spoil the film’s only shot at a happy ending, no matter how forced and implausible.
What are the chances that the same woman she saw getting knocked around (by her brother) would attend the same Survivors of Suicide Loss group that Frankie frequents (even though no one she knows has taken their own life)? Over dinner, Claire (Renee Gagner), the woman in the window, offers Frankie a chance at easy money. (The bouncy hand-held coverage appears to have been captured by a cameraperson standing on a diving board.) In exchange for $3000, Frankie is to drive Claire’s car to the middle of nowhere, leave the keys in the ignition and the door unlocked, and touch base in the morning. We witness tampering with U.S. mail, breaking and entering, and grand theft auto, and still, the greatest crime of all is the filmmakers’ refusal to spring for a tripod.
Frankie spots Claire’s batterer on the bus, and instantly assumes the role of Nancy Drew, Junior G-Woman! Her condition prevents her from holding a job as uncomplicated as a gas pump jockey, yet the writers expect us to believe that in the final stages of her life, Frankie has the wherewithal to mount a criminal investigation. To their credit, the filmmakers steal from the best — Scorsese, Lynch, Cronenberg, Nolan, etc. But they never manage to add their own fingerprints to the mix. The most fun to be had here is in checking off the film’s wide array of inside references. Sloan has difficulty sustaining suspense, and the overall pace frequently bottlenecks. What further taints the experience is the feeling that the director is so in love with his images that he can’t bear to shave so much as a frame off the running time. **
Now playing exclusively at Angelika Film Center & Café - Carmel Mountain