Review of Frownland (2008) by Walter M — 04 Jul 2010
Entirely unadorned - the film stock as grainy as the actors are blotchy and spotty - "Frownland" most closely looks like a reaction to the mumblecore spirit of peppy togetherness: that sense one gets in the films of Bujalski et al.
of friends clubbing together, killing time (here, it's time that's killing Keith) and muddling through, behind the camera as in front of it. Here, both camera and characters move with maximum passive-aggression.
.. If Bronstein is keen to evoke anything, it's the sensation everyone's having better conversations, better sex, better *lives* than you are, but it's the way the film panders to this insecurity that concerned me: at one point, we see the putative girlfriend taking a craft knife to her own flesh, but the film has already long since established itself as a tool of self-harm; it needs a health warning, not a certificate.
This review of Frownland (2008) was written by Walter M on 04 Jul 2010.
Frownland has generally received positive reviews.
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