Friday, July 29, 2011

Gerry-Rigged

Gerry (2002) - Van Sant
Photobucket
If a film starts with Arvo Pärt's Spiegel im Spiegel, you know that shit's gonna go down and someone will die. It sets the tone. That's what happens in Gerry, but very slowly. We follow Casey Affleck and Matt Damon through a desert hiking trail and where they soon get lost. They totally gerried their directions. At first, with uneven visuals (mainly long takes but not the usual Harris Savides style), minimal dialogue and annoying moody score, I had a hard time getting into it. Once it settles in with the desert vistas and monotonous trekking, I was totally sold on its hypnotic nature. There is a funny ten minute marooned-on-the-rock scene that ends in totally ridiculous way.

Gerry is not an incisive character study, nor huffy survival tale, nor reflection on today's wayward youth. Van Sant keeps things deliberately obscure. It's challenging. Two characters are totally interchangeable. There is nothing really going on. Yet I couldn't keep my eyes off the screen. It's an interesting experiment that is only possible in cinematic terms. I liked it.

2 comments:

  1. Hello Dustin! I've been on the hunt for the origins of a particular picture and was pointed in the direction on your blog. The picture in question is here:
    http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcT4sSJKT0sVj_Q3GAW5yoEQpaY1_kS7nYXJgwMl7aJkJ1Vr0rDiCQ
    and it's of a bunch of lions cuddled up together in the snow. I was wondering if you had taken the picture and what it's context was? If you are just using the picture but have no idea who took it I will continue my hunt! :)

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  2. Audrey:

    Good question. I do not know where it's from. I think I just google searched it for pictures. My guess is it's from some type of zoo in Northern Hemisphere where it snows more.

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