Slamdance is festival based in Utah that features indie filmmakers. The films featured are traditionally shorter in length and often extremely experimental. Sometimes that works, sometimes it doesn’t. Here is a breakdown of the 5 films I viewed from Slamdance 2023: Stars in the Ordinary Universe, Fuzzy Head, Sweetheart Deal, Nut Jobs, and The Girl Who Was Cursed
Stars in the Ordinary Universe
Stars in the Ordinary Universe, focuses on 3 different stories from different earths in the multiverse. Director Bowon Kim takes 3 different, yet related, themes and weaves them together across “An Ordinary Universe”.
The first story follows a high-school girl who is informed she may have “inferior” genes, and goes on a bizarre but poignant research mission to find the truth. The next story introduces us to a disillusioned young man. As a boy, his father told him to “dream bigger”. His life begins to unravel at the realization he will never achieve his big dream. Finally, we meet a man who knows the truth about everything and feels compelled to share it with anyone who will listen. He quickly learns that most people don’t actually want to hear their truth.
Stars in the Ordinary Universe is a lovely, thought-provoking film. The cinematography is beautiful, as is the piano score throughout. All of the lead performances are strong. Kim cleverly lightens up what could have been a very serious film with plenty of truly funny moments. The movie essentially asks what meaning our lives on earth have when compared with the vastness of the universe. And I really liked his suggested answers.
Fuzzy Head
Fuzzy Head‘s title certainly is about the main character’s state of mind, but my head was also a bit fuzzy after viewing. However, that might have been director Wendy McColm’s intent. McColm also directed Birds Without Feathers, a breakout hit at Slamdance 2018.
Fuzzy Head is a surreal psychological thriller that focuses on insomniac Marla (played by McColm). Marla is on the run after the death of her mother (an impressive Alicia Witt). Marla has to search through her childhood memories to try to and come to terms with the void she is living in, her insomnia, and the truth about her mother’s death.
Fuzzy Head has some fantastic surreal imagery. A phone booth ringing in the middle of a desert highway, and a Lynchian-inspired performance by Rain Phoenix as ‘The Whistler’ were my favorites. The overall use of lighting and score really contributed to the surreal atmosphere. Also, the performances were solid throughout.
My biggest issue with Fuzzy Head was the story. It was definitely intriguing, but also confusing and repetitive. I completely understand why a filmmaker would purposefully make a story unclear, it is often their intent to have the audience draw their own conclusions. Unfortunately, for me, there wasn’t enough to grab onto to do so.
Sweetheart Deal
Sweetheart Deal, a documentary film by Elisa Levine and Gabriel Miller, was my favorite of all the Slamdance movies I viewed. It was also the most bleak and heartbreaking.
Sweetheart Deal was filmed over the course of a decade and focuses on the lives of 4 sex-workers in Seattle’s notorious Aurora Ave.: Kristine, Sara, Amy/Krista, and Tammy. All 4 women were drug addicts and all 4 relied on the safe haven of “The Mayor of Aurora”. A man who lived in an RV, offered comfort, food, friendship, and a place for them to sleep or detox.
Levine and Miller’s portrayal of Aurora Ave. is so vivid that I felt I was there. The shots of the businesses, the signs, the chain link fences, the rain….whether night or day. The street gave off vibes that ranged from dirty to downright sinister.
They also did an amazing job at digging beneath the “sex worker” label that each woman wore. We find out how, and why these women ended up in the trade. We visit with their friends and family for insight. The audience is shown the horrible cycle of addiction and abuse that kept them on the streets. And finally, Sweetheart Deal lays out a horrific, if not surprising betrayal that these women suffered.
Yet, the film still offers a glimmer of hope. As one of the women says towards the end: “There’s not always a happy ending, but sometimes there’s an acceptable one”. This is a truly masterful work of documentary filmmaking.
Nut Jobs (Les Pas D’Allure)
Nut Jobs, brought to us by Alexandre Leblanc, is a cuckoo-bananas psychedelic rollercoaster ride. And I mean that in a good way. This film was weird, experimental, and so much fun!
Benju, visits his ex-girlfriend Angie, late at night. He explains that in an effort to take down an alt-right radio station for which Angie used to work, he hooked up with some left wing terrorists to steal a pulsating vinyl record that could help bring down not only the persuasively manipulative radio station, but more specifically Angie’s ex-boss, Valere Gravel. Angie, understandably, begins to accuse him of lying, of fabricating this tale as an excuse to get close to her again.
The flashbacks to the story that Benju is weaving, the characters involved, and the obvious still-remaining chemistry between Benju and Angie are all fantastic. How much of Benju’s tale is true, and how much is him weaving a tale to Angie? Well, we get our answer at the end.
During the ride we experience a hilarious satire of politics, media, experimental theatre, and on a darker note, perhaps the end of civilization. The entire film is shot in black and white, which suits it well. Save for an “Interlude” in color. Which is hilarious.
I highly recommend this film. It’s absurd, in the best possible way.
The Girl Who Was Cursed
The last film I viewed, The Girl Who Was Cursed, by Zara Dwinger, was the shortest feature by far, but that didn’t keep it from being one of the most impactful.
Gizem (Sinem Kavus) is a stoner who spends most of her life in a purposefully oblivious haze. She wastes most of her time avoiding the well-meaning advances of inclusion by her family, and spying on her neighbors across the way with binoculars. She is derisive towards most neighbors, but takes a liking to one she identifies with. When the same neighbor shows her kindness after she ends up passed out on the courtyard of their housing complex, she becomes fixated with him.
The next day, she realizes he has seemingly disappeared overnight. This sends her down a rabbithole of hyperfixation in her need to find out what has happened. It was fairly obvious early in the film that Gizem was talented and loved, but felt isolated and unmotivated. She does unravel what happened, and is given a choice. I love what she chose.
This may have been an okay/good film for me had it not been for Kavus’s wonderfully deadpan, yet vulnerable portrayal as Gizem.
Overall
This was my first venture into the world that is Slamdance, and I was very, very impressed. I look forward to seeing what this indie/grassroots festival has in store next!
