Giants Being Lonely

Giants Being Lonely is both a paean to and nightmare of hometown life. The flashing-by visual beauty of the world captures the fleeting of time itself. We feel it set in amber. This beauty serves the emotional fevers of the teenaged boys on the ball team as well as the fevers and appetites of the starved, isolated adults of the town who feed on the boys. Amalia Culp's performance, almost mute but intensely expressive, as the coach's beautiful, terrorized, wandering wife especially stays in my memory.

The act that precipitates the ending is a pure mystery to me. I'd really appreciate a plot spoiler.

This is a sophisticated film where every clue counts. I watched it several times and appreciated it more and more with each viewing. Abbreviated narrative and lush cinematography, it tells a tale not easy to absorb, with performances both intensely explicit and highly nuanced. There is an escalation of almost unidentifiable tension, and yet, after the crescendo, no trivialization through judgement. A classic drama mingled with the sweetness of love, love between adolescents, between adults, and between a mix of the two. And the painful reality that a single incident can be irreversible, its consequence everlasting.

I was brought to tears having been captivated by a story, and images, so real, so poetic. They will live in me for a long time. The canopy of trees embracing painful lives, the glances of desire, following Bobby (literally, as he's often filmed from the back) as he navigates emotions. Visually beautiful and moving.

This is a stunning debut film for Grear Patterson. As someone who had seen his early videos, it was recognizable; parts of it felt like Grear's films from his beginnings - beautiful, dreamy cinematography, a building sense of foreboding mixed with innocence. There was some confusion for me, between the main characters, and some plot reaches; an ending that might be rethought. But a great achievement for a young filmmaker.