Nimic

So goes the first lines in Yorgos Lanthimos' odd little 2019 short: "Excuse me. Do you have the time?" The answer, at a runtime of 12 minutes is.... maybe? For fans of Lanthimos... Yes?

Nimic, like the title suggests, is slightly off, not quite right, not quite 'mimic,' and nothing here is quite resolved. Apart from, that is, a mood, a surreal little ride, a feeling of unease.

Father, the film's blank protagonist (tricky ground here), meets a woman on a subway, only to find himself followed, 'Mimicked,' and the absurdity of this, like in many of Lanthimos' films, is accepted by his family.

So perhaps too should the viewer when watching Nimic.

"Nimic," Romanian for "Nothing" - is a word also present in the film: from the way its characters fill voids, wear dull expressions; the film's narrative itself with no concrete answer. What should be expected here is the fun of the experimentation, the cinematography (a great camera whip), the soundtrack, and simply that.

While this movie undeniably showcases the signature surrealism we've come to expect from Yorgos Lanthimos, it might just be a bit too enigmatic for its own good. The film navigates the complex themes of identity and human relationships with a disconcerting flair but often leaves viewers grappling for solid ground. Matt Dillon's performance, though commendably intense, sometimes feels overshadowed by the movie's overindulgence in its own obscurity. The pacing, though aiming for unsettling, occasionally veers into the tedious. The visuals and score, while atmospheric, may come off as heavy-handed to those looking for a subtler narrative. Overall, this movie is a testament to Lanthimos' distinctive style, but its insistence on ambiguity may not sit well with all.

Lanthimos had been working hard to prove his talent for psychological horror, although you can say the favourite was an execption! but this short film is an worthy promise to a long one... maybe the best one we ever seen from lanthimos...

The somnambulistic universe inhabited by Lanthimos/Fillipou characters is not limited to closures through the wide-angle lens use. It extends to a reactionary critique of home, family, affectivity, de-historicizing (contra, say, Bergman's similar doublings in 'Persona') the pathologies that afflict it by stretching the doppelgänger effect ad infinitum and by reducing structures to communicative breaching experiments.

It's less than 10 minutes and it's beautiful and enjoyable at least. It's like Dostoyevsky's "The Double" but really short and it's Lanthimos instead.