Residue

This film is so powerful. The way it's shot, the flash backs, the way the director played with light and perspective. It really is great. I had to sit and reflect after watching. This film sticks with you.

"Residue" is the most experimental and topical film that I saw in Venice, it features unconventional filmmaking and transports the viewer into an issue that hasn't yet been explored cinematically. Speaking with the director, this was extremely low budget and very spontaneous which is one of my biggest praises. The film has an intoxicating and transcending visual style that helps to build the story up in innovative ways. A bit unfocused and spends time at moments that didn't interest me at all, but one of the Venice films I want to rewatch as soon as possible.

And that sht was long at. so here's a short version:

most movies suck they have boring perspectives they have a frame of reference that's alien to me

but this film very well paced beautifully shot the characters felt real and the story was way too real I cried a lot the ending exactly the right move and it hit hard

good stuff

One of the best films on blacks in USA by a black director--his debut. Good visuals. Restrained and very magnetic acting by non-professionals. The film is about the gradual "gentrification" of Q street in Washington DC, not very far from the White House. (I have been a frequent visitor to the J and K street areas of the same city where the black population is in minority.) Q street was considered a black majority area. Land developers try to evict the black population so that the land/properties can be inhabited by white folks. The film rarely shows the whites, but when it shows their actions it is searing for the viewer. The whites take out their pet dogs for a walk and allow their pets to defecate on lawns of homes owned by blacks and do not clean up the mess even when confronted by home owners and instead yell profanities at the blacks from a safe distance. The final words are from a white couple standing on the terrace of a high rise residential complex who now feel safe that the black community is a lot less in number than before. The "Residue" of the title refers to the blacks who refuse to move out of Q street. An important film of 2020.

This movie was very hard for me to follow, mostly because a lot of the dialogue was very difficult for me to hear. There were remarkable moments, such as when the protagonist goes to prison to visit a childhood friend of his and recalls some of the best moments they spent together as children, while imagining - I think - other moments that did not actually take place but that could have. But, for me, too often it was hard to hear what the characters were saying, or to figure out what I was seeing.

Is this a fault of the director? Or of mine? I can't say.

Definitely give this movie a try. You may get more out of it than I did. But I wish the director would rethink some of his decisions on sound and transitions.