Autoerotic

It consistently baffles me how Joe Swanberg has carved out such a successful career out of so many reliably mediocre films and Autoerotic is no exception. While Swanberg has improved his awful camera work and overall production value. (He tends to make Kevin Smith look like a combo of Stanley Kubrick and Terry Malick.) This film is just pedestrian in about every way imaginable.

I'm not going to waste anymore of my valuable time on this but to say, Gee thanks Matt Dentler for foisting this garbage on the Indie world. What would we do without the cinematic genius of LOL or Hannah Takes the Stairs? Oh what exquisite taste you gatekeepers have....

What is the point of this? Find out how much the censorship board would tolerate? Try to pass as an art film?

For a porn there is no sex. For an art movie there is no story. For a mainstream movie, well, this is Malick's 8th grade movie.

I'm consistently impressed with Joe Swanberg's work. I happened to see this film in the same week as a Belgian film, Marieke, Marieke and Swanberg's intimate portraits are similarly natural, and are based in the story.

The comfort his actors have on camera show that they are great friends (the interiors say a much about the character's situations as any intimacy shown on camera). And no other filmmaker is exploring the ramifications of social media, and new technologies to create resonances in human relationships (good and potentially bad).

Compared to Swanberg's other films, this one does a great job with music, cut scenes and a thoughtful eye for his hometown Chicago. The stories are finely wrought and his skill at composing scenes makes one wonder whether he cued sirens, the sounds of trucks etc to compliment them.

I was one of those who does not have cable (hence no IFC or Sundance on demand options), so thanks to Amazon.com for placing this in their collection.