Frownland

In a year of pretentious muck like "Synecdoche, New York" a film born out of Charlie Kaufman's own self-indulgence, comes a film that is similarly hard to watch but about three times as important. "Frownland" is a labor of love by the crew, the actors and the filmmaker, shot over years by friends. It traces a man who cannot communicate through his thoroughly authentic, REAL Brooklyn world. The people that you see are a step beyond even the stylization of the "mumblecore" movement. They are real people, painfully trapped in their own self-contained neuroses, unwilling to change, unable. The real world to them is their own set of delusions and because this is a film about people who are so profoundly out of touch, it is very difficult to watch. It is 16mm film-making without proper light, money or any of the other factors that would make a film "slick", but its honesty can not be understated, a fact that would cause a room full of people to dismiss it and for Richard Linklater to give it an award as he did at SXSW. This does remind of films like "Naked" or the best of the "mumblecore". It is a film that is not for everyone, but one that challenges you to watch and grows on you the longer you think about it.

A very strange and compelling movie. It's about a very awkward and tightly wound man who attempts to navigate his life as a door-to-door fundraiser/salesman. The director was able to capture a very unnerving tone that really served the story well. Original and unsettling while also finding a great deal of humor in the pain that accompanies life. There is a sequence at a testing facility that really stood out and made me laugh out loud which is not something I do as frequently as I should. One of the more memorable films I've seen in a long while. Hasn't left my mind and I look forward to future efforts by Bronstein. Fantastic performances all around. The simple line "I really appreciate it." is now iconic to me.

But I can make a better one about myself... Is this a actor with all his head tics... Pulling his hair touching his face ... Just nervous around people lives with his 78 year mother and crazy sister... Graduated from HS where there was so much pomposity it winds up on Facebook. And it's the same ... No one likes you and you fade from Facebook to a lonely life no one loves you .. I'm not annoying like the character in this film but my life went by too fast I'm in my mid 50's thinking about where I can get Fentanyl Fudge. I feel life serves no purpose half of me wants to be Anti Christ and watch humanity just die and the other half knows it's not going to happen and I will on my own will make that sarafice .. So I'm up to The Who book scene which I have personally owned since 1982 . And still sits on my shelf.. I have a room filled to the brim with music video tapes records CD's computers just crap to fill the nothingness and know it's nothing ... I don't feel anyone loves me or cares... So you do the same you stop caring .. They stop caring or never did... Yeah I can make movie that you just die in the end. As I watch... Get it.

Ronald Bronstein wrote and directed this movie. He is one of my favorite screenwriters, best known for his collaborations with the Safdie brothers. Here he tries his hand at directing as well, and while he's not in his finest form, that's okay. You can see the mark of a strong storyteller here, and his work since this one has proved that he learned from this one and just kept getting better.

What happens when someone has so much social anxiety that they cease to function? How alone can one man get? When the mundane crap we have to do in order to be part of society gets to be too much, what happens? Frownland explores these questions. Definitely a startling original debut from Bronstein. The tone is strange and claustrophobic as we get inside the mind of a guy named Keith that is so messed up he can hardly form a proper sentence. We follow him around as he tries to make contact with people and function day to day. Most of us have known people like this- people that say "sorry" too much or "i appreciate it" when there's nothing to appreciate. So we know there are people out there like this but why would someone want to make a movie about them? Well, because its interesting and Bronstein and the lead actor, Dore Mann, do an excellent job. This film is about as un-commercial as a film can get. A few friends filmed it over the course of a few years as they saved money. It was shot on 16mm and the scratched film look is beautifully low budget. With no distributer, this may be a tough one to find, I think it's been screening randomly for the past year or so. Hopefully it'll be on DVD at some point. I saw it at the Silent Movie Theater here in LA. There were 10 people in the audience, among them Crispin Glover, if that tells you anything about how weird this movie is. Highly recommended.