Aussiefilm

A spare, atmospheric little American independent drawing heavily upon out of favor old heavyweights of the 1960's art-house scene. The film chronicles a young woman with no discernible identity as she moves through life heavily influenced by everything around her. There is very little dialogue spoken in the first half, but it is full of quiet moments of everyday beauty. I found it's comment on America's obsession with image to be quite interesting. The gentle musical score was transcendent, done by the composer of QUIET CITY, another beautiful American indy from 2008. The lead actress delivers an understated performance, one that reminded me of a young Monica Vitti, as she aimlessly wanders through the world in search of something to call her own. Bresson's "models" come to mind, specifically MOUCHETTE and "AU HAZARD BALTHAZAR. It was refreshing to see an American indy film use the language of cinema to tell a story, flying in the face of the current hand-held, haphazard approach popularly known as "mumblecore". This is a film very much driven by image and sound. MISS OHIO is far from perfect, not one for the masses, but I found it touching and heartfelt. If you are a fan of cinema, of Antonioni, Bresson, Fassbinder, and Ozu, then this is a film for you. I hope the filmmaker continues down this path. I'm excited to see what he does next.