The editor’s note: This review was originally published in 2024 Kanes Film Festival. Metrogographic images release ”Gas“In theaters Friday 4 April 2025.
Imagine “Baby drives” Be a tragic, music -free exploration of mental decay, and you may be able to start depicting the Tensest robbery sequence in “Gazer.” Just like Ansel Elgorts Tinnitus-affected refuge drivers, Frankie (Ariella Mastroianni) has to put in the headphones before handling a dangerous job. But she doesn’t blast Queen or Jon Spencer Blues Explosion.
The struggling single mother suffers from dyschrononetria, a impaired mental condition that leaves her unable to accurately perceive the passage of time. Seconds and minutes are seamlessly transformed into hours and days in a way that leaves her constantly questioning when She is. It is a working, if uncomfortable, situation when your greatest fear lacks a doctor’s meeting or zone at work. But when you have a few minutes to steal car keys from a dangerous man’s apartment before he gets home, the risks become much greater. So she occurs the presence of other-for-seconds’ instructions for herself with the hope that she can keep herself at the moment by listening to her own grounds. But when the door handle turns and she is forced to hide under the bed, her choreographed plans plan and she has to plan her escape without a network – or an internal clock.
Marry the manic paranoia of “After hours” With a “Memento” -Sque unreliable protagonist and touch of meat -bending body fear that can be ripped directly from “Videodrome”, “Gazer” is the type of debut that should restore your lost belief in independent film. Self-financed by the rookie director Ryan J. Sloan and shot between shifts at his day job as an electrician, 16mm thriller is a white knuckler that feels consistently fresh even though they carry many of its classic Hollywood effect on the sleeve. Sloan invokes the 70s Sleaze and “Of God this goes all the way to the top!” Conspiracy of classical noir to the same extent, but his film remains so grounded in his own world that it never grows into a tribute to anything special. “Gazer” may be inspired by New Hollywood, but its existence is almost reason to believe that a similar filmmaking renaissance may be on the horizon.
Frankie may not understand the time in a conventional sense, but she is really aware that her watch is ticking. Her young daughter grew up by her late partner’s mother, who never lets Frankie visit after the state considered her to be an unqualified parent because of her inability to perform daily tasks. She can tell you that the girl is growing up in a home that is negligently and potentially much worse, and her window to make some memories with her daughter closes quickly. The doctors warn her that her reduced mental state only gets worse, and it won’t be long before she can’t live on her own. She is desperate to fill some money for her daughter’s future before she is too unable to advocate for the girl’s safety. But it is difficult to do when even the most meniscus jobs fire you for poor time management.
The situation seems gloomy, but Frankie finds a lifeline in an unexpected place when a woman calling herself Paige (Renee Gagner) is approaching her in a trauma support group. Paige recognizes Frankie’s face because she saw her stare through a window while her boyfriend attacked her. The woman explains that she is struggling to leave an abusive relationship and does not have a friend to turn to. She has an escape plan, but she needs someone that her neighbors do not recognize to sneak into her apartment, grab her car keys and knit her car in a safe place. She offers Frankie thousands of dollars for a night’s work – and Frankie is unable to reject anyone who offers to pay her.
It seems like the perfect heist on paper, only two strangers who use each other’s tragic situations to take one step closer to freedom. But things get complicated after Frankie does exactly as she has said. Paige haunts her without paying her fee, but it will be the least of her problems when police show up at her door. Paige never picked up his car, but the authorities did – and as it turns out, there was a dead body in the trunk. With Frankie’s fingerprints all over the wheel, she is now the main suspect in a murder case she knows nothing about.
Mastroianni, who together wrote the script with Sloan, carries the film with his paranoid performance as a frankie. Sporting a choppy pixie cut and boring clothes, she blends into the gray New Jersey landscape as she sows through stylish motels and disappointing houses with the hope of clearing her name and getting her daughter back. As her mental faculties slip away, her hallucinations deepen her in a world that starts to look less and less like the one she actually lives in. But no matter how twisted her perception of the world, her earthly desire to get her daughter back and clear her name bases her enough to continue pushing forward. Unreliable yet deeply related, she is an important thriller protagonist whose unique mind may be the only thing that can remove the strange web she is in.
Frankie may not have much time left after the credits for the “Gazer” roll, but there is every reason to believe that Cinephiles will enjoy the work with Sloan and Mastroianni for many years to come.
Rating: A-
“Gazer” premiered at the Film Festival 2024. Metrograph Pictures release the movie Friday 4 April 2025.
