By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.7 cats
Director: Joe Denardo | Paul Felten
Starring: Catherine Cohen | Chloe Sevigny | Christian Parenti | Eleanor Friedberger | Emily Tremaine | Scott Shepherd | Stephanie Hayes
Country: united_states
Year: 2021
Running time: 72
IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8300462/reference
Bob says: “Imagine what we’d get if David Lynch tried his hand at Mumblecore. I think it might be similar to SLOW MACHINE, which thematically seems to be playing with questions of identity and performance.
“Stephanie, a Swedish actor living in New York, moves out of her apartment in a hurry to head upstate, apparently to hide from someone or something, but maybe it’s to work on a character. We also see her wake up one morning in a nondescript apartment somewhere in Queens, where she meets Gerard, a nondescript guy who claims to be an NYPD counterterrorism intelligence agent. He tells her that her phone won’t work in the apartment, which turns out to be true, but maybe that’s more a ‘somewhere in Queens’ thing than an ‘NYPD intelligence officer safehouse’ thing. Gerard tells her he brought her there to protect her — he’d found her drunk and in danger. She doesn’t remember any of that, but it might be true.
“The film alternates between the upstate situation, where Stephanie hangs out with a band working on new material and tries out her Texas accent, and the city situation, where Stephanie develops some sort of relationship with Gerard.
“Throughout the film, there’s a sense of discomfort bordering on danger. There are a couple of bomb threats, although it’s unlikely either of them is real. There’s Chloë Sevigny describing a life-altering audition in which the world seemingly dissolves or dies around her. There are men propositioning Stephanie, but of course they’re doing it because they want to protect her. Of course.