Redemption, at last!
WEEK ONE - THE NEW BLOOD
October 1 and 2, kinda
Now that we've gone through and watched this the whole way through, two things have become clear:
1. this is not the kind of film that benefits from fractured viewing
2. this is the kind of film that benefits from a rewatch, even if you've watched it the whole way through already
This is one tricky film, and one I do feel that I can't talk about in great detail without going into spoiler territory, so my advice to anyone interested in the film is to watch a trailer, read a synopsis, scan through my review, and leave it at just that. One thing is for certain, though: this is not a casual watch in the slightest. It's a very rewarding film for those willing to commit to its unconventional trappings and methods, but it doesn't make it easy.
At its most superficial level, it's a film about a guy saving another guy from himself. Mike (Peter Ciella) knows that the drug habits of his best friend, Chris (Vinny Curran), are going to get him killed sooner rather than later. Pleading with him to go rehab while high is not going to get him there, so Mike handcuffs him to a pipe and forces Chris to detox in the dilapidated cabin he's been using for a crack den for an entire week, with the hopes that extreme measures taken will finally convince him to go. At this point, the screenplay from co-director Justin Benson does a great job of establishing the life-long relationship our leads without being too leaden with exposition, and both actors, while hardly the greatest actors of our generation, build a palpable rapport with one another that sells the humor and the drama of the intervention. If only things could stay as simple as saving his friend, as Mike discovers strange photos in the cabin's crawlspace, which eventually leads to a discovery of a Super 8 film by a nearby cabin, which then leads to even more discoveries. Little seems to link them to one another, outside of them being short stories that frequently end poorly for their subjects...
It appears it'd be easy to tell where things will end up from that point, but Resolution manages to surprise a lot by committing itself to the long game for its thematic focus, rather than neatly tying things up by the end. It's an off-kilter feeling that the film thankfully never shakes. Where other films would use a familiar nighttime setting, Resolution takes place largely during the daytime, allowing no sense of ease or comfort for our heroes and the viewer, finding a creeping dread that doesn't move around in shadows, but simply exists all around them. Co-director and cinematographer's Aaron Moorhead's camerawork helps contribute to the creeping dread throughout, as shots can often feel invasive, and the editing has a tendency to move things along in unnatural ways, leading our heroes to different scenes and locations that still have an odd kind of logic to them. Supporting characters are rarely repeated in the film, leading to strange, one-off encounters that hint at different, perhaps stranger plots than what we're being lead to believe is happening to Mike and Chris.
And that's all I can really say about the film that won't involve spoilers. What I can say to conclude my thoughts is that it's the kind of challenging film that those looking for challenging films should be on the lookout for. It's the kind of film that is absolutely not interested in any easy answers, and the filmmakers wouldn't have it any other way. Neither would I.
