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MOVIES
COMMON
Common: The state of here and now
Submitted by Ron Foley Macdonald on 09.7.07 at 7:43pm.
One of the most powerful - but neatly restrained - indie flicks I’ve seen for the 2007 AFF is Kansas director Jeremy Fiest’s Common. A road movie that deconstructs the friendships of three twentysomething men on the cusp of adult careers, Common is a playfully formal, mesmerizingly shot and beautifully written film that firmly examines the state of here and now.
Using the dusty landscapes of middle America and shooting through a fluid video lens that plays up the yellows, browns and greens of the US heartland, Common combines a curious compassion for its characters with a love for the healing balm of wide open spaces.
And while the film’s visuals and structure reference great American road stories like The Grapes Of Wrath, On The Road and even Easy Rider, the actual narrative is strangely calm and understated. As two of the characters drive to the west coast to meet up with a third friend who is newly married, the travelling duo attempt to repair a friendship that has gone rather badly off the rails as adulthood slowly eats away at their boyish inclinations.
There’s far too much wit, plot development and concentrated action for Common to be considered part of the latest trend in American indie filmmaking, Mumblecore. And yet the film could be considered the movement’s heartland cousin, reflecting the muted ambitions and over-analyzed self-awareness that marks Mumblecore’s most salient points. It’s a trend that sees relationships, short term goals and transience as the be-all and end-all of twentysomething life.
Still, there’s a sweet openness to Common that distinguishes it as an American Original. Announcing onscreen in frame-filling fonts the act endings, turning points and other sundry structural points gives the film a humorous, self-conscious point of view that matches the character’s own mirror-phase machinations.
With a punchy alt-country soundtrack by mid-American indie artists OK Jones, Common is a rigorous but affectionate snapshot of the muddled youthful aspirations of a generation that hasn’t figured out yet just what comes next.
Bittersweet but ultimately deeply satisfying, this is a film that aptly displays the deep bench strength of American Indie Filmmaking.
Common, directed by Jeremy Fiest, written by Jordan Gray. USA, 2007, 85 minutes, At the 2007 Atlantic Film Festival, Monday September 17th, 9:30 pm,
Park Lane 4.
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A scene from Common.