DANCES WITH FILMS: FEATURE FILM SPOTLIGHT - AMERICAN FLAKE

I have had the wonderful privilege of experiencing the Dances With Film LA Film Festival digitally this year, and here is a look at all the films I have seen. Keep them and the folks involved on your radar, as you never know when you just might get the chance to see them for yourself. 

We are going to conclude my coverage with the Narrative Feature Film, AMERICAN FLAKE.  

AMERICAN FLAKE

COMEDY/DRAMA

RUN TIME: 82 MINUTES

WRITTEN & DIRECTED BY ANDREW DAVID PATTERSON

STARS OLIVER AUSTIN, TRISTAN OLSEN, ANNIE HERZ

I'll be 100% transparent...I didn't know how to feel about this movie about 10 minutes in but it wasn't leaning in a positive direction. Then something happened, all of a sudden 10 minutes became 30, and 30 became 50, and by then I was so riveted and so in it that I am glad that I stuck with it. 

I don't know how to truly describe it, the word succubus comes to mind, but that's just it, it's not taking my soul or essence, it's just demanding my attention and I wanted to give it. 

There is a stark authenticity that remains throughout Gale's pursuits. The way it looks, the way its shot, and especially in the writing. 

The writing here is exceptional. The conversations flow with an ease that is biting, revealing, and so damn honest. The search for meaning of the nostalgia we all feel, as our lives become memories, the pain that comes with a lot of those, and the manners in which we cope to suppress or keep a hold of those memories.  

Then there's it anchor, Oliver Austin playing Gale Bustamante, gives one of those memorable performances I will not soon forget. He lets us in at a time when he is not letting anyone in, so much so it spirals for him because of that. The way he takes on introspection, malaise, and a conversational spirit of a genuine salesman are all treated in virtually the same manner until they can't be held in anymore. Oliver has this uncanny sense to provide us with so much with such an ease you feel every bit of what he feels. This guides us through a narrative that is so rich with the kind of care and subtly more unraveling's like this deserve. It's honest, its fair, and moreover it is the easiest and hardest things to watch at once. Oliver also makes everyone around elevate and thus we get Gale in what is the manner in which everyone else sees what he can't see or maybe more so refuses to see, and it marvelous to watch Oliver navigate those choices for Gale, 

Andrew David Patterson has the camera pointed in Oliver's direction and gives him the space to operate and do all this but it is the resets, the moments we cut into the next natural step in the evolution of this story, whether its a wide two shot intervention, a back and forth medium shot of two people fighting for something but going in opposite directions, or the tension on Gale's face as he sits in smoke filled lava lamp lit lair's den. There is a Chasing Amy element filter so to speak here that allows this to be so authentic and feel so real without being real. I love its grainy imperfections, its shaky camera moments, and yet I also love its ability to recognize the special moments and play them in the manner they are intended, whether they are heartful or frantically broken or beautifully loving. My geek out moment for this film is a great moment in which Gale is giving out outburst and the editing cuts from his face to his back like it was some kind of natural motion for our eyes, fucking brilliant sequence of simple shots edited to blend into a masterful performance. 

This movie leaves you with so much about grief, dealing with loss, dealing with your place in world, dealing with relationships and love, dealing with the mundane and yet making it the most important thing of the moment, and it all pays you off in the end. Not only in the catalyst, in the form of an elusive bag of chip, but like that symbol there is much more to the meaning to that. This movie pays off in a similar fashion, not for the reasons you expect in the first 10 minutes, but the reasons you are there in the 80th minute.   

This was my absolute favorite new discovery from Dances with Films this year, my favorite movie watching experience of the Festival, and I hope it gets out there to a wider release for you all to see it soon.