That’s a dangerous title for a blisteringly pretentious American indie flick. Because, quite honestly, I’d seen all I needed to see by minute 15 but persisted to the end in the vain hope of viewing anything resembling narrative coherence or a single credible interaction. Instead of that, we get a free-flowing stream of idiot consciousness featuring a series of random images that apparently relate to the story of a struggling Los Angeles actress called Parker (Renee Gagner), who returns to her home town of Nowheresville USA to investigate the killing of her estranged sister, Indiana (Rosie McDonald).
“I am never fully everything or anyone,” Parker says in her portentous voiceover. “I am partially everything and everyone.” The writer-director Zeshaan Younus claims to be inspired by the occult, black metal and “existential narrative themes”. Parker stares at a broken spider web. There’s a bird. And a swimming pool. Parker goes to an audition. She seems to be acting. It’s hard to tell. She attends a drama class. They’re doing boundary lessons. Another bird. More voiceover.
“Morning carries with it the illusion of safety. Today feels different. Smells like rain.” How do you act that? Indiana looks at the sky. Black screen. A gunshot is heard. A house. A cup is broken. Police lights flash. Parker smokes some cigarettes. This may mean that Indiana is dead now. It’s hard to tell. I think the gun noise was her getting shot and the broken cup is a metaphor for her murder, in the way favoured by fans of existential narratives.
More voiceover. “Where are you?” Parker wonders. She’s addressing the dead Indiana or possibly the movie audience. “Drifting? Swallowed by a cosmic nothingness?” Yup, definitely the audience.
It goes on like this. Images, plodding voiceover, truly terrible acting. And then there’s a bench, a sunset, a pool. The end.
★☆☆☆☆
15, 84min
In cinemas from May 1
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