Dust

Saw this film today at the Gene Siskel as part of the European Film Festival. It was heartrendingly beautiful, as much as it was devoid of feeling.



This makes it at least conceptually similar to another film I've seen in the past two days - Sucker Punch by Zack Snyder. I've seen more than a couple of reviews panning the film, with A.O. Scott of the NYTimes dismissing it as "almost entirely lacking in tension, grace or visual wit." And truly, too, the lengths that Sucker Punch goes to to be entirely unserious is actually mind-boggling. Of the three above criticisms though, two show how much said reviewer is missing the point and one is unfathomable. What kind of grace or tension was Scott expecting from Sucker Punch? This is a film that chooses to exclude completely the perfunctory elements of your everyday action flick - the romance, the sex scene, the character building, the plot?? - and pushes the actual action (in an action film) to its technological limit. And brings with it generous helpings of of cliché, nice-looking people and bravado. This film wants to makes you (specifically girls) feel good about being female simply because girls are beating guys up everywhere, and has absolutely nothing to say in reply to someone who alleges that au contraire, the girls in the film present a distorted account of female empowerment by exploiting the implements of female sexuality most in commercial demand.

Dust uses a completely different bag to tools to quite the same effect. There is grace in every point of interaction between the characters, even if there is nothing particularly interesting about the feelings involved. They are wet and seething with anger in the middle of a lush forest, or they are intently yet gingerly building a house of cards with only parts of their faces flickering in the candlelight. There is little dialogue to distract from attention focused on the beauty of the shot. As a result I came away with images in my mind that are strange in themselves, but are made all the more enigmatic by their detachment from larger ideas or a coherent setting.

Just a lot of beautiful things.