Berlin 2018: 100 Words on Evan Johnson, Galen Johnson, and Guy Maddin's Accidence




Photo Credit: Six Shooter Records

By Thomas Puhr

Accidence (2018) immediately demands multiple viewings. Presented as a single shot that merges live action and unobtrusive animation, the short chronicles the goings-on of an array of apartment building tenants whose paths intertwine in unexpected and surreal ways. The stories on dollhouse-like display range from the banal (a man sleeping on his balcony), to the dramatic (a murder), to the bewildering (a man investigating shadows through a window). Maddin, Johnson, and Johnson merge the beginning and end (a clock in the central room proves key) so that the film, like a mesmerizing ambient album, could seemingly repeat itself into eternity.

100 Words on Maurice Haeems' Chimera (2018)

By Thomas Puhr

Like its conflicted protagonist, Maurice Haeems’ Chimera (2018) suffers from a bit of an identity crisis. On the one hand, it is a cerebral piece of speculative science-fiction: Henry Ian Cusick (playing it straight) is Quint, a scientist who freezes his children while searching for a cure to their life-threatening illness. On the other hand, it is a gleefully over-the-top ode to B-movies: Kathleen Quinlan (hamming it up) costars as Masterson, a mysterious woman funding Quint’s experiments in hopes of reviving her husband. Some wild shifts in tone make Chimera uneven yet unpredictable. Its final third packs an undeniable punch.

100 Words on Paul Thomas Anderson's Phantom Thread (2017)

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By Thomas Puhr

 

Daniel Day-Lewis gives a quietly intense and vulnerable performance as Reynolds Woodcock, an obsessive fashion designer, in what will be his final film. There is much to admire here, from the sumptuous costume design, to a hedonistic, almost surreal New Year’s Eve party, to some beautiful footage of Woodcock’s reckless nighttime drives (Anderson is the uncredited director of photography). The film’s second half, detailing the protagonist’s unconventional relationship with his muse/wife, Alma (Vicky Krieps), is its most engaging, especially when the writer-director dips ever-so-slightly into supernatural territory. Ultimately, like its central character, Phantom Thread remains aesthetically fascinating but emotionally remote.