HAM ON RYE (D+) - This one is about as thin and derivative an idea as you can put forth, and the cheap production values and zombie-like non-actor cast drag this into the territory of unwatchable. This modest debut feature from Tyler Taormina tracks a bunch of suburban kids as they muddle through some sort of local rite of passage.
It is difficult to grasp the true narrative here. The first third of the film is all vague setup -- high schoolers getting dressed up and traipsing, pilgrimage-style, to a local sandwich shop, as if it is their prom destination. It is tempting to mention "Dazed and Confused," a landmark in slacker filmdom, but Richard Linklater's Gen X Austin nugget was some sort of intellectually engaging action film compared to this lethargic game of play-acting.
This has more of a kinship with the early films of Matthew Porterfield, such as "Hamilton" and "Putty Hill," where non-actors toss off non-sequitur-filled mini-monologues and perform random menial tasks like cutting the grass in extended takes. Here, there is no one person to focus on (let alone a Matthew McConaughey lurking in the mix) until the final third, and even then it is by default, because she has suddenly become isolated. And her main duty is to call friends' voicemails or knock on their doors looking for them. (Yes, it's that exciting to watch.) One scene dramatically ends on a close-up of a balloon clinging to a ceiling, perhaps this generation's version of the plastic bag in the wind from "American Beauty." You sense Taormina is making some sort of statement about the schism between college-bound hetero-normative young adults and "outcasts," but that's about the best guess I can muster.
With no real narrative except for a bizarre, anachronistic teen mating ritual followed by under-explained extra-terrestrial twist to set up the final act, the writer-director leans into style over substance, and his style seems to depend on whatever he could scrape together on a micro-budget (including fake driving backgrounds). At first you wonder if it's a period piece, because no one uses a cell phone; but then late in the film a character casually whips out her device as if maybe she had somehow escaped to the future. Taormina underscores it all with music that obviously means more to him than it possibly could to his character -- a mix of oldies and more recently recorded faux-ldies, plus some cringe-inducing new-age pan flute airs -- none of which syncs with whatever these kids are going through. I had way more ennui for 84 minutes than these kids did.
BONUS TRACK
The kids, for no rational reason, dance chastely to girl-group records, like "Tonight I'm Gonna Fall in Love" by the TearDrops:
The more modern entries on the soundtrack either try to emulate dusties or fall into the familiar "Garden State" patois of indie wimp-rock. Here is Captain DaFeira with "Tribe":
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