KID-THING B
USA (83 mi) 2012
d: David Zellner
David and Nathan Zellner may be the modern era’s answer to
the Kuchar brothers, schlock kings of 60’s and 70’s underground films made for
next to nothing, where they similarly began making basement movies in their own
backyard as kids, where David went on to film school at the University of Texas
in Austin before making films that exist “on the fringes of the indie world,”
developing a kind of dark, absurdist humor, offbeat murder mysteries featuring
wacky characters with weird accents, and a somewhat outsider’s view towards
art. Quoting from a John Rosenblatt
article from The Texas Observer, The
Zellner Brothers Embrace Awkwardness | The Texas Observer:
They got their first film, Flotsam/Jetsam, into Sundance in 2005
after several years of rejection, but that success sparked a remarkable run.
There was the absurdist Southern Gothic
Redemptitude in 2006, then 2007’s Aftermath
on Meadowlark Lane, in which the brothers scream at each other on a country
road while dressed as mariachis. Then came their first Sundance feature-length
film, Goliath, in 2008, about a man
who slowly unravels when his cat disappears. The short triptych Fiddlestixx followed in 2010, a sort of
Technicolor Atari tribute to Samuel Beckett and Japanese variety shows starring
a gibbon in a diaper. Then, in 2011, Sasquatch
Birth Journal 2, which is, ostensibly, the quite literal video birth
journal of a sasquatch.
This latest feature is something of a concept film, like
something we might expect from the mischievous mind of British novelist Roald
Dahl, a unique portrait of loneliness and a curious exploration into the
twisted mind of an unsettled child who is largely raising herself. With no backstory, no mother to speak of, and
a father Marvin (Nathan Zellner, the director’s brother, who is also the
cinematographer, producer, and sound designer) who is continually asleep,
passed out from drinking, or preoccupied with his own affairs, 10-year old
Annie (Sydney Aguirre) is free to roam the countryside at will as there is
literally no one watching over her, where even when she’s at home she’s alone,
so she spends every waking hour being bored, pissed off, strangely curious, mad
at others, or acting as a tomboy, viewed as a troubled and rebellious child who
acts inappropriately. While she is in
nearly every shot of the film, not once do we ever see this child smile.
Seen through a child’s eyes, the naturalness of her isolated
world recalls the near documentary realism of Morris Engel’s Little
Fugitive (1953), which is largely a wordless odyssey of a 12-year old boy’s
experience alone at a Coney Island amusement park, but here there is a seamless
blend of the internal and external worlds, where much of what’s happening may
all be in her imagination, where at her age it’s hard to tell the
difference. The interest of this film is
in the minutiae, as it’s a minimalist style where nothing much ever happens,
but what we do see is tinged by an everpresent sadness enveloping her
world. When she attempts to play with
other kids at a local playground, she is rejected and taunted as an outsider,
which only leaves her more alone. Told
in long, lingering takes, she rides her BMX dirt bike through town, often
stealing supplies at the local market before wandering down the dirt roads
outside of town through the surrounding woods, where she amuses herself by
throwing objects at cars moving down the highway, where drivers are baffled to
discover it’s only rolled up biscuit dough, or she shoots things with BB guns
or paint guns, or rips apart dead tree bark, nonchalantly destroying anything
she stumbles across. But strangest of
all is when she overhears a distant voice calling for help, a sound that
reverberates with sound effects giving it a mysterious air about it, sounds
that only grow louder when she approaches what turns out to be a dark hole in
the ground with a person trapped below.
Not knowing how to react, she runs away, afraid and thoroughly confused
by what she experienced.
Back home, her father is usually embroiled in some less than
fascinating discussion with his best friend Caleb (director David Zellner) over
a few beers, where to the uninformed much of what you hear is completely
unintelligible, but in one drunken argument, Marvin is seen chasing after Caleb
with firecracker rockets as Caleb makes a hasty escape in his car, still
fending off fired rockets. Needless to
say, her father’s parental skills leave something to be desired, where he’s not
the kind of comforting adult figure children would turn to, but is approached
only as a last resort. Instead, she
fends for herself, where you have to see it to believe it the way she makes
sandwiches in her own unique way, and after stealing a few supplies, she
returns to the hole in the ground, this time introducing herself, bringing
supplies, and asking who’s down there, wondering if it’s Satan. When asked if she’ll bring help, Annie’s
snappy reply is “Why should I?” The
voice in the well belongs to Esther, Susan Tyrell, a fixture in the movie
business since the early 70’s, appearing in John Huston’s FAT CITY (1972), but
Annie can’t tell if she’s good or evil, running away again, not resolving
anything, despite the pleading cries for help.
In Annie’s world it’s hard to tell how much time passes, as it’s all
strung together like the endless duration of summer vacation which seemingly
has no beginning and no end in sight.
Annie brings a walkie talkie and drops it down the hole (where it makes
no sound), but then disappears as quickly as she arrives, not really knowing
what to make of this lady down the hole, thinking maybe she’s down there for a
reason. While there are occasional
middle of the night conversations, none are very pleasant, as Esther is losing
her patience with this little girl, and no one else has come by to help, so her
voice only grows more desperate. The
growing sense of ambiguity about what’s actually going on is a remarkable
aspect of the film, as is the unpredictability factor of not knowing how such a
volatile child will react, becoming darkly surreal by the end. As it turns out, both the child and the lady
in the well are kindred spirits, two isolated souls dead set on escaping the
horror and ugliness of their situation.
While Annie’s neglect has perhaps heightened her understanding of
loneliness, she’s still caught in the throes of her own inescapable logic and
imagination.
