http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0448182/
Wow this was a weird one. I have seen a few modern film noir's like Kiss kiss bang bang, and Sin City. But they either make fun of the genre by being ridiculous or use it as a backdrop to something else. This film fully embraces film noir. It is all in black and white, complete with the strange mist that hangs in the air of these kinds of films. The plot is hard to describe, then again so is the film. Imagine if David Lynch, and Howard Hawks directed a film noir that was written by Quentin tarantino, and Carl jung. The film focuses on Hoyle, who talks like a Humphrey Bogart, and looks like a blonde model. She is trying to discover the mystery behind a reclusive genius who has figured out the mystery of time. This film is non linear in a way that will probably confuse some. Events happen out of order in a very Memento like way, but contain hints of a linear plot. You will spot elements and subtle hints from a past scene put into one that is very similar. A lot of the film will not make much sense, until you find out why everything is out of place structure wise then slowly starts to come together. The film gets more and more into it's sci fi nature mixed with a bit of spiritual jung influences as the case Hoyle is working on goes deeper and deeper. The acting in the film may seem a bit wooden at times, but it is meant to be set in a modern Los Angeles with that classic noir influence. Hoyle even uses a Mac computer in one scene. It is meant to be modern L.A girls as film noir detectives so it can seem a bit weird at times. The cast are all pretty consistant, Kipleigh brown plays Hoyle and for an actress I have never seen before she does pretty well. You may also recognize Chase Masterson from Star Trek: Deep space 9. She plays a jazz singer with surprisingly good vocals. John Newton plays dudas, and the inventor of Q Bert Warren Davis plays a psychiatrist.This film reminds me of a Darren Aronofsky film Pi in it's surreal visuals. Hoyle's journey gets more and more strange as parts of her life repeat and loop as she gets deeper and deeper into the case. She tries to reconnect with an old love Dudas who cant seem to let go of her. His refusal to let go is making her life spiral out of control.
Her life starts to seem out of order and she notices several hints left by someone she cant see that her life will keep being non linear until she can control it herself or confront Dudas and make him let go of her. Andrei Tarkovsky has a clear influence here in how he mixes striking visuals with a more scientific plot. Problem with this film is that you don't really understand why she used to love Dudas. All you really get is a picture of them that she keeps with her. The fragmented and non linear aspects of the film may also be a bit intimadating to someone expecting a linear progression through a logical story. Much of this film's logic doesn't make much sense in a scientific way. The sci fi aspect has a heavy Jungian influence with it's use of non linear progression, and unconscious mind controlling a person's life. The film seems to embrace both the spiritual aspects of Jung, and the more scientific and logical parts of Freud. Characters even casually discuss salvodor dali. You will have to suspend belief since the whole point of this film is how a personal trauma can literally change a person's life and morph it making it seem non linear. Parts of Hoyle's life repeat, heck she even repeats dialogue at times. The film may start vaguely normal with the discovery of a body lieing next to a book of poems by T.S Elliot, but it soon gets much more weird. It is hard for me to describe this film really, it can be a bit self indulgent and the acting isn't amazing. Overall though I recommned it because there is nothing else like it this year. At times it tries a bit too hard to be weird and the acting can be pretty iffy. Also the non linear progression can seem a bit obnoxious and self indulgent. It may be hard to see in theaters, it was only playing in one in my city. It will be out soon on DVD though.
Overall I give it a 9 out of 10