Frankie’s big set of dark eyes survey the room, they make an ensemble with the olive skinned face with prominent cheeks, uneven black pixie hair matching the dull urban clothes, a headphone gives her instructions to follow during her attempt to steal the car keys in an empty apartment, she struggles with dyschronometria, a mental illness that affect her ability to perceive accurately the passage of time, thus Frankie uses cassette tapes to keep focused.
A task that is already stressful for career criminals, let alone first-timers, becomes even harder due to Frankie’s condition and the arrival of the apartment’s owner. This well-orchestrated scene keeps the sense of looming danger and mystery in the indie neo-noir ‘Gazer’ (2024), which premiered in Cannes last year and is making its rounds in American and British cinemas this season.
First-time director Ryan J. Sloan shot his debut feature using 16mm film, which sets it apart from its contemporaries, giving it a unique charm while also paying homage to New Hollywood classics without becoming an adulation exercise. Sloan works as an electrician in his daily job, and his blue-collar vision comes to the screen, as seen in how he shoots and presents the characters, giving a feeling that is different and more mature than some pictures that come from college “wonderkids” that get lost in their excessive dialogues and condescending prejudice.
By having Frankie as the protagonist, a frail single mother suffering to make the ends meet, who yearns to spend time with her daughter while juggling odd jobs and facing the hardship of a mental illness that makes her lose tracks of seconds, hours and even days gives the picture written by Sloan and Ariella Mastroianni, the talented lead who plays Frankie, a compelling character surrounded by others who feel like everyday people pushed to violent deeds due to the possibility of making a score that will make their lives a bit easier. A feeling that is furthered by showcasing the dark corners of lower-middle-class New Jersey, avoiding the cliché of treating it as a poor cousin of New York City, while presenting the city with its own distinct personality.
The 16mm film also gives a sense of the rawness of a story of rugged people who have their backs against the wall without much to look forward to, as one can feel in the suicide survivors group reunions. ‘Gazer’ also shares some of Edward Hooper’s aesthetic elements with its intelligent cinematography, which showcases how a forgotten America copes with loneliness and depression through the darkest hours of the night.
The jazz-inspired soundtrack is another high point, as it helps set the mood of the story and its layered mysteries and motifs without becoming a distraction, but rather an enhancement to this intriguing story.
The nightmare sequences allow the authors to play with language. In these moments, ‘Gazer’ flirts with fantastical horror and Kubrickian nightmares resembling ‘The Shining’ (1980), giving an insight into Frankie’s psychological pain and how survivor’s guilt lingers through the years, which once again brings the subject of time and how illusory the idea is that people can control it.
With the nightcrawlers presented in ‘Gazer,’ Sloan and Mastroianni are setting themselves as one of the interesting storyteller duos for the public and critics to follow in the years to come and are showcasing the relevance of preserving independent cinema. If ‘Gazer’ was done by a major studio, it would have the boring tropes of mainstream cinema to sell popcorn and seats of which the public is relieved in this art piece which keeps it running smooth and closer to real life.
Gazer is available in UK Cinemas from 25th July.
