Gerry
Director: Gus Van Sant
Year Released: 2002
Rating: 1.0
Two simpletons go to find 'that place' in the middle of a desert, get lost, and struggle to survive - and that, folks, is the whole of human suffering in a single film (what, were you expecting bright lights? Divine intervention? Seraphs?). Or, to take an even simpler view, it's a movie about nothing (Seinfeld was said to have been about nothing, but was really about everything), though it might stick with those who have little knowledge of real experimental cinema or associate pretty pictures with meaning. It seems to be hypocritical to think highly of this but lash out against, say, Hou, or Kiarostami, who do mostly the same thing (but started much sooner). It's Van Sant's way of trying to re-establish his 'indie cred' and using someone obscure like Béla Tarr to make it official. I don't know about you, but I think he picked the wrong Hungarian - there's always room for Jancsó....
