Mysterious Object at Noon
Director: Apichatpong Weerasethakul
Year Released: 2000
Rating: 2.5
A documentary crew wanders around Thailand to interview villagers and have them contribute a part to a much larger story in this conceptually ingenious little film - trouble is, Weerasethakul finds some of the worst storytellers ever to offer assistance ... and as it turns out, the content of the story (that of a boy and his teacher) is mostly irrelevant (the 'director' admits, in an interview, that at one point he and his cohorts grew tired of trying to complete the tale and decided to film children playing instead). Part of me is astounded something like this is available for the mass audiences to rent or purchase, while the other part wants it to be playing in a constant loop in the Museum of Modern Art or at the Art Institute of Chicago (where the 'director' studied experimental film) - along with the various works of Bill Viola and Takahiko Iimura - and not something to endure from start to finish.
