Young director Ti West turned a lot of heads with his debut film The Roost - a film that sharply divides people between love and hate with very few in the middle - and while most picked up on the fact that that picture landed West a job shooting a studio picture many missed the fact that before moving on to the land of catering and caravans he went and shot another zero budget thriller first. That film is Trigger Man, making it's market premiere at AFM, and everyone I know who's seen it swears it's something pretty special. The story is simple enough - a group of hunters become the hunted - but it's all about the execution with these things.
This is actually playing in NYC this month over at the Pioneer Twoboots. It's a good movie, but not for everyone in that it requires an advanced degree in patience and the ability to soak up images onscreen in order to get the most out of it. No plot, no characters, no narrative. Just three hipsters who go hunting out in the woods and get in a lot of trouble. It's stripped down and pared to the bone and definitely not for everyone. But it's got some interesting elements in the way it basically uses its setting rather than its story to manipulate audience emotions. In a way it's like what Lee Myung-Se does in some of his more recent films - telling a story or delivering an idea with the cinematography and the sound design rather than with the actors or the story.
Plus, some nice gore.
Grady, Todd --
Beyond the Pioneer (opens Oct 17), TRIGGER also has upcoming dates at the Laemmle Grand in Los Angeles (Oct 19); Pittsburgh Filmmakers in November; and dates TBD with the Brattle in the Boston area; the Clinton Street Theater in Portland, Oregon; and also probably in San Francisco and Chicago among other spots. Any interested North American bookers out there should contact me. (Canadians, are you listening?)
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Ray Privett / rayprivett.net
Daily Greencine just put up a fair bit of stuff about Trigger Man:
http://daily.greencine.com/archives/004736.html