Chain

Watching this in 2024, 20 years on from its release, feels like time travel. In some regard, as a spectator, I would go as far as saying I felt very alien watching this film. I'm not American and I've never been to the USA, I've only seen media depictions of it. So the objective point of view this film employs, depicts a country, in a time, that are both familiar, but uncannily so. Perhaps due in part to it not all being America. Minimal in its presentation, this film demonstrates what can be achieved when you simply cut one shot after another. You can feel a sense of judgment and disdain when the camera simply lingers on stores, buildings, car parks, roads etc then cuts to another, showing the same sort of thing. The film's narrative might be promoting this attitude in its own subtle way, but I feel you'd still get the point without it. Learning that what's been shot has been gathered from not a single localised area, but globally really sells the points the film is making about globalisation and sense of place/placelessness. Seeing these concepts I've learnt about conveyed so artistically is very satisfying. Using a somewhat modern term, what's being shot resembles 'liminal spaces' which, when combined with what the film is conveying about capitalism and globalism, creates a very unsettling, yet absorbing atmosphere. I really enjoyed the two juxtaposing narratives. Amanda's reminded me of Chloe Zhao's "Nomadland" which itself has a sense of authenticity to it. However, this film really works on how loose it is, not adhering to typical narrative structures. I was also reminded of Wim Wender's "Paris, Texas". The camera lingers on similar things and I feel that film's worldview is comparable to this one's. I've read another review comparing this to the Vaporwave aesthetic and it's fascinating to see the difference in approach to satirising the same/similar thing(s). Overall, this really scratched an itch for me.