Cinema Crazed

2006

Rated: Unrated

Genre: Drama Comedy

Directed By: Douglas Moser

Running Time: 27 Minutes

Review by: Felix Vasquez Jr.

Review Date: 11/09/06

GLACIER BAY

With the sheer volume of filmmaking and the easier functions of getting a film out there, it’s a blurry line between serious filmmaker, and a putz with a camera. With eyes that have seen many, many films it’s gradually easier to see where serious meets putz. Thankfully Moser’s film “Glacier Bay” is a stern and thoughtful allegory about old age, and existentialism that uses the comedy to pepper the rather insightful message that takes place during the short run time of “Glacier Bay.” In Moser’s film, the term “Glacier Bay” is more of a MacGuffin, a goal that was never to be. Connie and Artie are a bickering couple at their family’s party celebrating their son’s confirmation. Artie’s grip on reality and his fading memory becomes a topic on which Connie just doesn’t let him live down.

Bryce and Murphy give very good performances as this crotchety old couple who argue almost incessantly more about their memories than actual current events while they partake in the buffet. Moser and writer Stroppel do not sentimentalize, or humor these two characters; they make them as genuine as possible, and their arguments are funny because they’re awfully realistic.

We sit and watch these two bicker and rant about their health, and Artie’s deteriorating mental state, and suddenly things turn dramatic. Moser doesn’t manipulate his audience, but instead veers the comedy to drama ever so gently, and it works well. One interesting little plot point is that, though, Moser doesn’t openly explore it, these two are ignored and brushed into the background of the party throughout the film which is an interesting reflection on their age.

This well written duo is played with very much effectiveness. These two characters are unlikable yet compelling at the same time; they’re two people without any sense of decency or manners who find each other with no small coincidence. With the surprising plot twist in the climax, we discover Moser’s film is about unfulfilled desires, and wishes that manifest unusually with circumstance, and ask the audience to reflect on our own lives through these characters.

Moser and Stroppel's dramedy about life, unrealized desires, and old age is a sweet and utterly compelling portrait in the vein of "Harry and Tonto" that paints its two principles as unlikable but entertaining individuals who are basically just waiting for their minds to fade away and forget what they never accomplished.

For more information on "Glacier Bay" visit its official website: http://www.openthegatepictures.com and http://www.myspace.com/openthegatepictures

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