Editor’s Be aware: This assessment was initially printed throughout the 2024 Cannes Movie Competition. Metrograph Photos releases “Gazer” in theaters Friday, April 4, 2025.
Think about if “Child Driver” was a tragic, music-free exploration of psychological decay, and also you may be capable to begin picturing the tensest theft sequence in “Gazer.” Identical to Ansel Elgort’s tinnitus-inflicted getaway driver, Frankie (Ariella Mastroianni) must put her headphones in earlier than she tackles a harmful job. However she’s not blasting Queen or The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion.
The struggling single mom suffers from dyschronometria, a deteriorating psychological situation that leaves her unable to precisely understand the passage of time. Seconds and minutes seamlessly flip into hours and days in a means that leaves her continuously questioning when she is. It’s a workable, if inconvenient, scenario when your largest worry is lacking a physician’s appointment or zoning out at work. However when you’ve got a matter of minutes to steal automotive keys from a harmful man’s house earlier than he comes residence, the dangers develop into significantly larger. So she pre-records second-by-second directions for herself with the hope that she will maintain herself within the second by listening to her personal pleas. However when the doorknob turns and he or she’s pressured to cover beneath the mattress, her choreographed plans crumble and he or she has to plan her escape with out a internet — or an inside clock.
Marrying the manic paranoia of “After Hours” with a “Memento”-esque unreliable protagonist and touches of flesh-bending physique horror that may very well be ripped straight from “Videodrome,” “Gazer” is the form of debut that ought to restore your misplaced religion in unbiased cinema. Self-financed by rookie director Ryan J. Sloan and shot in between shifts at his day job as an electrician, the 16mm thriller is a white-knuckler that feels constantly contemporary regardless of sporting lots of its traditional Hollywood influences on its sleeve. Sloan invokes ’70s sleaze and the “By god, this goes all the way in which to the highest!” conspiracies of traditional noir in equal measure, however his movie stays so grounded in its personal world that it by no means devolves into an homage to something specifically. “Gazer” could be impressed by New Hollywood, however its existence is sort of purpose to imagine {that a} comparable filmmaking renaissance may very well be on the horizon.
Frankie may not perceive time within the standard sense, however she’s definitely conscious that her clock is ticking. Her younger daughter is being raised by her late accomplice’s mom, who by no means lets Frankie go to after the state deemed her an unqualified dad or mum attributable to her lack of ability to finish day by day duties. She will inform that the lady is rising up in a house that’s negligent at greatest and probably a lot worse, and her window to make any reminiscences together with her daughter is quickly closing. Medical doctors warn her that her impaired psychological state will solely worsen, and it received’t be lengthy earlier than she’s incapable of residing on her personal. She’s determined to inventory away a bit of cash for her daughter’s future earlier than she’s too incapacitated to advocate for the lady’s security. However that’s exhausting to do when even essentially the most menial jobs fireplace you for poor time administration.
The scenario appears bleak, however Frankie finds a lifeline in an sudden place when a lady calling herself Paige (Renee Gagner) approaches her at a trauma assist group. Paige acknowledges Frankie’s face as a result of she noticed her gazing by way of a window whereas her boyfriend assaulted her. The girl explains that she’s struggling to depart an abusive relationship and doesn’t have a pal to show to. She has an escape plan, however she wants somebody her neighbors received’t acknowledge to sneak into her house, seize her automotive keys, and stash her automotive in a protected spot. She gives Frankie 1000’s of {dollars} for one evening’s work — and Frankie isn’t within the place to show down anybody who gives to pay her.
It looks like the proper heist on paper, simply two strangers utilizing one another’s tragic conditions to carry themselves a step nearer to freedom. However issues get difficult after Frankie does precisely as she’s advised. Paige ghosts her with out paying her price, however that turns into the least of her issues as soon as cops present up at her door. Paige by no means picked up her automotive, however the authorities did — and because it seems, there was a lifeless physique within the trunk. With Frankie’s fingerprints all around the steering wheel, she’s now the prime suspect in a homicide case she is aware of nothing about.
Mastroianni, who co-wrote the script with Sloan, carries the movie together with her paranoid efficiency as Frankie. Sporting a uneven pixie reduce and drab garments, she blends into the gray New Jersey surroundings as she sidles by way of seedy motels and run-down homes with the hopes of clearing her identify and getting her daughter again. As her psychological schools slip away, her hallucinations immerse her in a world that begins to look much less and fewer just like the one she truly lives in. However irrespective of how twisted her notion of the world turns into, her earthly need to get her daughter again and clear her identify grounds her simply sufficient to maintain pushing ahead. Unreliable but deeply relatable, she’s a quintessential thriller protagonist whose distinctive thoughts could be the one factor able to untangling the unusual net she finds herself in.
Frankie may not have a lot time left after the credit of “Gazer” roll, however there’s each purpose to imagine that cinephiles will probably be having fun with the work of Sloan and Mastroianni for years to come back.
Grade: A-
“Gazer” premiered on the 2024 Cannes Movie Competition. Metrograph Photos releases the movie Friday, April 4, 2025.