The Other Side
Friday, May 20, 2016
Roberto Minervini’s follow-up to his acclaimed “Texas Trilogy” (including Stop the Pounding Heart, New Directors/New Films 2014) is an indelible, surprising, and often unnerving portrait of bayou nihilism. Focusing primarily on Louisianian junkies Mark Kelley and Lisa Allen, Minervini immerses us in their daily routines—shooting up, shooting their mouths off, and just plain shooting—with an eye and ear for unexpected poetry and comedy, as well as for the political ramifications of their downtrodden, hedonistic libertarianism. Minervini tactfully presents his subjects in all their contradictions, permitting them a freedom that contrasts with the liberties they paranoiacally intend to protect from the federal government. In light of the Ammon Bundy militia, and in an election year of inflammatory rhetoric, it’s hard to imagine a more topical or more essential film. A Film Movement release.
The Film Comment Podcast: Art of the Real