Arts Slogdance 18 We Go Way Back
The other Seattle feature playing in Park City, this one over at the Slamdance Film Festival, is Lynn Shelton’s completely charming We Go Way Back. I love the central character in the film (and by film I mean shot on 35mm and projected on 35mm), who is not the type of female protagonist normally seen in the movies. She is Kate, a 23-year-old theater actress trying to find herself by saying “yes” to everybody, whether it’s to do extra work for free or to have sex. Or rather, she goes along when she doesn’t say “no.”
As the need for her to come to terms with her floating life becomes more and more apparent, she eventually meets her 13-year-old self. It’s a turn of events that should clarify everything, but as a viewer I became more confused. Thematically I understood the whole journey to the simpler ideas of the organic farm and meeting the simpler and younger version of herself, but I couldn’t understand why that inspired zombie-like behavior. But I was snapped out of that by the gorgeous closing credits, and I left realizing whatever minor flaws I thought I saw in the film, I liked it quite a bit at its core. And I wish them best of luck on the festival circuit.
-Andy Spletzer
reporting from Slamdance
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