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Saturday, September 29, 2012

Film Buoy: A Movie, a Radio Show, a Great Eavesdropping Experience

Posted by Paul Constant on Sat, Sep 29, 2012 at 11:23 AM

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The first ten minutes of Buoy is tough to sit through. It's a shot of water that sloooooooooowly pans back into the interior of a nice house. Inside the house, a woman is having a phone conversation with her brother. You get that they don't see each other often at all. He barely knows her kids, he seems disinterested in her life. She wants him to visit. He really doesn't want to. It all sounds like an interesting set-up for a movie.

But you quickly realize that there is no movie there. Or at least, there is no movie outside the phone call. It's an hour-plus phone conversation between siblings, with the camera following the woman around the house as she does laundry, some light gardening, and other household chores. We can hear the brother's voice, but we're forced to imagine the stories he tells his sister about amazing rock shows he's seen and shipwrecks he's barely escaped from as she goes about her mundane daily work. The movie is practically one-half radio show.

But this is a movie that builds into something huge. As the conversation continues, we start to see that the siblings have complicated motivations that shift with each passing second. They get bored with the conversation, then are suddenly drawn back in again. They talk about changing their lives, but they don't really mean it. They behave like people. This isn't a movie for people with short attention spans, but it is a movie for those who like to piece together the lives of total strangers by eavesdropping on their cell phone conversations. It's practically a novel in the way it slowly unfolds, and the journey is easily worth the early aggravation.

Buoy plays at Northwest Film Forum tonight at 5:30.

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Comments (13) RSS

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Sounds painful.

Posted by Rotten666 on September 29, 2012 at 12:47 PM

I was going to wait and make my next comment regarding the presidential debate (FOUR DAYS AWAY!! SO EXCITED!!).
I think it should start today, let's begin -

@1
I disagree

Posted by dnt trust me on September 29, 2012 at 1:37 PM

There is a difference between "disinterested" and "uninterested".

Posted by crone on September 29, 2012 at 2:04 PM

@3
From what I've learned over the past few months, is that it's a waste of time reading Constant closely. It's not an important bit of knowledge, some discovered it long before me, some will discover it later. The comments matter more than the post, and are "often" written more genuinely.

You, Crone, I don't like so much. I know you could care less. Enemies on a blog are like tiddlywinks. So how bout it, brother?

Posted by dnt trust me on September 29, 2012 at 2:18 PM

It's things like this that make me wish I lived in Seattle. What are the chances this will ever be available from Netflix?

Posted by Prettybetsy on September 29, 2012 at 3:47 PM

@4 No, I "couldn't" care less. Please make a note of it.

Posted by crone on September 29, 2012 at 3:48 PM

Crone, Good attitude. You got promise, young buck. Let's stretch this out to a long phone call.

Posted by dnt trust me on September 29, 2012 at 3:55 PM

Uninterested in her life, not disinterested. Disinterested means something else.

Posted by shambhaladawa on September 29, 2012 at 4:21 PM

The girl from Shelter, OMG I cannot wait to see this.

Posted by Shelter on September 30, 2012 at 12:28 AM

buoythemovie.com

Posted by darumaeyw on September 30, 2012 at 5:25 PM

Stars Tina Holmes (Six Feet Under, Half Nelson, Shelter) and Matthew Del Negro (The Soproanos, The West Wing, Chelsea Walls)
buoythemovie.com

Posted by darumaeye on September 30, 2012 at 8:55 PM

Stars Tina Holmes (Six Feet Under, Half Nelson, Shelter) and Matthew Del Negro (The Soproanos, The West Wing, Chelsea Walls)
buoythemovie.com

Posted by darumaeye on September 30, 2012 at 8:58 PM

I really enjoyed the film from the very first moment. The opening drew me in gently and seductively - setting a tone that opened my ears and my heart to the relationship between brother and sister. An excellent match between form and content - the locked off frames and studied - yet casual compositions gave the eye and mind room to wander and investigate - creating a unique interpretation of the detachment from physical space that occurs while engaged in a conversation like this. A near perfect film for those who believe perfection is over rated.

Posted by kjonesdp on October 1, 2012 at 5:21 AM