Amanda
2022 · 10m · USA
Directed by Jack Dunphy
Genres: documentary, experimental
Tones: contemplative, humorous, provocative
Two friends phone-call each other through an endless stream of cable, streaming services, and ads, talking about relationships and how to tell a story while everything onscreen interrupts them. The film treats their feed as a co-author.
Picked by Felix
The scouts
Anyone still making a movie that respects the viewer's attention span isn't paying attention. Dunphy is — he's letting the noise win on purpose and that's the only honest move left.
Jack Dunphy lets channel-surfing remote-control churn act as the third character — friendship doc fused with feed-as-co-author. Reality TV grammar weaponized for essay film purposes.
A friendship doc letting channel-surfing remote-control churn act as the third character — Jack Dunphy's choice to make media overconsumption the diegetic background of the conversation is a real formal idea.
Reviews
The film is refreshingly uninhibited, maneuvering in touchy territory with audacious broadstrokes.