Hangtime
2023 · 10m · USA
Directed by Chester Vincent Toye
Tones: contemplative, dark, tense
A green art handler and his boss show up to deliver a controversial sculpture to a high-profile LA client only to find no place to put it — and the wait starts curdling into something darker.
Picked by Felix
The scouts
Most art-world satires go for easy targets; Toye lets the discomfort sit in a hallway with the sculpture, refusing to spell out who the villain is. That patience earns the unease.
Toye examines LA art-world class and racial dynamics through a delivery in limbo, shot on 16mm — Reichardt's patience applied to a Boots Riley satire. NoBudge at its most formally confident.
16mm static frames, an art-delivery-in-limbo as the entire premise, LA class and race dynamics sliding from awkward to ominous — Toye's restraint here is doing Reichardt-adjacent work, and that simmering-unease register from the NoBudge writeup tracks. The whole film betting on a delivery that won't resolve is a confident structural choice.
Reviews
stylistic blending and a distinct embrace of ambiguity ... simmering unease and bright static frames