Mirror
2017 · 29m
Directed by Keith LaFountaine
Tones: contemplative, melancholic, tender
A melancholic writer trapped in a failing marriage and career confronts her inner turmoil as scenes shift to mirror her fracturing state of mind.
Picked by Margot
The scouts
A melancholic marriage-in-freefall and fractured-mind narrative—it's exactly the kind of introspective indie drama that gets programmed to death, and LaFountaine doesn't seem interested in kicking the tradition sideways, which is a shame.
The structural mirroring between psychological dissolution and formal editing choices feels precise and deliberate—this is a film aware of its lineage in character-study cinema, executing the form with the kind of compositional rigor that rewards a second viewing.
What elevates this beyond the familiar breakdown narrative is the decision to let the visual grammar itself fracture—there's a specific editing rhythm that mirrors internal collapse without announcing it, and that restraint is what makes the melancholy land.
Reviews
'Mirror' is deep, reflective and philosophical and you're bound to never look at another mirror the same way, ever again… The screenplay leaves so much to the interpretation of the viewer, that the film is a delight to watch despite its melancholic tenor.