Scratch Offs
2019 · 10m · USA
Directed by Andrew Lewis
Genres: drama, experimental
Tones: contemplative, darkly comic, melancholic
A Walmart security guard scratches lottery tickets the way other people brush their teeth. He wins a million dollars and feels exactly nothing, until a coworker shows up to ruin his day in a different direction.
Picked by Felix
The scouts
American Dream achieved, protagonist non-responsive. The four-minute opening static shot is either gauntlet or seance — either way, I'm staying.
A four-minute static opening shot before the plot dares to begin is a Reichardt commitment, and a Walmart break room is exactly the geography this register belongs in. Patient cinema worth the patience.
Opening with a four-minute static shot of a man at a tiny TV scratching lottery tickets before any plot dares to begin is a real slow-cinema dare — Reichardt-by-fluorescent-Walmart-light is precisely the register. The deadpan million-dollar reveal sells it.
Reviews
An intriguing piece of slow cinema, notable for its deadpan depiction of a young man who appears to have just won a million dollars and feels nothing.