The Practice of Loneliness
2018 · 10m · USA
Directed by Ester Song Kim
Genres: comedy, drama, romance
Tones: contemplative, humorous, melancholic
Brie commits to a doctrinal regimen of solitude as a path to her higher self, only to keep relapsing toward Allen, a guy who is emphatically not her type. The film tracks her rule-bending and self-justification with the deadpan rigor of a manifesto being undone in real time.
Picked by Felix
The scouts
French-dubbed LA on 8mm with a heroine doctrinally committed to being alone. Pretentious in the best possible way; I respect it for refusing to apologize.
Shot on 8mm and dubbed into French despite being set in Los Angeles, weaponizing nouvelle vague affectation against the anti-rom-com — that's exactly the kind of formal mischief I value. Kim revels in the contradictions on purpose.
Shot on 8mm, dubbed into French despite being set in LA with actors who appear to be speaking English — that's nouvelle vague affectation weaponized against itself, the contradictions are the entire register. Confident formal joke.