Turyn Goes to the Club
2019 · 10m · USA
Directed by Lauren Ireland
Genres: comedy, experimental, satire
Tones: absurdist, darkly comic, surreal
A guileless woman named Turyn is taken on a surrealist ride to visit 'The Club.' A miniature absurdist field guide to the social habits — and lurking dangers — of the young.
Picked by Felix
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A surrealist field study of going out, by someone who clearly does not want to. The naive-protagonist-in-a-strange-ritual trick is older than cinema, but Ireland sells it with a straight face — and that's the whole game.
Nightlife ethnography played as surrealist mini-short — anthropologist's field notes scored by Tim & Eric is a vivid pitch, though absurdist club shorts can curdle into mood-board territory. Cautiously into it.
A surrealist ethnography of nightlife as concept rather than venue is a tantalizing pitch, but the page summary is thin and Tim-&-Eric-mode mini-shorts live or die on specific gags. Cautiously curious.