Dir: Alex Ross Perry
USA/2011/83mins
Print Source: Alex Perry: alexrossperry@gmail.com
Australian Premiere
#1 undistributed movie of 2011: Village Voice
#1 undistributed movie of 2011: Indiewire
Best Narrative Feature: Chicago Underground
Wannabe news anchor JR (Carlen Altman) rarely sees her family, but now she needs her brother Colin (Alex Perry), or at least his car, to help her retrieve her belongings from her professor-turned-lover’s apartment. What follows is a darkly comic road trip as the mismatched siblings squabble, fight and alienate almost everybody they meet, both too self-absorbed to see how obnoxious they may actually be. As the trip progresses the duo gradually come to confront each other and themselves.
Director and co-writer Alex Ross Perry’s second feature is a cinematically literate, post-Jarmusch, post-mumblecore journey into families, relationships and coming to terms with a life perhaps more ordinary than hoped. Co-scripted by comedian and actress Carlen Altman, The Color Wheel is low budget, genuinely indie-filmmaking at its best. With Indiewire describing Perry’s performance as a “subversive Michael Cera, but his sub-literary persona suggests Woody Allen trapped in a nightmarish midnight movie” this is a future cult movie in the making.
"In his second outing, DIY filmmaker Alex Ross Perry (Impolex) constructs a road trip about stagnation, fueled by anger and post-mumblecore irony but also an unexpected vulnerability. There’s a method to Perry’s deadpan madness in this serious comedy, and where there’s smirk there’s fire". Hollywood Reporter
Watch the trailer here. It's worth it. It's got such a distinctive style and just pops.
Screens with Peekaboo