(OK -- forget they met on Star Trek.)
This is a strange movie.., maybe not in the usual sense, like a Dark City, or Bladerunner or even a host of mediocre, time-bending, sci-fi films like The Fare.., possibly because this film's primary purpose was not actually to be a movie in the first place.....imho. (stay with me)
I see James Kerwin as a remarkably talented fellow. But like the movie's male lead, Dudas.., some femme fatale broke his heart. And, at the point where his world was crumbling and time had stopped.., Kerwin had a choice to either join a MGTOW forum on YouTube (swear off wimmen for good).. or use his anguish to make a film-noir adaptation of his painful odyssey.., possibly with the hidden, albeit semi-predictable agenda of winning HER back. He chose the latter., foolish boy.
And you could say he really put his heart into it - striving, it would seem, for actual cinematic excellence (trial by theater), and revealing himself to be a sort of vanishing old-school Hollywood type, nostalgic of course, and aiming for production effects from the glory days of Hollywood, as opposed to the current, cold, calculating Cyclops of Baloneywood, bent on agenda-driven, formulaic films and even more formulaic propaganda.
One might even call him a rebel (ergo of no use to the Masons).., perhaps accounting for his having only made this one solitary movie, despite his obvious skills and passion.
Dare I say, because catharsis and solace for Kerwin's broken heart were the raison detre of this film, several commonplace areas of production might have been slightly neglected - say, plot.. being the foremost.
While some reviewers contend there actually is a plot.., I would not go THAT far. Furthermore, the absence of plot didn't really bother me.
Besides which, I HAD been warned.., by an opening credit for one of the production companies, which boldly claimed it produced "intelligent films". So, no surprises.
I never really felt like the film was about telling a story anyway.
Dare I suggest.., (for me) it was a kind of a (serene) visual and emotional hypnosis, where I was compelled to enter their world, by dint of the actors' commitment to the whole experience. In other words, Kerwin yet again expressed his unique values by selecting actors who were also "old school" -- drawn to acting, not to escape reality by treading the boards.., but to either escape the general phoniness of the "real" world, or perhaps their own personal sense of Unreality -- people who had perhaps always struggled to find their true inner identity, as might often be thought the case with individuals tortured by gender-identity issues.. or who merely longed to be some best, most beautiful version of themselves. (Think Melanie Griffith.., who exultantly "found herself in Forever Lulu.. (imho).
Take Chase Masterson for example - who, if you soberly peruse web images and so forth, might come across as bat-suit crazy.. and not even terribly attractive (or even female); but somehow Chase was absolutely dazzling, as if he/she'd matriculated from a life of endless beaus and beauty pageants, and had been literally carried from Edina to Hollywood.. on the shoulders of her worshipful admirers and understudies. She finally caught it!!
Kenleigh Brown.., well, unless simply a very adept switch-hitter.. was possibly more the former circumstance, tortured by his/her inner anima longing to be female.., but instead of projecting it onto some teenage inamorato, decided to BECOME said anima.., nevermind the Kirk Douglas chin or masculine brow ridges. (These are things you pick up being MGTOW.)
Her acting, as well, was a bit ambivalent, and things did get off to a rather slow start.., but, imho, once the actors started trusting each other (getting comfortable with their collective schizophrenia).., some of Kenleigh's acting moments were astonishing and quite beautiful.., almost as if knowing their film tribute to this classic vision of Acting might be the last vestige of a dying art.
(Wrap it up, buddy.)
Throw in a lot of semi-intriguing vocabulary from the world of arcane psychology and basically irrelevant metaphysics and pseudoscience.. (which the viewer cannot question, lest they appear stupid).., and voila - an 'omage to the naive and floundering past.. and all bittersweet human glories unattainable - electrically-crackling, star-crossed romance and abiding love, where wimmen are not fickle and hypergamous, or seeking self gratification by a juggernaut process of trial and error, where eviscerating collateral damage is NOT a given.
In short.., if you like antiques and/or at least drive a PT Cruiser, you'll probably enjoy this film.. despite its lack of plot or utile wisdom.., though a couple Manhattans ahead of time probably wouldn't hurt.
AND, ere parting.. with a painfully slow shuffle about the dance floor -- I can't and shouldn't omit fierce kudos to (now deceased) Mik Scriba, who played Hoyle's somewhat inexplicable but uncondescending sidekick. Very endearing.
cheers!!😇
(I am not entirely discounting the possibility that they serve Manhattans in heaven.)
