Film debuts can be interesting things to dissect, given that they don’t have a clear measure. They tend to invite a different kind of analysis and critique than seasoned filmmakers working against expectations. The best debuts aren’t ones that adhere to certain ideals, but the ones that clearly demonstrate a filmmakers growing potential. They are the ones that operate outside of a need to cater to conventions, and give is a real sense of a filmmakers style an sensibilities.
In many ways, these are some of the most exciting films to uncover year after year, and 2023 is no exception. In fact, this category of film has given us what is undeniably one of the best films of the year in Celine Songs’ Past Lives, along with one of my favorite films of the year in the richly philosophical exploration of Artifice Girl, a film I will be looking at elsewhere. Also not to be lost in the mix is one of my favorite Canadian efforts in I Like Movies, a movie I already highlighted in that space, along with one of my biggest surprises of the year in the fun an vibrant Polite Society. While I will be giving or have already gave those films due spotlight elsewhere, here is a list of additional debuts that I think are deserving of your attention
BLACK, WHITE, AND THE GREYS
I feel like we are past the “is it too soon” question regarding pandemic related/themed films. There has been some outstanding works that have quietly found their way into the film landscape, most, if not all, being largely overlooked. Black, White and the Greys belongs with the best of them, using the context of the pandemic to explore the intricacies of the relationship crisis that sits at its center. It parallels the interpersonal divide with the cultural divide with the racial divide of this interracial couple, allowing this cross section of experiences to play into one another in a way that feels familiar to our overall experience of the pandemic. There’s nothing flashy here, but it demonstrates a sure handed ability when it comes to navigating an intimate character drama, giving the two performances the necessary space to bring the tensions of their relationship to the surface.
FOREVER YOUNG
The fascination here begins with the premise, following a 70 year old woman whom takes a pill that reverses the aging process while her husband faces a terminal illness which is accelerating the progression towards his death. Two opposing trajectories which provide this film with a way into the much bigger questions about life, existence, relationship and meaning. This is a quality hidden gem hiding in the mix of the 2023 slate, featuring a powerful and resonant resolution to its unconventional journey.
UNTIL BRANCHES BEND
Set in the Okanagan valley, the story centers on a factory worker (cannery) who happens across an invasive insect which is a knowing threat to the environment, most immediately to the town she lives in and the agricultural industry that gives it stability. The real strength of this film is its richly drawn cinematic experience that explores the intricacies of its setting, the challenges of its community, and utilizes a visual approach that immerses one in the particular crisis of the moment, using this to draw our attention out to bigger questions and bigger concerns. It follows a less than linear path filled with poetry and symbolism and metaphor, exploring our relationship to the world through the particularities of the political barriers this young woman is facing in her most immediate context. Here conspiracy gives way to enlightenment, pointing us outwards towards a greater interest in the why of these matters.
LITTLE JAR
One of two pandemic related films that I’m highlighting here, this one being less about the pandemic itself and more an exploration of the nature of isolation and solitude. It is unconventional, features some unexpected turns, and provides an emotional climax befitting the tension of the unfolding drama. It might not seem like one could do much with an isolated woman, a jar and an unexpected companion, but the Director understands how far an authentic vision can take a story, imbuing it with plenty of unique flourishes along the way.
BLUE JEAN
The Director utilizes a scaled back approach to achieve a highly realized sense of heightened emotional concern. The dramatic concern flows from the experience of a young teacher trying to survive in a muddled and harsh political climate for the LBGTQ+ community, leading her to particular points of crisis and difficult, altering decisions that mean sacrificing things that matter to her and her life. The messaging of the film does get a bit muddled by the end, trading its concern for oppression and the connection between this young woman’s isolation and her need for community, for easy and superficially drawn appeals to individual liberty as an ideal. It is at its strongest however when depicting the struggle, and it is on this front that Blue Jean proves a compelling indie debut.
THE MAIDEN
The automatic comparisons that this film seems to evoke are to Stand By Me, a film that utilizes a literary approach to delve into the age specific experiences of its characterss. The Maiden is, however, visual storytelling. It is slow cinema with a penchant for capturing layered symbols. It is, by its nature, less a slice of life approach and far more of a deliberate interpretive exercise, exploring the relationship between two boys with very different personas. On a thematic level, the Director wants to explore the dynamic of looking backwards in order to look forwards, trying to bridge these two perspectives as a matter of reconciliation and redemption, drawing out of the disparity a coherent narrative that is able to hold their stories together. And in a powerful way, this reconciliation is not simply of themselves to themselves, but of themselves to the world. It’s a film ripe on this level for contemplation, and the slow cinema approach leaves plenty of room for this to happen.
ALONERS
This would make an excellent double feature with Little Jar, given that both films are interested in exploring the dynamics of isolation. Here, this film is not so much focused on the physical dynamic as it is the emotional an spiritual dynamic, acknowledging that is possible to exist in the world and feel very much alone. I love the way it blends genres, and the way it uses the physical setting of workplace apartment to parallel the necessary relational movements that exist between father and daughter. Thematically speaking, if it can say nothing else about the feeling and experience of aloneness, it acknowledges that any act of finding oneself lost in the world ultimately must find oneself in the world.
The Stories of my Life 