Cold Weather

Donnybrook reviewed films playing the Starz Denver Film Festival this week on a 100 star system. Why? Because our opinion counts 20 times more than most peoples’. Today we review the “mumblecore bore,” Cold Weather.

Cold Weather: 89 Stars

Aaron Katz‘ Cold Weather follows a directionless young twentysomething named Doug (Cris Lankenau) after he’s dropped out of college, put his dreams of forensic science on hold, and moved back to Portland to live with his sister, Gail (Trieste Kelly Dunn). As is the case in other “mumblecore” films, Doug meanders about, putting off adult life, kidnaps his sister from work to go on rainy-day trip to the coast, and eventually lands himself a job at an ice factory, putting ice into boxes and moving those boxes from one side of a room to the other. Just after the 30 minute mark a story peaks through, Doug’s ex arrives into town but goes missing and our characters of apathy, Doug, Gail, and ice factory coworker Carlos (Raul Castillo), become characters of action and take it upon themselves to solve the mystery of the disappeared ex-girlfriend. Doug falls into the role of his favorite detective, Sherlock Holmes, and Gail assumes the position of Watson, as the family duo storms libraries and stakes out mysterious apartments. We get the sense this is how a younger Doug spent his time and we finally see the familiar “Doug” type character take control of something in his life.

Cold Weather is beautifully shot on the RED camera by Aaron Katz’ regular cinematographer Andrew Reed. Reed and Katz pay careful attention to the tranquility of the Northwest and aren’t afraid to let the camera linger on the character’s surroundings. Just as the camera is patient, so to is Katz’ direction of the story. While his study on familial communication between brother and sister is done, when the end of the film arrives you’ll wish it were only getting started.

Angora says: Sometimes when I’m signing my name I will write the first part too huge, then run out of space and half my name will be cut off. That’s how this film felt. It’s like they took FOREVER to develop the characters and it was sort of boring, and then there was like 20 minutes for all the good stuff. I really loved this film when they got into the action. It was hilarious! But then the ending just seemed so sudden, like they had run out of time. We actually all had a ‘wtf’ moment of silence when it ended.

Fritz says: Finally a twenty-something indie comedy that looks effing amazing. The great Northwest is a beautiful backdrop for this slacker detective film. I love the pacing of this film, I would almost call the pacing experimental. There’s a ton of exposition and character building scenes that could make up a whole different film, but just as soon as the audience settles into that pacing BOOM! we’ve got a genre film with a near breakneck pace.

Antoine says: I was impressed with how involved I got once the mystery story set in, because, apart from the pretty RED camera footage, the first 30 minutes was an average indie mumblecore bore. The mystery and “action” sequences were very engaging and real, nothing spectacular, but realistic for the post-college slacker protagonist. An action scene where brother and sister liberate a book of baseball statistics from the library without checking it out is conceivable and the rush is familiar.