Frownland
First-time director Ronald Bronstein describes his extraordinary film as "a rotten egg lobbed with spazmo aim at the spotless surface of the silver screen." Be forewarned: audience response has been intensely divided. Frownland has garnered both passionate raves and scathing denunciation, while festival screenings have ended in screaming matches between patrons. It is strong stuff, yes, but none of its notorious reputation does justice to its savage dark humor, emotional heft and stylistic audacity. Above all else, Frownland is a pitch-black character study of Keith Sontag (Dore Mann), a neurotic, manipulative, stridently unlovable New Yorker whose pitiless roommate aptly describes him, to his face, as "a burbling troll in his underwear." With the most basic elements of human communication a struggle, Keith lurches his way through an uncaring city, attempting to aid a suicidal friend, evict his unctuous roommate, and simply attain some measure of self-respect. An apoplectic seizure of blind rage, sorrow and bleating humor...Frownland.
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Supplements
- Original Soundtrack on Vinyl: A ludicrously self-indulgent vinyl edition of actor/composer Paul Grimstad's queasy score. Devised to gather dust and take up unnecessary space in your small apartment
- Don't Look at Me: A smudged-to-shit, hand scrawled mini-comic drawn by Laura to degrade (and justify her abject alienation from) the cretins inhabiting her highschool. Basically, a collection of mean-spirited drawings of people that don't even know she exists. Pathetic?
- The Dregs: foul snippets of 16mm footage dubiously scraped off the cutting room floor. Sure to diminish one's overall impression of the work proper!
- Dung Heaps of Compulsion: Excerpts from an insufferably long-winded email exchange between Keith and Charles. Chicken-hearted desperation vs. rank contempt. Nobody wins!
- Movie Poster: On glorious newsprint. Put it in the sun and watch it yellow!
- Certified Garbage: A random scrap of celluloid from the original 16mm work-print. Buy several thousand copies and reconstruct the entire film!