VIEWPOINTS // A FILM REVIEW OF “DROWNING DRY (SESES")”
BY MATEO MORENO
There’s several kinds of films that you expect to see at a film festival that don’t always get a major theatrical release in the US, at least outside of NYC. Slow moving, international dramas where very little happens but the camera lingers on everyday life, everyday movements, so much that it starts to blur the line that separates a narrative film from a documentary. This is the exact kind of film that DROWNING DRY is. Slow moving and shot often from far distances. The dialogue often isn’t the most important thing in the scene. In fact, sometimes it doesn’t matter at all, other that to show that characters know each other and are indeed conversing. At other times, we sit in silence with them, in real time. This kind of cinema is fascinating for some, enraging for others. For Drowning Dry, I fell somewhere in the middle of the two, almost ping ponging between them from scene to scene. It’s definitely a film that requires patience as you wait for the film to pay off, or even unravel itself for you. This is Lithuanian writer/director/cinematographer Laurynas Bareiša’s second feature and the way he crafts the film as an exploration of, “What did I just see” is both fascinating and frustrating.
The film begins with Lukas (Paulius Markevičius) an MMA fighter finishing his latest bout. His wife Ernesta (Gelminė Glemžaitė) is upset in his dressing room, and you immediately get the feeling that she needs him to stop. But stop what? The fight, or perhaps his behavior outside of the ring. Post fight, they decide to have a holiday weekend away with Ernesta’s sister Juste (Agnė Kaktaitė), her husband and their kids (Herkus Sarapas, Olivija Eva Viliüné). The two couples are close, as are the kids, but there’s something going on under the surface. The men on the weekend getaway seem to be having a fine time and the two sisters are connecting, even doing a dance to a pop song that seems like something they’ve been doing forever. All of this seems trivial but it’s not. It’s building, building towards an eventual accident, one that’s shot from far away. The reactions vary, from shock to one character wanting to just move on. But nothing is quite as it seems, as we replay scenes, reexamine trivial details and circle around this seemingly innocent weekend and realize that we’re certainly circling trauma, possibly even death. Something that always connects us all.
The way that Bareiša shots the film, leaving us as an observer, is an intriguing way to experience this film and having the rug pulled out from under us as we watch, all works. It’s fascinating. It’s also sometimes monotonous and it feels that sometimes we stay a bit too long, having scenes really test our focus a bit too much. Not having the characters well defined is also a bit frustrating, because in the end the film is about the experience and the viewpoints, not about who the characters truly are, which is a unique and strange way to view a film. The experiment overall works, especially as it feels like we’re seeing the film through the eyes of different characters entirely. Many of the shots are at a distance or single shots that go on for several minutes, whether there’s dialogue or not. If that doesn’t seem like a film that you would like, you may not. But if you’re willing to step outside your box, or if you’re like me and have many memories seeing any kind of film whatsoever inside of Lincoln Center’s cinema, then try Drowning Dry and experience a simmering and sad drama that tells it in a precise and unique way and then retells it in a slightly different way and then again. And again.
GRADE: B+
WRITTEN AND DIRECTED BY Laurynas Bareiša STARRING Gelminė Glemžaitė, Agnė Kaktaitė, Giedrius Kiela, Paulius Markevičius, Herkus Sarapas, Olivija Eva Viliüné. NOW PLAYING IN LIMITED RELEASE IN NYC, EXPANDING ON JULY 30TH.