Film Review: Cold Weather
Film Review: Cold Weather
Aaron Katz successfully crafts an engaging, mumblecore-based mystery in his latest feature Cold Weather
As time goes on, Aaron Katz is emerging as the most talented, although least prolific perhaps, member of the mumblecore movement. His latest feature, Cold Weather, is a testament that the genre need not be confined to hipster posturing, absence of plot, and nerd sex alone. For that achievement alone, he should be thanked. After a successful run on the festival circuit, IFC is now releasing the film both theatrically and on VOD (last week in New York, this weekend in Los Angeles) .
Cris Lankenau stars as Doug, a fairly aimless twenty-something who returns home to Portland after quitting college in Chicago. He moves in with his understanding, older sister Gail (Trieste Kelly Dunn) who is quietly struggling with growing up herself as well as reconnecting with a brother she has not seen in years. Intelligent but unmotivated, Doug lands a dead-end, overnight job at an ice factory where he befriends Carlos (Raul Castillo). Soon after returning home, Doug also reconnects with ex-girlfriend Rachel (Robyn Rikoon) platonically during her job training visit.
All seems to go well for the unlikely quartet at first, there are no lingering jealousies or secrets destined to drive everyone apart. Everything is copacetic until one night Rachel disappears, leaving Carlos worried and Doug is mildly annoyed. However, upon inspecting her hotel room, Doug begins suspecting something more foul is afoot. Heretofore, Doug’s apathy has guided his decisions and attitude towards others until now; reason being is before he quit, Doug studied to become a detective spending all his time learning forensic science and all that cool CSI stuff. A rabid Sherlock Holmes fan, Rachel’s disappearance becomes the push he needed to reassert some direction in his life. Very quickly, he descends into a shadowy world of secret contacts and hidden codes to get down to the bottom of his ex’s disappearance. A mumblecore mystery? Yes, Cold Weather is exactly that and more.
By carefully employing genre elements within a character-laden context, Katz enjoys the benefit of both plot momentum (via the disappearance) alongside character studies (mainly Doug’s own emotional reawakening and reconnection with Gail). Gorgeously photographed in both seaside and urban settings, with an effective score by Keegan DeWitt, Cold Weather is an aesthetic as well as structural step-up for the filmmaker. Performance-wise, Lankenau holds down fort as Doug quite well. Playful, prickish, but ultimately lovable, Cris layers his character efficiently with moments of annoyance and charisma; while he is somewhat irritating at first due to his rather snide attitude and laziness, once he loses Rachel a natural curiosity and love of mystery concentrates his focus and transforms him from a young guy resisting maturity into a full-fledged adult.
Complimenting Lankenau’s playful sarcasm, Dunn excels as the older but no less troubled sister facing her own fear of adult responsibility and freedom. Attractive but self-deprecating, Gail could easily fit into an issue of Ghost World alongside Enid. However, like Doug, she is all heart carefully encased within cool intelligence. Katz however is the biggest winner in this project though, proving his ability to handle standard film genre fare while still retaining the attention to character insight and detail that the best mumblecore films represent.
If the Duplass Brothers can now slum for Fox Searchlight while Joe Swanberg regales us with more pseudo-softcore porn and gratuitous penis shots, then Katz can run straight up the middle hopefully achieving greater commercial success without pandering. Cold Weather definitely proves he has the chops to do so, now he just needs the opportunity.
To learn more about this film as well as screening opportunities (theatrical and VOD), go to www.ifcfilms.com
