{"id":628,"date":"2017-02-19T19:04:56","date_gmt":"2017-02-19T19:04:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/commarts.pleather.us\/2017\/02\/19\/discreet-review-a-dissonant-thriller-about-the-effects-of-child-abuse-berlinale-2017\/"},"modified":"2017-02-19T19:04:56","modified_gmt":"2017-02-19T19:04:56","slug":"discreet-review-a-dissonant-thriller-about-the-effects-of-child-abuse-berlinale-2017","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/m2\/2017\/02\/19\/discreet-review-a-dissonant-thriller-about-the-effects-of-child-abuse-berlinale-2017\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Discreet\u2019 Review: A Dissonant Thriller About The Effects Of Child Abuse \u2014 Berlinale 2017"},"content":{"rendered":"

Childhood abuse\u00a0affects its victims\u00a0in myriad and often abstract ways. The disparate images and mysterious\u00a0female voiceover that provide Travis Mathews<\/a>’ “Discreet” its illusory\u00a0opening do eventually come together, like the concentric cycles of abuse and pain experienced by its woeful protagonist, Alex (Jonny Mars).<\/p>\n

A drifter and filmmaker, Alex travels the country in a\u00a0dark blue van shooting footage of highways. On a passing visit to his unstable mother, he learns that the man who abused him is living in a small cabin on the outskirts of the rural Texas town where his mother lives. Seeking out the older man, Alex finds a severely incapacitated\u00a0John (Bab Swaffar), complete with an involuntary twitch in his left\u00a0arm and a vacant\u00a0stare.<\/p>\n

John is a ghoulish cartoon of a\u00a0predator; even in his weakened state, his\u00a0fluffy white beard, ruddy red nose, and\u00a0lanky frame tower over Alex. Facing a\u00a0demon who\u00a0is unable to remember him\u00a0or even acknowledge his\u00a0presence, Alex’s vengeful machinations become complicated. He begins showing up at John’s house only to feed him soup and take him on walks outside. He\u00a0is clearly waiting for something, though\u00a0just what is unclear, and the viewer must wait with him.<\/p>\n

READ MORE:\u00a0\u2018The Misandrists\u2019 Review: Bruce LaBruce\u2019s Lesbian Separatist Cult Charms With Sex and Satire \u2014 Berlinale 2017<\/a><\/p>\n

Mathews and cinematographer\u00a0Drew Xanthopoulos infuse\u00a0each\u00a0frame\u00a0with an ominous tension, achieving\u00a0the suspicion that\u00a0something sinister is always lurking just offscreen. As Alex eavesdrops from a diner\u00a0stool on teenage Zach (Jordan Elsass) as he complains about his busted bike tire, the camera practically side-eyes the whole exchange. The next time we see Zach, it is from afar and through Alex’s windshield. Filmed from\u00a0the back of the van and over Alex’s shoulder; the frame within the frame implicates\u00a0the\u00a0viewer in Alex’s voyeurism.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0plot remains shadowy as\u00a0Mathews\u00a0dangles his enigmatic threads: Alex’s cruising trips to\u00a0a porn shop, where he services Miguel\u00a0(Jo\u00e3o Federici) on his knees; the meditative self-help\u00a0videos that provide disembodied\u00a0voiceovers from a woman named\u00a0Mandy (Atsuko Okatsuka); and the orgies Alex orchestrates through\u00a0craigslist where he orders men to strip naked, blindfolds them, then robs them\u00a0as they rub each other.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

“Discreet”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Berlinale\/Drew Xanthopoulos<\/p>\n

Narrowly avoiding the trap of abstraction for abstraction’s sake, the reasons for these disparate moving pieces reveal themselves by the film’s end: Alex’s hope for connection with Mandy (he was planning to meet up with her\u00a0in Portland) is dashed when she\u00a0tells\u00a0him to stop harassing her or she will call the police. Miguel, with his white beard and furry chest, is an attractive stand-in for John, signifying Alex’s\u00a0reclamation of power. This idea is reinforced by the orgy, which\u00a0shows\u00a0Alex shifting fluidly between sexual power dynamics, while also adding a (very brief) moment of sexy levity.<\/p>\n

READ MORE:\u00a0Review: Berlin Golden Bear Winner \u2018On Body and Soul\u2019 is a Workplace Romance About Dreams<\/a><\/p>\n

While tearing down the walls of Alex’s rotting house\u00a0makes for an evocative journey, it is not one everyone will want to take. The murky opening and aloof characters are not immediately accessible, and while the implication that the abused become abusers may be statistically supported, it\u00a0won’t sit well with those who have adapted more healthily\u00a0than Alex. Mathews does little to dispel\u00a0the\u00a0stereotype of the gay pedophile, however artistically rendered.<\/p>\n

As a follow-up to “Interior. Leather Bar.,” the director takes a decisive leap forward with “Discreet,”\u00a0building Alex’s\u00a0world with a rare blend of meandering and\u00a0laser-beam focus. The layers of Alex’s revenge plan\u00a0mingle\u00a0with the layers of his pain to paint a menacing portrait of a deeply scarred individual. As\u00a0the tension builds to its harrowing conclusion, and Alex begins to bare his teeth, Mathews pulls enough tricks from his sleeve to make\u00a0“Discreet”\u00a0a worthy digression.<\/p>\n

Grade: B-<\/strong><\/p>\n

“Discreet” premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival in 2017.<\/em><\/p>\n

Source: IndieWire film<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Childhood abuse\u00a0affects its victims\u00a0in myriad and often abstract ways. The disparate images and mysterious\u00a0female voiceover that provide Travis Mathews’ “Discreet” its…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":245,"featured_media":629,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_oasis_is_in_workflow":0,"_oasis_original":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_vp_format_video_url":"","_vp_image_focal_point":[],"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[45],"class_list":["post-628","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-careering"],"acf":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/m2\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/107\/2017\/02\/201712774_3_img_543x305.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paqOTj-a8","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/m2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/628","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/m2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/m2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/m2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/245"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/m2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=628"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/m2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/628\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/m2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/629"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/m2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=628"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/m2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=628"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/m2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=628"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}