A young man with vision problems deals with his caustic friends and a bizarrely ominous influence. “Eyeballs,” directed by Cooper Herzog Olson, is an experimental oddity, a stream-of-consciousness DIY tone poem about learning to see, but not too much. Wandering around a small beach town, Dennis encounters a man holding an axe who instructs him to see a doctor for his eye issues. So begins a series of odd encounters with friends and strangers, some of whom are actively hostile, and others who just want Dennis to chill. But the young man is stuck in a distraught daze, that is, until a trip to the eye doctor sets him on a new course. Lifted by an expressive, melancholic synth score, the film could be seen as a metaphor for youth in its lack of clarity or coherence, or as a origin story for a wannabe filmmaker hoping to establish their “vision.” -KA. Directed by Cooper Herzog Olson. Starring Dennis Leupen, Tas Pelikan, Luke Garner, Sam Fisher, Savannah Huerta-Bailey, and Ethan Sperber as Themselves.
Up Next in On The Level (Experimental Visions)
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TriKE
A stylish exploration of movement and attitude that reflects a spirited response to a chaotic world. “TriKE,” directed by Giselle Bonilla and performed by Brianna Mims, is an experimental portrait, wonderfully expressive and attuned to texture, color, and mood. A woman dances on a roof; she poses...
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Cold Bull
A group of Alaskan fishermen do everything it takes to stay awake and not crash their boat. “Cold Bull,” directed by Ben Gordon, is a deranged commercial for Red Bull (not really), or a loopy experimental documentary about “living the sweet life” (also not really). It’s the summer and the fishing...
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Remission
Three creatures travel great distances on a lonely pilgrimage. “Remission,” directed by John Charter, is a mixed-media experimental film loaded with stunning visuals and potent abstract imagery. According to the film's logline, the figures are manifestations of an unknown solider’s war trauma — w...
