Hollis Frampton- Critical Mass

Hollis Frampton's Critical Mass is perhaps the most exhausting film I have ever had the pleasure to watch. It left me physically and mentally drained, nauseous, and lethargic. A film hasn't had this effect on me since Requiem For a Dream.

The concept is simple. Two lovers, male and female, argue over the man's unexplained, two-day absence. The man feels that the woman is overstepping her bounds and that she does not trust him.  The woman feels that true trust comes in closeness and honesty.

The intensity of the  film comes in the way its audio is chopped up, altered. Lines are repeated ad-nauseam, frames skip. Eventually, the audio falls out of sync with the visuals and the film collapses into a loud, feverish series of slow frames. Hanging on every word of an argument feels like digging your finger in a wound, reliving a painful moment over and over.

Even though there is very little plot and next to no exposition, we are still able to learn about the characters and the world they inhabit through some choice dialogue cues. The woman calls the man a hippie, indicating a political division between the two. The woman also accuses the man of being stuck "in his own head," a possible accusation of drug use.

Critical Mass is an anxious, obsessive piece of cinema, a work in bereavement instead of entertainment. Highly recommended.