Underplayed Gems

Sister Carrie (2022)

Sister Carrie poster
Directed by
Daniel Nearing
Elsewhere
IMDb
The 3D catalogue: film cases on wooden shelves, with the cat sitting at the counter next to its greeting.

The catalogue in 3D

The film shelves have a room of their own that you can walk around in. The cat behind the counter is the AI Catbot, and they pick real films from the same catalogue when you tell them what you feel like watching. Nothing is for sale, here or in there. Go in from here and this film is already out on the counter, with more like it waiting on the shelf next to it.

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How it feels

The film follows a young woman who moves to the city and navigates relationships and ambitions. It is a character study told through a series of loosely connected scenes.

contemplativecharacter-drivenepisodicatmosphericreflectiveslow-pacedfragmentedlow-key

What happens

Daniel Nearing (born December 21, 1961) is a Chicago, Illinois-based director, screenwriter, and independent filmmaker. Hogtown, his "period-less" American film, has been called "the most original film made in Chicago about Chicago to date" and named one of the 10 Best Films of 2016 by Ben Kenigsberg, who reviewed the film for The New York Times. Nearing was named the inaugural Filmmaker in Residence for the City of Chicago (Chicago Film Office, Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events) and Chicagoan of the Year for Film (2016–17) by the Chicago Tribune His earlier breakthrough film, the micro-budget production Chicago Heights (2010) garnered rave reviews, especially among fans of the original source material, Sherwood Anderson's influential collection of short stories, Winesburg, Ohio, a book long thought impossible to be adapted as a film. Noted film critic Roger Ebert included Chicago Heights in his list of the Top Art Films of 2010. Nearing's storytelling style tends to be more circular than linear. He views plot as a veneer that ties together the more important, character-centered aspects of any story. Nearing is known for building sequences of vignettes and using powerful imagery to focus on the isolation and humility of human life. He works primarily in black and white, with moments of what he refers to as "ecstatic color" and with heavily shadowed, "idiosyncratic" shot compositions. Michael Phillips of the Chicago Tribune says that "Nearing's chosen way of telling a story is poetic, elliptical and sometimes unhelpfully indirect, but if he chooses, this Canadian-born, Chicago-based filmmaker could very well become a significant and lasting talent." Ben Kenigsberg of The New York Times says Nearing "is not the most accessible filmmaker, but with his new feature and his previous one, he has carved out an original and boldly unfashionable niche." (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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