• Reviews

• All
• Music
• DVDs
• Live
• Cinema
• TV
• Books
• Comic Books
• Video Games

Jul 21, 2016 By Julia Bembenek Web Exclusive

Two young women manipulate the global economy through a half-scientific, half-mystical process from a ramshackle house in a picturesque Maine hamlet. There’s a lot of good style in the set-up for Bingham Bryant and Kyle Molzan’s For the Plasma. Shades of Jim Jarmusch, David Lynch, and Aki Kaurismaki enticingly inform an opaque, deadpan tone. Japanese electro-psych pioneer Keiichi Suzuki’s off-kilter pop score adds another layer of atmospheric candy. Everything in For the Plasma feels like a deliberate choice, a somewhat admirable trait in the world of micro-budget indies that often rely on the charm of letting the messiness of reality play out at the expense of any consideration of aesthetic.

However, as the plot spools out and never finds any moments of true narrative clarity, the film’s particularities feel less and less sure-footed. As Charlie (Annabelle LeMieux) continually implores her friend and sort-of boss Helen (Rosalie Lowe) to explain what all the experimentation and observation they are doing means, the audience grows compelled to ask the same question. The stilted, wooden acting style (one element that occasionally seems questionably intentional) and the fractured structure alienate when it becomes clear that there’s not much of a reason for anything going on in or around the film. The elements of a nascent style from Bingham and Molzan intrigue, but ultimately For the Plasma comes off as an overblown etude.

www.factorytwentyfive.com/for-the-plasma

Author rating: 5/10