Originally posted on 6/9/20
If you're lucky, you'll see a pretty good movie now and then. If you're really lucky, you'll see one that starts out like it's not that much and then takes you places you never expected at all, until suddenly you realize that you're in the middle of being totally blown away.
That's what writer/director Derek Ahonen's amazing debut THE TRANSCENDENTS (2018) did for me.
Early on, sleazy bar owner Jan (Kathy Valentine) tells Roger (Rob Franco) that she collects weird things, which is apt because she tries to collect Roger from the moment he shows up in her bar, and he's as weird as they come.
But Roger claims to be celibate ("Straight celibate or gay celibate?" she asks) and his other character quirks include abstaining from alcohol, having deep mental and emotional problems that cause him to be intensely focused on being intensely out to lunch, and, last but not least, wanting to find and kill the former members of his struggling indie band who stole his incredibly strange songs before he was forced to drop out of life for ten years.
Roger flashes back to his time with bandmembers Foster (Ben Reno), who's jealous of Roger's songwriting skills (which he attributes to his communications with small animals such as hamsters), and the cute but hygiene-challenged Kim (Savannah Welch), whose odd relationship with Roger also elicits Foster's even more destructive jealousy.
Meanwhile, in the present, Roger forms yet another odd bond with Jan's deaf, paralyzed sister Cecilia (Cecilia Deacon) as his search for former members of The Transcendents leads him to some startling revelations about himself and others that I won't go into here because they're more fun to find out about yourself while watching the movie.
Speaking of which, this is one of those character dramas that makes up for its limited settings and lack of action by keeping the relationships and story twists increasingly involving throughout.
It also boasts a pleasingly subtle weirdness (mostly embodied, and quite capably at that, by Rob Franco's very studied performance as "Roger") and a morbid, martini-dry humor that's deftly off-kilter without getting too overt.
But most of all, THE TRANSCENDENTS is an actor's movie that boasts some of the most stunning performances you'll ever see, which director Ahonen showcases to their best advantage without smothering them in directorial style.
As Roger's odyssey progresses and he confronts people from his past, the depth and profundity of the story becomes mesmerizing. Savannah Welch in particular has a monologue about why and how Kim so thoroughly hit the skids after leaving Roger. It goes on for roughly fifteen minutes and pretty much becomes the whole movie during that time, and is riveting.
Then Roger goes back to where we started and clashes with George (William Leroy), the crusty old owner of the farm where he stayed for ten years, who has seven daughters and may be guilty of incest and several other evil things, and suddenly the movie becomes about the guy who plays George giving a performance that is almost frighteningly good.
THE TRANSCENDENTS starts out going pretty much where we expect it to, right up until the moment we realize we're being taken for a ride blindfolded to places we've never been before and are well worth going to. And I felt lucky to have ended up there.
Buy it from Indican Pictures
TECH SPECS
Runtime: 96 minutes
Format: 1:78 HD
Sound: Dolby Sr.
Country: USA
Language: English
Rating: Pending
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