Everything about Gazer recalls the rich history of the neo-noir genre, from its violent femme fatale to its jazzy and atmospheric soundtrack. Ariella Mastroianni leads the cast as Frankie, a young woman estranged from her daughter and struggling to hold down a job after a murky event involving her husband and her degenerative neurological condition. This condition, dyschronometria​​​​​, makes it difficult for Frankie to perceive time, and we’re thrown directly into this disorienting world with her, where one of her only solaces is her own soothing voice that plays on a loop from the recording device always in her pocket.

Gazer was a labor of love born of the collaboration between the co-writer and director Ryan J. Sloan and Mastroianni. The pair’s intimate knowledge of industrialized New Jersey, the film’s setting, and their connection to the project come through most of all when watching Gazer. It was sH๏τ on 16 mm film over two years, and Gazer​​​​​’s microbudget and grᴀssroots production is a refreshing change compared to the sleek and slightly soulless typical additions to the genre. Its messy, unhurried tension pulls us along on Frankie’s journey, even when we’re not sure where it’s going.

Gazer Uses The Surreal To Make Its Realism All The More Potent

Frankie’s Struggles Might Look Different, But Gazer Makes Her Story Universal

If the element of dyschronometria were taken away, Gazer would unfold much like any other classic noir, with Frankie getting tangled in a web of lies and murder for the sake of some quick cash. Though we might not relate to Frankie’s condition and how she perceives the world, her struggles are universal. When it comes down to it, all Frankie wants is enough money to give her daughter something to live on after she’s gone. The daughter we don’t see until the film’s final moments fuels Frankie’s desire to keep going, though her life is slipping away.

However, we can’t lie to ourselves as Frankie does or fully believe that she gets involved with the mysterious young woman, played by Renee Gagner, just because of her material needs. That might be how it starts, but Gazer makes it clear that Frankie is looking for a purpose. She wants a sign that the violent business with her husband in the past wasn’t her fault and that her life could mean something if she could just help this woman. We share Frankie’s desires and her gnawing feeling that it isn’t just her condition that’s clouding the truth.

Everything in Gazer relies on Mastroianni and her ability to make us care about Frankie, even when we know very little about her. The film’s surreal sidebars and interludes effectively throw us off balance alongside Frankie, but they aren’t always necessary. Everything about the film’s atmosphere outside of these moments is rooted in the real, the tangible, and giving us these gory, shocking moments is an effective juxtaposition. However, I got the sense that Mastroianni and Sloan felt more strongly about the look and feel of these scenes than their narrative purpose.

Despite this, I wasn’t against the surrealist aspects of Gazer. However, I think the nature of the production made it difficult for some of the discreet elements of the story to blend together. Fortunately, Gazer sets itself up to combat this factor from the beginning, using Frankie’s condition and its voyeuristic conceit to place Frankie and the viewer always on the outside looking in. The lack of screens and technology necessary for Frankie’s brain to work also places us on the outskirts of modern life and allows for the disjointed pieces of Frankie’s life to be purposeful.

Though Gazer’s Twists Aren’t Shocking, That Doesn’t Decrease Its Emotional Impact

Gazer Brings Us Into Frankie’s World & Makes Us Feel For Her

The mystery at the heart of Gazer isn’t particularly inventive or revolutionary; we’ve seen this sort of plot unfold onscreen many times before. Fortunately, Sloan and Mastroianni aren’t interested in blindsiding us with a Christopher Nolan-esque twist. They simply want to capture our attention and bring us inside Frankie’s world through an experience that makes her tragic and triumphant all at once. Frankie’s ultimate fate isn’t surprising, but that doesn’t mean you don’t feel deeply for her, sitting with the heavy weight of her condition and the limited time it gives her to clean up her mess.

As the тιтle suggests, Gazer makes us watch the world unfold, waiting and wondering if Frankie will be able to break through the barrier that keeps her out. The deliberate pace of Gazer forces you to put the pieces together slowly, hanging on every word and squinting into every corner, wondering if there’s something you’ve missed. If Sloan and Mastroianni made Gazer with only their limited resources and spark to create something new, it bodes well for the filmmakers’ futures and whatever their next project will be.