Gazer, is a film that feels like it’s not of this time. The directorial debut by Ryan J Sloan, an electrician turned director from New Jersey (Across the river from me), made the distinct choices to not only shoot on film, but in his home state of New Jersey, rather than taking the tunnel to New York, where most directors would have probably shot their film. Filming in New Jersey however, delivers a gritty and unforgiving landscape for our story of a disturbed and somewhat troubled woman to transpire. It brings to mind genre cinema of the late late 70s early 80s New York, pre the Disneyfication, harkening to a much more dangerous time with its Hitchcock meets Nolan premise.
Gazer follows Frankie (Ariella Mastroianni) who spends her evenings, peering into other people’s open windows, and summarizing her thoughts on their lives into a cassette tape recorder. She does this, because suffers from dyschronometria, a condition that impacts her ability to accurately estimate the amount of time that has passed. The condition has been slowly eroding her mind, to the point when the film begins she is being advised to move into an assisted living facility. To further remove anything that could date the film, she is forced to use antiquated tech because the digital screens are a trigger for the young woman’s condition. Its at a support group for people who have lost someone to suicide that she sees Paige, a young woman she’s been spying on, who offers to pay her to help her get away from her abusive brother, which triggers the mystery.
While Gazer’s first act is a focused slow burn exercise in world building as director Ryan J Sloan sets the grounded foundation, he slowly begins to erode it away with more surreal and Cronenbergian elements thanks to Frankie’s mental condition. The narrative is very much from Frankie’s perspective, so at times we’re wondering if what we are experiencing, is in fact how it’s transpiring. While it could of course be compared to Nolan’s Memento, that film doesn’t trap us in the protagonist’s head like we are here. This element adds a level of uncertainty that had me continually rethinking just where we stood.
The thing that makes Gazer effective is actor Ariella Mastroianni’s raw nerve of a performance, she’s completely unguarded here, and oftentimes it’s to her character’s detriment. It’s something that as she’s trying to put the pieces together of just what’s going on – because of her condition, we’re watching it negatively impacting everything else in her life. She is opposite a rogues gallery of characters that populate her world, where she’s constantly teetering on the edge. It’s something I think Ryan J Sloan captured perfectly, these people on the fringes who could lose it all by simply missing a day of work, or not being able to get transportation to an appointment.
Gazer is a daring neo noir that flirts with so many sub-genres, as its story slowly unravels on screen. Ryan J Sloan effectively leverages a well honed and measured narrative, along with every tool on his belt as a director to craft a world captured on celluloid that feels real as it does dangerous.At its center is Ariella Mastroianni who is trapped in this barren urban hellscape populated by office parks and Jersey gas stations. She’s charged with a role that has her bearing the damaged soul of a woman who after two hours, you’re never sure you ever really knew. Gazer is an impressive debut, that alludes to an exciting new auteur, who I hope will continue to tell more tales further exploring the darker reaches of the Garden State.
