The Cathedral (2022)

Directed by Ricky D’Ambrose. Starring Brian d’Arcy James, Monica Barbaro, Henry Glendon Walter V, Hudson McGuire, Robert Levey II, William Bednar-Carter, Mark Zeisler, Geraldine Singer, Madeline Hudelson, Cynthia Mace, Siena Marino, Linnea Gregg, (voice) Madeleine James.

Fascinating semi-experimental film adopts a fresh (if not entirely original) approach to selective storytelling; some may find it uninvolving and porous, but I was caught up in its spell quickly and appreciated the challenge of filling in information on my own. Although not exactly told from his point of the view, the narrative—a linear, unsentimental collage of autobiographical snapshot vignettes lasting between a few seconds and a few minutes—traces the childhood (infancy to adulthood) of a kid named Jesse and the dysfunctional family drama around him. Jesse is such an observant, near-silent cipher he makes Boyhood’s Mason Evans Jr. seem like Tom Sawyer, but writer/director D’Ambrose gives us more rounded (and troubled) portraits of the parents, effectively played by James and Barbaro. The most common fragment types are narrated interludes, acted-out dramatic scenes, and news clips of major scandals/events that keep the viewer aware of the passage of time, and when the pieces are taken individually, there’s nothing noteworthy about the static camera placement or straightforward voiceover or stock photo imagery or incomplete/obscured insight. But the coloring book-esque accumulation of dry data and inflamed emotions slowly gripped me, and the eccentric touches in between the sublimely unremarkable incidents pulled me in even closer. Paradoxically, I emerged on the other side feeling like I didn’t know Jesse (or D’Ambrose) at all, but somehow knew all I needed or wanted to know. D’Ambrose also edited. Premiered at the Venice Film Festival the year before its release.

83/100