Gazer

Better and truer than that character gimmick, though, is the well-realized, lived-in pall of Frankie’s sad existence, which imbues her problem-solving survival with a genuinely fresh, in-the-bones urgency.

If Gazer doesn’t pick up the momentum needed to match Frankie’s increasingly dire situation, it’s nevertheless a pleasure to watch.

A fractured, sensory puzzle of memory and fear.

Energized by Ariella Mastroianni’s disoriented and frazzled lead performance, it begins unnervingly and ends, like all such sagas should, with haunting bleakness.

Although indebted to its influences to the point of self-sabotage, the movie manages to surmount enough of its flaws — including some shaky acting and distracting awkwardness — to hold your own gaze, more or less.

There is certainly talent in front of and behind the camera, although it works more like a demonstration rather than reaching for something more compelling.

Gazer takes the idea of an unreliable narrator to thrilling, surreal places in this neo-noir mystery.

Time is not on the side of Gazer's protagonist nor it's shambling, ersatz neo-noir narrative siphoned from various auteur aesthetics, with whom unavoidable comparison suggests a better edit would have benefitted this film's capabilities.

It took them four years to make it, and for the audience, it will feel like it at an almost punishing two-hour mark. The atmosphere is strong, but not substantial enough to make a lasting impression. They are better filmmakers than story tellers.

Ariella Mastroianni caries the film from scene to scene and mesmerizes