![]() At the 2015 Cannabis Cup held in Michigan, a concentrated live resin of Clementine was awarded second place in the Best Sativa category. Only this “Clementine” is no toss off.Clementine is a sativa-dominant hybrid strain created by cannabis breeders at Crockett Family Farms. With this first feature, Gallagher spins a yarn, also peeling a story of attraction and power, identity and coming-of-agency. It’s too early to state for sure, but restraint appears to be one of Gallagher’s gifts - the kind that rewards moviegoing patience. At the end of the telling, Lana tosses the orange orb into the lake. That her account is super improbable becomes part of her story. Lana tells Karen a story concerning her childhood and a clementine as she peels the sweet-tart fruit. A crack in a ceiling and a crack in a stone wall.Įarly in their budding intimacy, Karen and Lana are hanging at the water’s edge. A key no longer fits a lock another is no longer in its usual hiding place. Not one uncanny solo dance but two (to Lightning Dust’s haunting “Antonia Jane,” no less). Like an evocative short story, “Clementine” distills its themes. (Think Kelly Reichardt’s Pacific Northwest films.) a shot from directly behind a character - but also captures the natural world with devotion. Cinematographer Andres Karu gently teases horror flick gestures - e.g. Katy Jarzebowski’s spare, progressively ominous score whets the edges. Gallagher finds ready compatriots in tweaking and then downshifting the film’s moods. That Lana and Beau appear to know each other only cranks the tension. Will Brittain does a nice job of confusing matters: Beau is comfortable in his skin and a little inscrutable. The drama of Karen and Lana’s attraction gives way to something more unsettling once Beau begins hanging around. to become an actress, adds to the ethical mire. What does it say about Karen’s romantic interest if Lana isn’t what – or who – she says she is? A #MeToo-ish subplot, concerning Lana’s plans to go to L.A. Karen trusts (because she wants to?), then doubts (because it’s wise to) Lana’s claim to be 19. Although Karen herself looks to be in her late twenties, issues of age-appropriate liaisons flow throughout “Clementine.” Do the rules of engagement shift when it’s two women? Before we ever see her, we know D (Sonya Walger) is decidedly older than Karen it’s confirmed by her house, her vintage Benz, her Pacific Northwest getaway, her career as a working artist and yes, her rather superior voice on the phone.Īs Lana, Sydney Sweeney deftly shape-shifts from late teen to younger - too young? - often within the same scene. She’s sunbathing on a pier and eating sections from a clementine. The first time Karen sees Lana may conjure images of “Lolita.” That wouldn’t be far off. After all, Karen’s not supposed to be there. In short order, her solitude is upended by Lana - a beguiling young woman - and the somewhat more intrusive arrival of Beau, the property’s handyman. And let’s be honest, to take advantage of the lovely Walden-esque seclusion. She homes in on the lake house to suss the authentic from the falsely promised in her and D’s relationship. has the potential for self-reckoning and liberation. And Otmara Marrero portrays her with a quiet that speaks of hurt but also hints at an investigative bewilderment. ![]() She’s not a render-of-garments, gnasher-of-teeth kind of jilted ex. To which the film offers a quick “Hah!” It’s D who sent Karen packing. She’s the voice at the start of the film, telling Karen (in lovely closeup) that she knows Karen will break her heart. We don’t see this ex, who goes by D, so much as hear her. Karen (Otmara Marrero) leaves Los Angeles and heads into the woods - yes, figuratively, too - of Oregon after a thwarted attempt to get their dog from her lover’s home. ![]() ![]() Gallagher rebuffs easy answers in “Clementine,” which had its premiere at the 2019 Tribeca Film Festival and opens May 8 on virtual screens thanks to the nimble maneuvering of distributor Oscilloscope Pictures. A viewer would be right to wonder, is this visually canny story of a young woman who heads to her ex-lover’s empty lake house a coming-of-age meditation or a psychosexual thriller? Breakup drama or simmering horror flick outing? Writer-director Lara Jean Gallagher’s “ Clementine” resides willfully (and more often than not, skillfully) in the spaces between loss and desire, anger and reckoning, trust and suspicion, often to unnerving effect.
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