Gazer (2024) – Film Review
Director: Ryan J Sloan
Cast: Ariella Mastroianni, Renee Gagner, Jack Alberts
Certificate: 15
By Roger Crow
“Timey wimey” stuff, as Dr Who might say, is a handy hook for many film makers to hang a plot’s premise on. “I have short-term memory loss so I have to tattoo everything on my body to remind me of things,” as one protagonist in a Christopher Nolan movie might say.
And that memento of Memento resonates in Gazer, a micro-budget, too-cool-for-school indie mystery thriller which rests on the shoulders of co-writer and star Ariella Mastroianni.
She co-penned the drama with director Ryan J Sloan, the ‘J’ no doubt added to differentiate him from all the other filmmakers called Ryan Sloan.
“Mysterious woman”
Anyway, the plot: Frankie (Mastroianni) is a young single mother with dyschronometria, a rare condition (handy) that means she struggles to perceive time (a bit like me who still thinks 1975 was 30 years ago).
In this day and age, when digital recordings are less wasteful and plentiful, you’d think Frankie would record notes on her phone, but that’s far too ‘now’. Instead, she opts for cool retro cassette tapes for guidance. After getting fired from her job as a gas pump attendant, she takes a risky job from a mysterious woman to support her family, unaware of the dark consequences that await.
I’m in awe of any rookie filmmaker who get get a movie off the ground, and the fact this could have been shot and cut on an iPhone means filmmaking has never been easier. But instead it was shot old school on 16mm.
“Antidote”
Though I lost interest in Frankie’s plight after half an hour, as debut movie go, it’s not bad. It made around $38,000 worldwide, so who knows if it made its production costs back? But it’s just the sort of cool thriller Hollywood money folks love as they search for the next big things for their mainstream studio pictures. I wouldn’t be too surprised if Sloan and Mastroianni go from strength to strength with their next projects.
Gazer might be a little rough around the edges, and I might have indie thriller fatigue, but as an antidote to all the hi-def, super-polished thrillers out there which cost 100 times the budget, this is a welcome cinematic palate cleanser.
Adopted Yorkshireman Roger Crow developed a passion for film and TV in the 1970s and 1980s. He has been a published film and TV reviewer since the 1990s; a world travel and restaurant critic since the noughties, and for the past decade has assessed the pros and cons of live gigs and theatre productions around the UK. His ideal day would involve reviewing a performance of Bat Out of Hell, followed by a Pad Thai while being serenaded by Texas on a cruise around Europe.
crowsfeat.com
