i met the team from cold weather at a party in austin last spring for sxsw.  it was a winner at the festival – despite three attempts, i couldn’t get in to see it, and it was maybe the most buzzed about indie of the week.  i finally watched it last week, at its premiere at the ifc center, and something about it bugged me.  aaron katz’s film is truly beautiful, and raul castillo and trieste kelly dunn both deliver great performances.  but the quiet, twin peaks-ish presence of portland that many critics raved about failed to deliver emotional impact, made me feel a bit like i wasn’t in on the joke.  fake tv’s serendipitous post about somewhere makes sense of it for me:

It’s one of those movies that aligns the viewer with the protagonist by sheer force of will. The two of you space out and go nowhere together at the same pace.

i was oddly thrilled by somewhere.  and here’s a big difference: cold weather doesn’t show you how the place matters to the main character, who’s recently moved back to portland from college in chicago.  he’s back in his hometown, living with his sister, working at an ice factory, and yet the contrast of strangeness and familiarity of place doesn’t seem to impact him at all.  trying to make something important to the audience, without it being important to the character whose pov we inhabit, is a serious challenge.