Matt Kracht
There are some mild spoilers throughout this review, but nothing that you wouldn't get from watching the first ten minutes of the movie.Anyone who likes thrillers knows about the "car chase in the desert" sub-genre. These movies are generally set in California, Texas, or Mexico; star an everyman protagonist who usually doesn't get more than minimal characterization; and are, essentially, just road trip movies with a psychopath chasing behind the protagonist. Probably the most famous and best of the lot was The Hitcher, starring Rutger Hauer as the biggest, baddest desert-chasing psychopath of all time.This is a very interesting movie. Due to the mix of literal and metaphorical elements, the movie is a bit difficult to understand at first. It starts off with a little bit of narration where the male lead, Gene, announces that he's a dead man, aimlessly drifting through Mexico in his pickup. He has no purpose, and he misses his family. If you're like me, you took this as metaphor. But, no: he literally is dead, and this is purgatory. He also tells us that he's been having vivid, disturbing dreams about being a spider, along with accompanying compulsions in his waking life. This is also a gigantic, literal clue that we're supposed to pay attention to. In this afterlife, each person has an animal nature, such as the spider. I think many people were a bit confused by this, as well, and took it as metaphor.Gene, who speaks no Spanish, eventually comes upon Ana, a woman who speaks no English. They struggle to communicate but eventually give up. Ana is trying to meet up with her boyfriend, but her jealous ex-husband is chasing her. Gene, unable to communicate with her, is oblivious to the danger of her ex-husband. The drifter Gene seems to welcome having an opportunity to help someone who has direction in her life, though the two are tragically unable to truly interact meaningfully with each other. This seems deliberate. Ana's ex-husband seems to communicate only in terms of violence, lashing out angrily at everyone in the movie.Gene seems to understand that he's in purgatory, but others don't quite seem to get it. Ana, for instance, is confused by the appearance of her dead brother, the strange compulsions that she's been feeling, and why people are behaving so bizarrely. The movie toys with further exposition at one point, when Gene and Ana's brother, Miguel, obliquely discuss what's going on. Gene: "Have you told her yet?" Miguel: "Told her what?" Gene: "So, you haven't told her." Miguel: "She's introspective. She'll figure it out."This comes after we see humans murdering each other, vomiting on the corpses, and committing cannibalism. As if all that weren't enough, we see our protagonist, Gene, wrapping people up in rope, like a spider wraps up its future meals in webbing. It's a somewhat disturbing visual, once you get the metaphor. Indeed, later on in the movie, we see him snacking on one of his wrapped corpses.Unfortunately, despite the opening narration ("I'm a dead man in purgatory", "My nature is turning into that of a spider"), some people just couldn't understand what was going on. I was pretty confused, too, until it finally clicked, and I realized that the opening narration was meant to be literal explanation of the plot of the movie rather than some metaphorical clue that had to be interpreted. I think that the opening narration was probably added later on so that people would understand what's going on. Ironically, it ended up confusing some people even more, because they weren't expecting the director to simply and explicitly explain all the symbolism in his movie right in the opening scene. When this is done, it's usually done in the conclusion, not the opening scene. The conclusion itself was a bit subtle -- or, at least, not as overt as the opening scene.If you enjoy surrealism, thrillers, or road movies, this may appeal to you. The pacing is a little slower than most thrillers, spending more time on atmosphere and tension than on action scenes, but it's never boring or slow. Some of the symbolism (wrapping people up in rope, for example) is very confusing at first. As well, there are some extended scenes shot entirely in Spanish, which might annoy you if you dislike reading subtitles (and don't speak Spanish). However, I liked this movie, and I think it shows a lot of potential. If the director can work on finding a better middle ground between overtly explaining all the symbolism and subtly hinting at metaphor, I think he'll make some even better movies. I couldn't decide between a 6/10 and 7/10, so I decided to be generous and go with a 7/10.I'm usually pretty good at catching metaphor and symbolism, but even I got a bit frustrated and confused at certain points in this movie, so I can totally understand how someone would dislike it. My advice is to pay special attention to the opening scene, with its important narration. Unfortunately, there's no warning that this information is of critical importance, so it's easy to miss, making the rest of the movie a confusing jumble of surreal images. This is probably the biggest fault in the movie.
gavin6942
Mexico is not just a foreign country for many Americans, but a foreign concept entirely. The language, the culture and the people are so distant, so strange for many of us. And in "Circulation" they become all that much more strange. We enter amidst two lives intersecting: Gene (Sherman Koltz), an American heading south and Ana (Yvonne Delarosa), a Mexican woman looking to find her boyfriend and escape her abusive ex-husband. Their journey becomes something spiritual, something transcendent.Let me offer a disclaimer on my rating for this film: Generally when I review independent films, I grade them a little bit higher than other people do, because I want to give the creators credit for going to great lengths on a limited budget. So an above average rating on an independent film may not indicate it being as good as an above average mainstream film. That being said, I graded "Circulation" on the mainstream scale. To grade it on the independent scale would mean a perfect score, because there's basically nothing more that could have been added to this film.The colors and scenery are wonderful and the setting of Mexico is a nice change of pace. The characters are interesting (particularly Gene), the actors quite professional and the music blends in as smoothly as rum and Coke. I have to give particular credit to the cinematographer or director of photography. So many shots were lined up crisply and imaginatively. Watch your standard independent film and count the unique angles and cuts. You'll find a small handful. Here, the angles keep shifting (but not to the point of being erratic) and we're given a panoramic view into an isolated world, if that contradiction makes sense.The creator of this film, Ryan Harper, knows what he's doing. The plot's pace is smooth... we aren't left dangling long enough to grow bored, but we're not rushed either. And there's a fair level of intelligence to the script that I don't see in this line of work (no disrespect to horror writers, but "teen gets stabbed" is hardly original). A puzzle is being solved and we're given pieces along the way, starting with the opening line. You might get it right away, you might get it halfway through or, if you're like many of the reviewers for this film, it might be your second viewing (and you'll want to see this one at least twice anyway).I was in the "halfway" camp. I understood the big plot point (I don't want to give anything away, though) but many questions went unanswered until nearly the end: why are people vomiting? What's with the rope? When it clicked, I realized the biggest clue had been at the start of the film before I knew I was looking for clues. Well played, Mr. Harper... keeping me on my toes.Expect this film to get plenty of rave reviews on the film festival circuit. If we're very lucky, this is the sort of film I'd love to see show up at "After Dark Horrorfest". Too "underground" to get a lot of theater coverage, I can still see this hitting theaters through "After Dark"... and while this is a bit different from their prior selections (no vampires or zombies here) I think the audience would really appreciate what is being offered. I think it goes without saying, but I'm recommending "Circulation". So rarely do we see beautiful, original and well-produced work in the "horror" genre (although this could also be fantasy or drama)... thanks for the breath of fresh air.
