MIFF 2022 Film Review - The United States of America
Images courtesy of the Melbourne International Film Festival.
Well, this one will do well at parties, presentations or generally just any television that entertains the passive attention of passers-by. The United States of America is certainly not what I expected, although it is exactly what the title promises.
To my bewilderment, watching The United States of America showed me The United States of America, and probably every state at that! In a series of still landscape shots with no audio, minimal chatter, and pure atmosphere.
Wilmington, California was a little bit sad. We’d gone from what looked like a prison’s exterior to what was undoubtedly a homeless encampment under a bridge. I had begun to get the impression that the scenes of nature were exceedingly beautiful, whereas any depictions of civilisation were where things got a bit harder to enjoy. Perhaps this is the single most subtle and nuanced delivery of a message that I have ever encountered.
New Milford, Connecticut took the cake for artsy fartsy, avant-garde, film festival fodder. In this great state where the people live decent lives, viewers were entertained for a solid two or so minutes by a flag blowing in the wind. Now it is a nice flag I’ll give them that, but a close-up depicting nothing but the flag with a gorgeous blue sky backdrop was not exactly the tourist advertisement that I’m sure Connecticut would’ve been pining for.
I’ll tell you though, once I’d settled into this quality piece of cinema, enjoying the still shot of someone’s front garden I was slightly taken aback by the faint echo of President Dwight Eisenhower’s farewell address where he lambasts the military industrial complex. This is certainly America, and I can confirm based on what I’ve seen that it is indeed split across several seemingly united states.
Learning the names of townships, counties, cities, and states was fun, although I have no geographical context for where any of these places were after the credits rolled. Is The United States of America an ode to the U.S.A., or was it just a way for director James Benning to celebrate the reopening of state borders post-covid while writing off his gas bills as a tax exemption?
The United States of America is screening as part of the Melbourne International Film Festival, running in cinemas August 4-21 and online August 11-28. For tickets and more info, click here.