Christopher Jason Bell has amassed an impressive filmography of shorts and features over the last 15 years, across which we can trace three key interests: empathetic character building, critical depictions of key moments in American history, and a self-reflexive gaze on his own filmmaking practice. Bell’s greatest strength as a director, however, is an instinctual ability to seamlessly synthesize all three. Bell’s new feature, Failed State, co-directed with Mitch Blummer (DP of Bell’s 2020 short film, Trammel) is a new high point in this synthesis, though the film is far from synthetic. It’s a mid-pandemic snapshot of malaise and optimism that reunites Bell with frequent collaborator Dale Smith. The film follows his everyday experiences as a courier as he darts around New York City at the whims of his clients. Throughout, Dale endures the mundane indignities of the gig economy as well as the horrific realities of late-stage Capitalism and austerity, by which our tendencies to silo our own experiences make us numb to others’. Bell and Blummer’s perspective remains attuned to these complexities while making space for Dale’s buoyant disposition without resorting to sentimentality.
In the ambiguous space between documentary and fiction that Failed State calls home, Dale’s knack for striking up conversation with strangers and expounding on any topic with a unique story makes him the ideal vessel through which to explore precarious solidarity. In all of Dale’s relationships, both fleeting and enduring, the driving force is his interest in his fellow man. That’s a remarkable quality considering the breathless nature of his work and the sometimes indifferent treatment he receives from frustrated clients. Muddying, but also deepening, these interpersonal relationships is the question of whether what we’re seeing is planned or spontaneous. Some viewers familiar with Bell’s work will recognize a character or two, such as Muhammed, one of Dale’s clients who meets him with anger over the long wait he had to endure for a delivery. The pre-meditated construction of such instances are clearly telegraphed to the viewer, but the sharp relief of chance encounters throughout the film, such as one on a bus between Dale and a younger man who grills him with questions, complicates our ability to interpret them at face value.
Failed State may be light on its feet and open to the pleasures of friendship and acquaintance, but the harsh reality of the gig economy, of austerity, and of physical wear and decline asks a lot of Smith as an actor. To his credit, he’s game for everything the film throws at him, including a growing leg pain that injects a palpable tension to his daily movements, and leads to a life-changing fall in the final moments; as well as a reality-bending sequence that shifts our perspective skyward just as the mood of the film hits rock bottom. Bell and Blummer take these significant narrative opportunities toward the end of Failed State to reorient their position within the film, and by extension the audience’s position. Abbas Kiarostami is clearly an influence on Bell’s work, and while Failed State doesn’t feature as dramatic a reflexive tendency as the late director’s projects (check out Bell’s 2018 feature Incorrectional for that swing), that legacy still has a mark. The previously measured and controlled visual language of Failed State gradually breaks down through discoloration and fragmentation to create visual parallels to Dale’s physical deterioration; and at the height of Dale’s innermost desperation, Bell and Blummer turn the camera on themselves.
Anger and hope compete for prominence in Bell and Blummer’s vision of contemporary America. The small moments of solidarity between Dale and his friends face a mighty task to combat the indifference, and sometimes flagrant disregard, he endures from the government and the disappearing social safety net. It wouldn’t be accurate to call Failed State pessimistic, for it ends on a qualified moment of hope, but it’s nonetheless a plea for each of us, at least, to look out for one another if our government refuses to so.
DIRECTOR: Christopher Jason Bell & Mitch Blummer; IN THEATERS: September 13; RUNTIME: ddd
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