Film

Movie theaters, reviews and showtimes in New York, plus articles, trailers and more
 

Chain (2004)

Director: Jem Cohen

Average user rating
No reviews

Movie review

From Time Out London

An organic progression from his documentaries, Cohen’s feature debut – set in an overcast, flourescent netherworld of malls, hotels and transport interchanges – constructs a cohesive milieu from footage shot in seven countries and 11 US states. Researching American theme parks, Tamiko (Nikaido) awaits orders from her Tokyo corporation, whose mission statement becomes a kind of mantra; non-person Amanda (Billotte) scavenges from shopping centres, talks into a dead cell-phone and confides in a video camera. Ostensibly at opposite ends of the spectrum, the women’s experiences of mallworld are similarly aimless and atomised, each well-versed in consumerism and bereft of human contact. Cohen finds grimly witty equivalence in litanies of chain-store names and debt relief voicemails, luxury-brand outlets and derelict pharmacies – a floating world where awnings promise ‘Zero coming soon’.

Author: BW 0000-00-00 00:00:00

Time Out London Issue 1808: April 13-20 2005

  • Print this page
  • Send to a friend

What do you think?
Post your review now

clear rating
Min 1 star. Zero stars will be treated as unrated.

*mandatory fields


Cast & crew

Director: Jem Cohen

Producer: Jem Cohen, Mary Jane Skalski

Cast: Miho Nikaido, Mira Billotte full cast

Genre(s): Drama

Duration: 99 mins


Features

Making a name for himself

Making a name for himself

Sin Nombre's Cary Joji Fukunaga learned his lessons well.

To the letter

Forty years later, Costa-Gavras's Z still brims with fury.

Mind over matter

David Cronenberg reflects on a most bizarre body: his own corpus of work.

Fool's gold

Can an Oscar win lead to a cursed career? Here are five stories of postaward professional meltdowns.

We are the championed

Terrorists and teens abound in this year's "Film Comment Selects."

A history of violence

Matteo Garrone's kaleidoscopic Gomorrah wallops you with Italy's crime crisis.

True romantic

James Gray exchanges urban amorality for amour in Two Lovers.

Playing in the dark

MoMA salutes pianist Stuart Oderman's 50 years as the one-man sound of silents.

Junk bonds

Cast and crew recall the making of the classic NYC drug drama The Panic in Needle Park.