North of Vortex

A superbly composed and strikingly evocative film. Skyscrapers, freight trains, desert roads: we are in the midst of an American mood piece distilled from road movies, Kerouac, junk and all that jazz. A (gay) poet picks up a (bi) sailor and a (desperate) waitress. Taking turns behind the wheel, they drive west across the radio dial. Shot in a grainy monochrome you could get lost in, the film never quite arrives at the ironic nonchalance Giannaris is aiming for, but his cool eye for emotional byways makes it a proposition worth exploring.