Low Budget Cinema Gems

Chan Is Missing, Stranger Than Paradise, and Following

I’m nuts for 35mm black & white photography.

The look of a Cartier-Bresson-Frank-Friedlander-full-frame image just sends me. These three movies all nest snugly in that monochrome nirvana and they fear no grain. Each is a low-budget entry-level premier with a unique signature from a director who would climb fast. But each is delightful on it’s own terms and accessible via streaming. All three directors have absorbed classical cinema language: shooting, editing, sound, but add their own arresting idiosyncratic accents.

Note: 1) reams have already been written about these movies, and, 2) I’m no movie critic, just a guy who likes popcorn.

Chan Is Missing (1982)

Wayne Wang’s debut explores the Chinese-American experience in 80’s San Francisco via an uncle/nephew duo (one 30-ish, one 50-ish) who give $2,000 to a fixer for a taxi license, but “Chan” the fixer promptly disappears. The contrast between generations, and their family bond, gives this duo a lively snap and crackle as they play sleuths while occasionally knocking heads with one another. Dialogue still rings true: “Why you trippin’ so heavy on this one dude for, man?” Wang lets the characters breathe and several scenes seem almost wholly improvised. Great performances, a great voiceover, and assured direction. I watched it on Kanopy where you get a dozen+ free movies per month with your library card number.

Chan Is Missing imdb page

Chan Is Missing on Kanopy (as of 11/27/23)

Following (1998)

Following is the 1998 debut of director, Christopher Nolan, who has many big-franchi$e films to his credit by now. Back in the lean/hungry days Nolan had to hustle for bread, borrow lab space, and employ rebel cinema techniques not unlike Robert Rodriguez and his (possibly greatest low-budget movie ever) El Mariachi. Nolan smartly spins a twisted noir with another unlikely duo: the tentative, reclusive layabout vs. the brash, self-assured burglar/con-man. With masterful pacing and editing the movie propels you to a double-cross you may not see coming. Et ‘une femme fatale? Mais oui, Roscoe. Following digs deep into the mind of the voyeur/flaneur while planting your feet firmly in the sweat-soaked socks of the in-too-deep. Backstory Criterion interviews with Nolan show that it was a great d.i.y. project (and he’s still reaping the benefits). Don’t look behind you. You’re being followed.

Following imdb page

Following on Criterion (as of 11/27/23)

Stranger Than Paradise (1984)

For that one person who hasn’t seen a Jim Jarmusch movie yet: start here at my favorite. It looks like a Robert Frank image come to retro-hipster-life. Trilbys, baggy trousers, rayon shirts, beat Plymouths, cartons of Chesterfields, all the accoutrement of mid-80’s downtown cool. A white-out on Lake Erie before CGI was a thing. Lounge Lizard saxophonist (and accomplished painter) John Lurie, is Willie, ably supported by Richard Edson’s cuddly side man, Eddie. Aunt Lotte (Cecillia Stark) has some of the best broken-English lines and Eszter Balint’s Eva never over-acts or ruins a scene by trying too hard. No one in the movie does and that’s part of the charm. It’s a family story and a cheapo road movie. Started with a few cans of (free) leftover b/w film stock from Wim Wenders, but the most entertaining and snarky read-up on Stranger’s back-story is in Lurie’s memoir, The History of Bones. Visually, it’s all master shots with a black screen between the setups. But the minimal camera movement brings the characters and story forward in a series of “moving stills”, like still photographs come to life. A straight three act structure with a moody string quartet score and Screamin’ Jay Hawkins is my main man so, bug off. It’s got crazy style, man, from back when steering wheels were beautiful and makes me nostalgic for my own baggy-trousers days and Fellman’s dusty old men’s wear store on Dryades Street. Rammellzee gets a cameo.

Stranger Than Paradise imdb page

Stranger Than Paradise at Criterion (as of 11/27/23)

Thanks for reading, forward as needed, and save me some popcorn.

R.