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Film: Putty Hill

Rating: Three and a half out of four stars

Director: Matthew Porterfield

Starring: James Siebor Jr., Dustin Ray, Charles Sauer

Where We Saw It: The Grand Cinema

Does It Screen Again?: Hell yes - Thursday, Aug. 26, 7:30 p.m. at The Grand

It's difficult for me to describe the fascination with which I viewed some of the scenes in Putty Hill. From the opening moments, in which a young man in Baltimore takes a break from a paintball game to be interviewed by the omniscient cameraman, Putty Hill announces itself as something strange and different.

It's a good thing the kid and many other characters are interviewed because, without it, we would have a very difficult time understanding just what is going on. The characters in this movie - much like how it would go in real life, and how it never goes in the movies - rarely feel the need to talk about how they're feeling. Slowly, as more characters are introduced and interviewed, we learn that a young man named Cory has recently died of a heroin overdose. Now, his family and friends are preparing themselves for his funeral.

A masterful scene near the beginning of the film serves as a mission statement and an example of how little needs to be said in the defining of a person. As a man gives another man a tattoo, they chitchat about the funeral and other things. What we learn: the tattooist was Cory's uncle; he learned how to perform tattoos in prison; he was convicted of second degree murder after a man raped his pregnant wife (of which he says "You can fill in the rest").

None of these confessions feel forced or fake, and indeed there is never a wrong move from an actor in Putty Hill. I am shocked to learn they were even actors, that there even was a script.

Putty Hill feels unflinchingly like life.

The film is handled with a heavy dose of naturalism, interspersed with some flights of fancy (such as a graffiti artist's spray-painted message being accompanied by subtitles so we can more easily understand them).

Unfortunately, the film comes close to wearing out its welcome due to its insistence on shunning artificial light. There are some scenes that are so dark that we can't see anything for minutes at a time. I understand the director's intentions, but at a certain point this naturalism becomes antagonistic.

Nevertheless, Putty Hill is a unique and, at times, mesmerizing depiction of how everyone grieves differently. Is it cold of these people to seem so remorseless after the loss of Cory? No. In some ways I suspect they admire Cory for escaping a place they cannot: Baltimore, drink, life, and all of it all over again.

LINK: 25 New Faces In Independent Film festival schedule