In a quiet classroom in Burlington, Vermont, college students nod alongside to the phrases of a professor. The diminutive determine scolds his class. To the suitable of the lecturer, a younger man lies, impaled by a katana and holding a thick paperback. The speaker continues, “Sometimes, if you see an undergraduate mendacity on the ground, holding a replica of Bunion’s Pilgrim’s Progress and enjoying lifeless, don’t be afraid to say, ‘That’s an undergraduate mendacity on the ground, holding a replica of Bunion’s Pilgrim’s Progress and enjoying lifeless!’” Class dismissed.
Pomp and Circumstance, directorial debut for filmmakers Adrian Anderson and Patrick Gray, is nothing you haven’t seen earlier than– and extra. In fashionable vignettes, Anderson and Gray discover the existential tribulation of three undergraduate college students: Charlie, Marie, and Thomas. The trio is pulled from collective ennui by the darkish designs of Professor James Cherry, having introduced his mayoral marketing campaign and his intent to purge Burlington of ‘low’ artwork. As ‘JC’ stokes flames of righteous indignation in Burlington’s pupil physique, Charlie, Marie, and Thomas should push again, saving their beloved karaoke bar from sure doom.
Characters in Pomp and Circumstance have an effusive, self-indulgent approach of talking. Shortly after our heroes are launched, strolling alongside a picturesque avenue, they talk about Charlie’s resolution to be homeless (whereas having rich mother and father). Thomas, cigarette in hand, pronounces that “Ennui is French for solipsism, and solipsism is French for Interesting.” Quickly, our consideration known as to a different show of post-modern posturing from Marie; “French is an incomprehensible language, which is horny.” And on and on. The trio wanders off, and a pedestrian prattles on about “Chomsky’s constancy to the Enlightenment” and “biologically predetermined grammar.” This continues all through the movie: Each and each Burlington resident has a passionately performative perspective to share.
“As ‘JC’ stokes flames of righteous indignation in Burlington’s pupil physique, Charlie, Marie, and Thomas should push again.”
The narrative unfolds in distinct sequences, full with intertitle–from comedic interludes to character research to an overwrought investigation of Elvis’s pelvic physics. This opens the doorways for interaction between these sequences, together with a relentless movement of metatextual gags, every of which calls consideration to the movie’s existence as a movie. In one sequence, “Charlie’s First Date of the Month,” Charlie’s date at a music store is destroyed by a sudden rash of modifying ‘errors.’ Abrupt cuts disrupt the movement of dialog and break his night.
Ultimately, Pomp and Circumstance produces a way of cohesive attraction and palpable nostalgia. Patrick J. Malone is great as Professor Cherry, delivering a efficiency that’s pompously comedic and slightly horrifying. For all their flaws, for all their bemoaning the surroundings, our principal characters really feel acquainted. The type is confrontational, however the jokes land. Anyone who has endured ‘artwork college’ is invited to reminisce, cringe, and snicker alongside.
This seems like a pupil movie. That is to say, an ‘inventive movie,’ or a debut movie, or a ardour mission, or any variety of phrases to explain a film that needs to be critiqued rigorously, respecting its limitations. Viewed as an entire, Pomp and Circumstance is bigger than the sum of its components. The sheer quantity and interaction of filmmaking tropes reveal filmmakers who essentially perceive their craft. The joke is on critics: Co-writer/administrators Andrian Anderson and Patrick Gray have purposefully adopted the posture of pupil filmmakers, exemplifying– and reveling in–the ‘limitations’ of the type. Like Prof. Cherry, Anderson and Gray are hoping that somebody will level out the plain. In reality, I believe they’re happy with it.
