Silhouettes

Movies have been made for many decades, movies of every genre imaginable. It’s hard to make a really original movie. Silhouettes is definitely original, maybe not totally original, but it’s a special movie. It’s one of those movies that just happens. It feels more spontaneous than surprising. It is reminiscent of Before Sunrise, but the characters’ origin is the Indian sub-continent. The main character must be lonely. He likes to pick up women, and he’s quite adept at it. He picks up several women. During these engagements there is a lot of conversation. Sometimes it’s witty, sometimes it’s poignant, but it’s always intelligent and worth listening to. You feel engaged, you have to think. The city of Chicago is also a character in the movie as the characters walk around places the “hero” has pre-selected. Many topics are covered in this short movie, like knowing a person (in different ways), love, friendship, and (skin) color. One of the women complains about knowing but not really knowing her friends. I’ve heard that before. Some of the movie is like/about dance, the interplay of people searching for meaning in relationship. Great music, written (in part) by the main actor.

A beautifully made movie. It made me long for Chicago and long for answers to the elusive questions of meaning and identity in relation to the "other". I think the Portuguese word "saudade" captures the feeling I am left with. Complex characters and story are at the forefront of the work; nicely blended sound design and music make it all hang together; and hovering above it all is the cinematography which truly captures the soul of the city.

Gorgeous American Indie Film about South Asians with European Cinema Vibe. Every now and then, a film comes along that transports us through enchantment, that makes the familiar foreign and the foreign familiar. Silhouettes is such a film. Chicago has never looked more beautiful or more strange--we see slivers, slices, and pockets of Chicago that have never been seen in film. The characters are worldly South Asians with cultural capital who are both out of place and at home in Chicago. Marked by geography and biography, they gravitate to each other, find home in each other, and find themselves in and through each other--Silhouettes. This is a deeply thoughtful and philosophical film reminiscent of Richard Linklater's trilogy: Before Sunrise, Before Sunset and Before Midnight. But the nature of the displaced exilic heart makes it a far more interesting film. The language, the aura, the characters, and the award-worthy film score make Silhouettes a must see for those with a special taste for indie films, foreign films, romance, drama, and European and art house films.