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Gazer Is a Reminder of When Indie Films Were Exciting
The New Jersey–set thriller may have been made on the cheap, but its ambitions are huge.
With a familiarity that runs deeper than affection, the first-time filmmakers and New Jersey natives make a case for the northern part of their state as an ideal setting for a noirish thriller — a place capable of giving off a desolate air even in bustling locations, like the stretch of Journal Square where its main character goes to meet a fence. Mastroianni, whose arrestingly deep-set eyes begin and end the film in close-up, carries the movie solo for long stretches as we observe Frankie’s day-to-day before an unexpected opportunity to make some money falls into her lap, causing her already precarious existence to teeter out of control. If Gazer doesn’t pick up the momentum needed to match Frankie’s increasingly dire situation, it’s nevertheless a pleasure to watch — a project that feels, like its heroine, unstuck in time, reminiscent of a whole other, more vibrant era of American independent cinema when the films themselves were the point and not just calling cards for a bigger commercial opportunity.
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