Back in 2007, reviewing the low-budget indie “Wild Tigers I Have Known,” I said Cam Archer — its young director-writer, making his feature debut — was a man with a future. My verdict remains the same after watching Archer’s sophomore effort, the surreal “S – – t Year,” a cautionary tale for anyone planning to retire.
Shot in washed-out, 16mm black and white, it features Ellen Barkin as a successful actress, Colleen West, who gives up her career for a cabin in the woods. But retirement isn’t the way she imagined it, and she finds herself bored out of her mind. “I feel like I’ve lost something, but I don’t know where,” she muses. The noise from nearby construction adds to her despair.
In an attempt to fill the void in her life, she becomes friends with Shelly (Melora Walters), the too-perky-for-words woman who lives down the road and makes cutesy dolls out of apples and straw.
“I’ve been meaning to start a doll collection, but I guess I forgot,” Colleen sarcastically tells Shelly, who doesn’t realize her new neighbor is a movie star.
The story goes back and forth in time, from the present to the recent past to the future. She fantasizes about her affair with Harvey (Luke Grimes), a cute, much younger actor she met during her final stage performance, and a TV interview in which the host describes Colleen’s retirement as “the end of everything and the start of nothing.” How right he was.
Then there are mysterious scenes set in heaven, or maybe a UFO, presided over by a woman named Marion (Theresa Randle), in which Colleen tries to come to terms with reality.
A protegé of Gus Van Sant, Archer — who also makes short films and music videos — has a wild imagination he has trouble harnessing. He doesn’t know the meaning of “too much.” But Barkin, in short, blond hair, is superb, as usual, and Aaron Platt’s cinematography is stunning. Here’s hoping Archer gets his s – – t together in feature No. 3.