Tripods have either become an expensive piece of equipment or have been forgotten about entirely in film schools across the country. Jerky, nauseating handheld shots permeate through most of Locomotive, a desperate, insincere hipster narrative with an insincere, contemporary folk atmosphere and a woe-is-me, absurdist wandering non-hero.
Dicey (Frank Williams) is a struggling DJ who seems to wander from one hapless event to another. His former band has written him off, and in his worst emotional state he begins to court his old lover who was also once a groupie. Dicey used to be straight-edge; that philosophy that one can enjoy the hardcore punk lifestyle sans alcohol, drugs, tattoos, sex, and other vices. Yet, Dicey isn’t exactly punk either. He’s beaten up physically for trying to stop bullies from terrifying a young boy, and his ex-lovers and current hook-ups reject him one-by-one.
Locomotive depicts the faux struggle to have both meaning in life and independence from materialism. Love, or at least a brief romantic encounter, are all worthwhile for Dicey to ponder about during and after the events. Neither are satisfying, but nothing seems to be for Dicey’s lethargic interest in anything that isn’t himself or his self-interest. Rather than spoon-feed the audience, the film strives for a French New Wave feel, where answers are never really answers, and where the question or struggle was never clear at the beginning. Here we have a character on a journey, except it’s a journey where Dicey never wanted you to join, and has no interest in truly expressing himself to anyone.
We are left with a bland, over-long narrative meant to test our subjective impressions of Dicey and the people that enter and exit his life. Instead, Locomotive tests our patience as characters mumble through the scenes as they mumble through life.Tripods have either become an expensive piece of equipment or have been forgotten about entirely in film schools across the country. Jerky, nauseating handheld shots permeate through most of Locomotive, a desperate, insincere hipster narrative with an insincere, contemporary folk atmosphere and a woe-is-me, absurdist wandering non-hero.
Dicey (Frank Williams) is a struggling DJ who seems to wander from one hapless event to another. His former band has written him off, and in his worst emotional state he begins to court his old lover who was also once a groupie. Dicey used to be straight-edge; that philosophy that one can enjoy the hardcore punk lifestyle sans alcohol, drugs, tattoos, sex, and other vices. Yet, Dicey isn’t exactly punk either. He’s beaten up physically for trying to stop bullies from terrifying a young boy, and his ex-lovers and current hook-ups reject him one-by-one.
Locomotive depicts the faux struggle to have both meaning in life and independence from materialism. Love, or at least a brief romantic encounter, are all worthwhile for Dicey to ponder about during and after the events. Neither are satisfying, but nothing seems to be for Dicey’s lethargic interest in anything that isn’t himself or his self-interest. Rather than spoon-feed the audience, the film strives for a French New Wave feel, where answers are never really answers, and where the question or struggle was never clear at the beginning. Here we have a character on a journey, except it’s a journey where Dicey never wanted you to join, and has no interest in truly expressing himself to anyone.
We are left with a bland, over-long narrative meant to test our subjective impressions of Dicey and the people that enter and exit his life. Instead, Locomotive tests our patience as characters mumble through the scenes as they mumble through life.
