Golden Exits (2017) - Alex Ross Perry

Alex Ross Perry's Golden Exits is a introspective study of family, relationships, and self; a relatively plotless film which aims to unearth and explore the various aspects of companionship, desire, and self-satisfaction that make any meaningful relationship an ongoing, always evolving construct. Playful in its formalism, Golden Exits implores an intersectional narrative about two families and places a young foreign girl directly in the middle; a character who inevitably becomes the catalyst for the surfacing of underlying tensions in  both households where existential dread, unhappiness, deceit, and the general malaise of everyday life has begun to take its toll.   Imploring a heavy use of fades for transitional shots,  Golden Exits manifests itself as a series of vignettes, providing slices-of-life over the course of a few months where we are able to get both intimacy and scale in its many wonderful characterizations. The cinematography is often tight, claustrophobic, and in turn intimate; with Perry's lens aiming to capture the emotional intimacy visually that he does through written word.  The writing style of Alex Ross Perry is introspective yet theatrical; with various diatribes and bits of dialogue walking a fine-line between being introspective and overwrought.  In this regard, Golden Exits does feel a little inorganic or masturbatory in its prose during various moments, but the film counteracts this with a general emotional honesty and maturity that is hard to ignore.  Golden Exits is the type of film that is "about nothing" and in turn about everything; one which taps into a wide array of emotions through its various hots of characters; each of which is struggling to find their version of happiness.  While perhaps not for everyone due to its pliable formalism, Golden Exits is a journey through the unspoken and unsurfaced emotional baggage of day-to-day life, one which provides a resonant and existential portrait of self and companionship.