Tramps (2016) - Adam Leon

 A story of hope, promise, and uncertainty, Adam Leon's Tramps is a fresh and humanistic story centered around two young outcasts in Danny and Ellie, who through a chance encounter, involving a mysterious briefcase, come to find a sense of solace in the budding connection which begins to evolve between them.  Danny, a polish immigrant, is a hard, modest worker, yet he isn't satisfied in this environment, always at the whims of his delinquent brother, unable to break-free and find his own source of independence.  Ellie's exact circumstances are a tad more mysterious, as the filmmakers wisely never feel the need to be didactic when explaining her source of trauma or lack of fulfillment, only subtly suggesting that she may be the victim of an abusive home relationship in Pittsburgh, with Ellie viewing this aforementioned mysterious briefcase as her way out of her current environment.  The convergence of uncertainty and possibility is where Adam Leon's film strikes its most affectionate chord, detailing two characters in Danny and Ellie who seemingly haven't experienced much general kindness or joy in their respective lives, each forced to work together in an attempt to recover the briefcase for their mutual gain.  Adam Leon's Tramps feels fresh and alive, with its characterizations, performances, and screenplay, never restricted by the tropes of the romance genre, delivering an exploratory character study that evokes a sense of hope and possibility through the evolution of these two character's relationship.  Having a lived-in type of aesthetic, Adam Leon's film is voyeuristic in nature, with the lens often feeling like a cautious observer, remaining at a distance from these two character's whom are thrust into spending 24 hours together.  The distance in which the camera observes provides a documentary-type aesthetic but it also is symbolic of these two characters, evoking their sense of uncertainty about one and other, their general timidness, and restraint, one that slowly dissipates over the course of the film as these character's begin to trust each other, with the composition becoming more intimate as a byproduct.  A film completely void of forced sentimentality, Tramps reveals a slow transformation of these two souls throughout its narrative, revealing two individuals who slowly begin to shed their rugged exteriors, opening up to each other in ways that seemingly feel foreign to these characters, each of which has never fully been able to be themselves.  Trust being paramount, and how this is achieved through a general sense of empathy and kindness is deconstructed through this fragile, evolving relationship at the heart of Adam Leon's Tramps,  as both Ellie and Danny work through their own inner turmoil, each seemingly confronted with the possibility of something good happening to them, a foreign concept to those who have never experienced it.  The last scene of the film, where these two characters struggle desperately to express their feelings towards one and other is generally one of the most affecting and heartwarming scenes I've seen in recent memory, with each character exposing themselves emotionally, exhibiting a trust and general hopefulness that had yet to be seen beforehand.  Danny, a passive character, asserts himself, exposing himself to the possibility of rejection, while Ellie is generally left in a sense of shock, unable to even fathom how this young man could have such general empathy and compassion for her.  These two character's struggle to express themselves to each other but their passion for one and other is clear and genuine, with Tramps exhibiting the intrinsic need for passion in order for their to be love. These two character's relationship isn't guaranteed to be a success, far from it, but in this moment they have each found a piece of solace in each other, with Adam Leon's Tramps delivering a hopeful and enchanting romance which is genuine, heartfelt, and deeply affecting.

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