Gazer

If Gazer doesn’t pick up the momentum needed to match Frankie’s increasingly dire situation, it’s nevertheless a pleasure to watch.

A fractured, sensory puzzle of memory and fear.

Energized by Ariella Mastroianni’s disoriented and frazzled lead performance, it begins unnervingly and ends, like all such sagas should, with haunting bleakness.

Although indebted to its influences to the point of self-sabotage, the movie manages to surmount enough of its flaws — including some shaky acting and distracting awkwardness — to hold your own gaze, more or less.

There is certainly talent in front of and behind the camera, although it works more like a demonstration rather than reaching for something more compelling.

The main character’s condition feels like a dramatically dubious attempt to shroud the somewhat spindly nature of the film’s plot.

Sloan doesn't compromise his vision, and that's commendable, yet the endurance test of the film's dragging momentum is a challenge in the third act.

All told, the film fairly seethes with ingenuity, however much it must frequently do battle with its lack of originality.

Even as it stumbles, Gazer remains nothing less than a wholly unique mood. Perhaps the biggest compliment one would give is that it leaves you clamoring for whatever Sloan and Mastronianni do next.

The authors of Gazer clearly have great taste in movies and genuinely love everything they pay homage to here. However, despite what the excessively optimistic ending of the film seems to imply, sometimes love is simply not enough.