Frownland Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		3.0
Audio		3.5
Extras		2.5
Overall		2.5

Frownland Blu-ray Movie Review

Auto-neurotic asphyxiation.

Reviewed by Randy Miller III September 9, 2022

Written, directed, and edited by Ronald Bronstein (co-writer and editor of Josh and Benny Safdie's Uncut Gems, Good Time, and Daddy Longlegs, which he also starred in), his 2007 independent debut Frownland is a punishing exercise in claustrophobic filmmaking. For 106 minutes it zooms in tight on the woefully insecure Keith (Dore Mann), a stammering New York coupon salesman who makes Woody Allen look like an alpha male. Keith's piteous life still makes for a fitfully rewarding character study, one that's vaguely alluring and poignant but not necessarily enjoyable.

We don't get to know our protagonist all that well during Frownland; save for one very brief scene at the psychiatrist's office where he's allowed to open up, any chances of meaningful back-and-forth communication are cut off at the knees when Keith's small circle of "friends" routinely ignore, demean, and argue with him. His insufferable roommate Charles (Paul Grimstad, who also composed the spacy original score) uses ten-dollar words in every sentence but can't pay the electric bill. A dark-haired woman named Laura (Mary Wall, the director's wife) is a quiet emotional wreck and practices self-harm. Sandy (David Sandholm) barely tolerates Keith's occasional drop-ins and uses any excuse to shoo him away as soon as possible. His "boss" Carmine (Carmine Marino) bullies Keith and other social outcasts like him as the head of a clearly shady coupon scheme where bottom-rung employees cold-sell a book of savings for only $5.

We almost can't blame them: Keith speaks in broken, repeated sentences and has trouble stringing thoughts together, making him a kind of person that requires patience his friends just don't have. Frownland still manages to depict him as a uniquely sympathetic character. rather than the pest or doormat others see him as, but this agonizing marathon of social anxiety is nonetheless an extremely tough watch. It focuses on Keith almost exclusively, save for a few very brief asides and a very curious 12-minute detour where roommate Charles takes an Advanced Placement exam alongside an unnamed character who's possibly even more irritating. As our protagonist stumbles from one near-hopeless situation to the next, we begin to feel and possibly even understand his anxiety, which culminates in a nasty stairwell fight and a terrifying trip to a nearby party that leaves poor Keith on the verge of a full-on nervous breakdown.

Mirroring the anxiety of its own director and lead actor (who apparently met at the funeral of a mutual acquaintance, where the latter was described as "the most insecure person I ever met"), Frownland was Bronstein's only directorial effort and Dore Mann's last time in front of a movie camera. That certainly suggests a fraught-filled production, one that began in 2001 and restarted intermittently during the next five years as Bronstein struggled to raise more money. Its very existence means that he believed in the project whole-heartedly, yet the end result is as rough and prickly an experience as you'd expect. I wouldn't even blame new viewers if they paused for a few breathers, or gave up entirely. It's a film that certainly exists in the same universe as those made by Bronstein's frequent writing partners, Josh and Bennie Safdie, but possibly on its own little planet that may or may not be suitable for human life.

Released alongside Daddy Longlegs in August, Frownland debuts on home video courtesy of The Criterion Collection, whose Blu-ray seems like overkill for a film with this kind of visual pedigree. Paired with a solid lossless audio track, great packaging, and a small collection of bonus features, it's not the boutique label's most essential release -- even during a rather slim month -- but should appeal to the extremely niche audience it was made for.

Frownland Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Released alongside Daddy Longlegs, Ronald Bronstein's 2009 collaboration with the Safdie brothers, Frownland shares a number of visual similarities with that like-minded 16mm independent production. Both were sourced from new digital transfers supervised by their respective directors and feature a grainy, live-in aesthetic that, to new viewers, does not mirror the typical appearance of a fully restored home video release. That's a verbose way of saying Frownland mostly looks like shit... but intentionally so, as the film stock's heavy grain structure and lack of tight detail regularly competes with baked-in distractions in the form of white specks, scratches, and other related damage that mimics the appearance of a rugged arthouse theatrical presentation. Even the color timing and black levels, which have a tendency to wander, don't look to have been reigned in at all and thost wildly varying grain/noise levels absolutely swarm the frame during dimly-lit and nighttime scenes. Not surprisingly, I'm torn on a rating: the film has surely never looked better on home video, but its irksome lack of cleanup still rubs me the wrong way. In its finalized form here, Frownland is simply not an ideal candidate to show off the strengths of Blu-ray, let alone under the umbrella of a long-standing boutique label known for pristine video presentations. A pure effort overall, but certainly not in the usual sense.

Frownland Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The LPCM 1.0 mono audio fares better; it's occasionally held back by light hissing and distortion (likely a result of on-location recording) but exhibits signs of much greater depth, including Paul Grimstad's sparse and spacy music cues that run closer to the dynamic, wide-open feel of a true stereo track. This makes for a slightly disjointed experience but is, again, an intended stylistic choice. While still not a standout even considering the limited budget, it's nonetheless a very capable audio presentation that doesn't suffer from near as many distracting signs of damage.

Optional English (SDH) subtitles are included during the main feature only.

Frownland Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Again mirroring the overall aesthetic of Daddy Longlegs, Criterion's Blu-ray of Frownland ships in their usual sturdy keepcase with appropriately low-rent design elements that extend to its inner print. Also tucked inside is a thick booklet filled with cast/crew credits, photos, and several short write-ups including an essay by critic Richard Brody and an oral history of the film's production. On-disc extras are surprisingly small in number; none are newly recorded, but they're all interestingly preceded by short text explanations from director Ronald Bronstein himself.

• Deleted Scenes (2 clips, 20:25 total) - This pair of mid-length deleted scenes, entitled "Multiple Sclerosis Association" (8:57) and "Analysis Take 3" (11:28), reveal slightly different sides of the main character Keith; the first is more loose and playful because it was filmed very early in production, and the second involves a real psychoanalyst, hired by the director, who speaks with actor Dore Mann in character.

• Director's Statement, 2008 (2:48) - Opening with a music cue that sounds exactly like "Piano Lesson 8" from Final Fantasy V, this antagonistic video short -- which involves the director placing a dog poop-laced dollar bill on the ground to attract passers-by -- was originally created for the film's theatrical run in Canada.

• Ronald Bronstein and Filmmaker Josh Safdie (35:39) - Easily the best supplement of the bunch, this mid-length conversation was recorded for The Criterion Channel in 2018; among other topics, the pair talk about his early pledge to make an independent film, failures at school, time spent behind a projector, apprehension and guilt, the work of R. Crumb, the rewards and perils of do-it-yourself filmmaking, and more.

Frownland Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Ronald Bronstein's first and only directorial effort, 2007's Frownland, is a prickly and punishing character study with a truly fearless lead performance by one-time lead actor Dore Mann. Those facts suggest the film was a challenging task indeed, one that included a six-year shoot broken up by financing difficulties and post-production anxiety. For better or worse, they also creep into Criterion's new Blu-ray edition which features a barely restored 2K transfer, peculiar design elements, and only one semi-recent bonus feature. As a whole this package certainly has merit, but Frownland is only recommended as a blind buy for rabid fans of Josh and Benny Safdie, Bronstein's frequent writing partners.