Stranger Than Fiction #27: A weird, quiet trip into nothing much

Is it worth your time?

If you need a plot, look elsewhere. Seriously. This is for the kind of person who enjoys staring at a flickering lightbulb or watching a documentary about how paperclips are made. If you want high-octane drama, you’ll be asleep in ten minutes. But if you’re a fan of the odd, the small, and the oddly specific, this little film is a weirdly cozy mess.

The whole thing feels like a fever dream of a public access show from 1984. There's this woman in Brooklyn talking about clear umbrellas like they’re the pinnacle of human engineering. I don't know why I cared, but I did. Maybe it was the way the light hit the plastic. Or maybe I just needed a break from real life. 🌧️

The Redwood Treehouse

Then we jump to a house built in a redwood tree. It’s all very calm and dusty. You can almost smell the pine needles through the screen. It reminded me a bit of the quiet isolation you see in El poncho del olvido, just without all the... you know, actual story.

There's this 84-year-old guy with a hammer and chisel. He’s just working on wood. No talking. Just the sound of metal hitting wood. It goes on for a long time. Longer than it probably should. I found myself checking my phone, then looking back up, and he was still doing the same thing. Somehow, it became hypnotic.

The church with 74 doors is the weirdest bit. Who needs 74 doors? It’s on the site of an old massacre in New York, and the whole place just feels heavy. It didn't need a narrator to tell me it was creepy. The architecture did the heavy lifting.

It’s definitely not as polished as Sabotage, but it isn't trying to be. It feels like a home movie that accidentally got distributed. It’s uneven, it’s disjointed, and the pacing is pretty much non-existent. But there's something honest about it. It’s not trying to sell you a message or a feeling. It’s just... there. Like a rock in a stream.

• The umbrella lady is way too intense.
• The sound editing is… a choice. Sometimes it’s too loud, sometimes it’s basically a whisper.
• I’m still thinking about those 74 doors.

If you hate movies that don't go anywhere, skip it. If you want to watch something that feels like finding a box of old tapes in an attic, give it a shot. Just don't expect it to explain itself to you. Because it really, really won't.