REVIEW: OUT OF SYNC (Gelderblom, 2010)

Peet Gelderblom is the immensely talented writer/artist behind the movie-loving comic Directorama, in which cinema's greatest dead film directors still call the shots in Heaven. And now, very much alive, of course, Gelderblom is himself venturing into filmmaking. His debut effort is a short called Out of Sync, and here's my review.

It’s the shapes, the rigid color palette, the horizontal lines battling with the verticals, the close-ups wrestling with the long views (with birds sizzling precisely along a flowered horizon at one point), and it’s the disconnect between the sound and image in the first half of Peet Gelderblom’s too-short Out of Sync--these are the facets that rivet us most. Then there’s the wide cloudy eyes of an upset wife, staring boldly at us upon the piece’s outset, as the husband absent-mindedly goes about his normal day--they upset us too (upon which we have Franz Schubert overcome by jerky dance muzik, following a heard argument that‘s woefully never detailed).


The haziness of a weekday morning is palpable, and the gentle tans of the woman’s cosmos clash with the gunky greys of the man’s. A shave and no goodbye and the story marches on. A startling peer at an arriving stud, beautifully captured in hilarious slo-mo: he’s popping buttons and spitting out his gum in sexual confidence. And then…then…then we get it. And, as the camera whizzes brilliantly…then, eventually, the movie is deflated a bit by some surprising sentiment that isn't sufficiently worked up to. A promising exercise for a promising new director, yes. But I wish Out of Sync were longer, more complicated and nuanced, and unconcerned with audience satisfaction. However, I sympathize with the situation that Gelderblom and his characters are in. And, for its brief running time, the film’s quite lovely, with more-than-notable art direction and cinematography. I want to see more, though. And it’s a fine feeling.



You can see Out of Sync HERE on Peet Gelderblom's official site!