CineVegas Film Festival 2008

The nymphomaniac virgin, the twin-less trophy wife, and the rapping stockbroker are a little off. Likewise, the electronics-loving Lolita, the faded pin-up girl, and the paranoid are not quite right. But when these six would-be patients compete for the last available bed in a luxurious insane asylum… well, that’s just plain crazy. And, without a doubt, absurdly appealing. ASYLUM SEEKERS’ mood-driven cinematography and production design create a Terry Gilliam-esque world of freaky characters and cracked institutions that point to the surreal but are uncomfortably close to reality. Director Rania Ajami blends absurdity with psychotherapy and madness with magic realism. Touching upon the themes of identity, normality, sexuality, romance, reality, and the idea of what exactly constitutes insanity, Ajami lays out a colorful vision that matches her colorful characters. Along with her performers, all of whom help us connect with the disconnected, she delivers what is not just an exaggerated observation of the people society doesn’t willingly accept, but a reflective one that questions the human condition — one that is as whimsical as it complex, as comedic as it is chaotic.

Irene and Daniel are an upwardly mobile couple that is a few weeks away from the birth of their first child and a bad business deal closer to financial collapse. When a family wedding (and a personal loan from Irene's wealthy father) draw them out of Manhattan to venture upstate, they lose their way on an unfamiliar wooded roads. What was supposed to be a regular drive alters their lives forever when they pick up a hitchhiker. In spite of its simple plot, the intelligence that permeates David Barker’s rigorous and personal re-imagining of the genre film is striking and terrifying. With its tense interiors, insistent blend of suspense and drama, rich character detail, and minimalist aesthetic, DAYLIGHT feels unlike other works that make up the American film landscape. Alternately infuriating and harrowing, DAYLIGHT is a potent piece of shock cinema that thrives on making the audience uncomfortable. The slow boil of this genre piece nonetheless deftly evades falling into genre traps. Such filmmaking decisions imbue with the action a depth of character that enhances the terror to alarming effect. Featuring bold and riveting performances by the entire cast, Barker’s film keeps you completely involved emotionally from moment to excruciating moment.