I Am What I Am

Those who do not let themselves be seduced by the superficial categorization and organizing of films into genres (which is one of the common flaws in thinking about cinema among the gray masses of average critics, academics, and viewers), will discover a playful and self-aware film that truly borrows from Blow-up, and that is the most important thing: the vain pursuit of emptiness, a game of tennis without a ball, late sobriety. Brass' film is deliberately "about nothing" from the beginning, and the criminal plot is only a tool to graft images onto emptiness, the editing, the tension, and the love of characters commenting on their story. Trintignant's character never fully merges with the film but jumps on a passing train just to experience a fast ride and go through sobriety from a romance that also reveals nothing more and nothing less than the foolishness of expectations and the emptiness it offers. Experimentation, pop art, tribute to the greats of the time, and a sexy grasp of the best of contemporary art cinema. (06/23/2016)