Gazer owes an enormous debt to a few obvious influences, but the movie has just enough vision and atmosphere of its own for the makings of an unnerving, lo-fi, neo-noir. It leaves you fuzzy, like the victim of a con you can’t quite remember happening. Ariella Mastroianni, who wrote the screenplay with first-time feature director Ryan J. Sloan, stars as Frankie, a cash-strapped single mother suffering from a condition that causes her to lose focus and track of time. To keep her bearings, she constantly listens to a tape of her own voice reminding her to “focus,” but that’s only so much help when she becomes involved in a missing-person case. The touchstone here is Christopher Nolan’s Memento, but the filmmakers throw in random nods to The Shining, The Exorcist, and Videodrome, as well. More consistently effective are the service-road, New Jersey locations, a malevolently layered sound design, and a plaintive, horn-heavy score by Steve Matthew Carter. The latter makes Gazer feel like a 1970s detective movie—think Gene Hackman’s Night Moves—that’s been sent to a grungy future.
(4/1/2025)
