I decided after her Gotham win that I needed to know about Lily Gladstone’s other film. It seemingly came out of nowhere, just suddenly winning her a Best Actress prize, and not for Killers Of The Flower Moon. I’m glad that I saw this even if it didn’t have audio description, as it gave me more of an idea of Gladstone’s range, but this film is about as independent as you can get. not that independent is really a genre, except to say it takes a lot more artistic choices than films aimed at the mainstream. It also does not have audio description, which in this case, really truly left me in one of my least favorite experiences of the year.
I barely got anything out of this, and when representation is on the line, not to mention just simply allowing the artistry of independent film to flourish, it feels more important to get that audio description on there. Alas, my rental in the Apple Store did not have it, and based on the distributor, I doubt it ever will. Contextually, I’m aware of about what it would have cost to put audio description on a film, even an independent one, and honestly it isn’t cost prohibitive. The only people who should be using money as an excuse are student filmmakers. At a certain point, if you have distribution, you have the money to pay for the required accessibility for your film, and then you just need someone on staff to legally require that track you paid for follows your film wherever, so it always gives your film the best possible representation. This should also apply to making sure the captioning is quality, so deaf audiences don’t have to read lips, or wonder what’s happening when no one is speaking.
Representation is great, but accessibility matters as well.
Final Grade: Unwatchable