Shuffle (Kurt Kuenne, 2011): USA

Reviewed by Linda Lopez.  SBIFF.  Metro 4.

“Shuffle” is a story about a man, Lovell Milo (portrayed by T.J. Thyne), who suddenly starts waking up in different time dimensions.  Fortunately, he is always aware of who he is and who everyone else is, but mysteriously he is trapped in chronological time warps and doesn’t know how to get back to the present.

The movie is in narrative form with Milo being the narrator.

In the opening scene, Milo is sharing his convuluted time disorder to a psychiatrist.  The camera captures Milo up close to reveal his angst but then focusses on the psychiatrist, who doesn’t seem to be understand Milo’s situation.  As Milo talks, he is gulping down caffeine beverages to just keep awake.   He tells the psychiatrist that he hasn’t slept in 48 hours because he’s afraid of going to sleep.  Every time he falls asleep, he wakes up in a different time during different stages of his life.  When he wakes up, he’s always trapped in a different chonlogical age.  Sometimes he’s 11 years old, 35 years old, 92 years old, 25 years old, and on and on.   Inevitably, Milo falls asleep in front of the psychiatrist and a few minutes later he’s sitting back in front of her, but this time the psychiatrist said that she that she hadn’t seen him for over two years.  Milo is confused and the psychatrist is baffled.

During Milo’s time travels, we meet significant others in his life.  We learn that his father is a doctor, who suffers from narcolepsy and is a rigid and strict patriarchal figure; his mother, on the other hand is kind and caring.  We meet his child-neighborhood friend Grace (played by Elle Labadie), and then an all-grown up Grace (portrayed by Paula Rhodes).

Milo is a professional photographer and it is no surprise when we see an 11 year-old Milo (portrayed by Dylan Sprayberry) is consumed with taking photos with a Kodak-Land or Brownie camera.

The plot of the story climaxes at the end of the movie, but I can divulge that it is a movie that focusses on father-son conflicts in regards to fathers controlling their sons and sons seeking their own autonomy, while at the same time wanting approval from their fathers.  This conflict is universal in all societies and cultures.

“Shuffle” is truly a one-man act production.  It is an independent movie, and appropriately so as it was directed, produced, written and edited soley by Kurt Kuenne, plus he had his hand in the music composition.  The movie was filmed in B&W and it has the ambience of a 1950 B-movie, but “Citizen Kane” comes to mind in its ambience.  The light is craftfully used in contrasts.  Up-close shots of faces and eyes, revealing a softness to the characters.  In fact, all the actors in this movie are beautiful people in the physical sense.

This is a must-see movie for anyone interested in film making.  Kuenne did an amazing job on “Shuffle,” and I hope that he continues honing his talents and making more movies.