Communion Los Angeles (Adam R. Levine, 2018): USA

Reviewed by Ryan Wildermuth. Viewed at the AFI Fest 2018.

Communion Los Angeles is directors Adam R. Levine and Peter Bo Rappmund’s interpretation of LA through ambient sound, non-linear editing, and photography. This film, while gorgeous at times, has similar problems to most experimental and unconventional films. The pacing is incredibly slow and the repetition slowly begins to seep in the longer you watch.  And while that may be the intention (to create a very slow and repetitive movie to represent a commute in LA), it doesn’t make for an engaging movie. The entire film is time lapse footage, photos blending into one another. And in the beginning, it looks very beautiful and the movie start relatively strong. But after awhile I began to realize that the film doesn’t have much else to offer besides these time lapse shots. So for a full 68 minutes, you’re watching the same effect done over and over again without any real break or pacing to try and even it out. There simply isn’t enough substance to keep the film fresh and entertaining, and similar to the movie “The Grand Bizarre,” it most likely would of worked better as a short film.

So what did the movie do well? There are some very beautiful time lapse shots of the LA river, as well as some high exposure shots of cars at night that give off a really cool “trailing” effect with the car’s headlights. The sound design was good, consisting of ambient noises that evoke feelings of discomfort and unease. However, the sound design and pretty images don’t carry the film, and the lack of consistent and continued creativity in this film starts to show the longer you sit through it. I think it was around the 30 minute mark when I realized the entire movie was just going to be time lapses ( with occasional voiceovers) and I felt myself began to lose interest.

Both Adam R. Levine and Peter Bo Rappmund said that the film isn’t trying to tell a story, rather evoke a feeling. They comment on how the first half of the movie takes place during the day and the second is during night. Apparently, once night comes the movie resets, replaying previous scenes with the only exception being the time of day. Unfortunately not much really changed within the film that differentiates night from day besides the lighting. There wasn’t really a thematic change or tonal change and so the shift wasn’t very thematic or interesting, it just felt as though they had footage of night and day and used it as a way to extend the run time while also giving a change in setting. But without any real presence or reason the execution falls flat.

This is a film that’s not trying to entertain you. And while I think that can be done well, the way it was executed here felt as though it was spread a little thin. And the only feeling it really evokes out of me towards the end was boredom. Communion LA has some interesting ideas, and may of even worked better as a short film, but pacing holds it back in many aspects. With a smaller run time, they really could of fine tuned every moment to make the movie more sporadic and interesting. However, the longer run time makes the movie move at a very slow and monotonous pace. And yes, maybe that’s the point. Communions are slow moving and often dull, but just because the movie was able to replicate boredom so well doesn’t make the movie a good watch.