Free-thought performance art
Written and Directed by: Eric Chamberlain
Cast: Eric Chamberlain
[Disclaimer, Eric is the cousin of our late, great writer H-Man, and has also contributed to our site, so I may be a bit biased. I am only human]
Swift shot: A surreal, mezmerizing fascicle that shouldn’t be overlooked by cinephiles.
Gyrus has been described as a drama about the convergence of biological, technological, and spiritual evolution.
I am not big on expressionist cinema. I am a typical American, hand me my story and give me a nice big spoon full of exposition. With Gyrus, Chamberlain doesn’t give you that. But if you are paying attention, you can put everything together.
Chamberlain gives you a form of a kind of free-thought experiment that only teases at the plot. A living Rorschach, Thematic Apperception Test, sans the couch. Well, no, actually, he does have a couch – there’s a lot of the film that takes place on his couch, as he digitally transports the mundane into something disturbing and somehow brilliant.
Many times throughout Gyrus, I found myself going back to that old adage, there’s a fine line between genius and insanity. I don’t think Eric is insane, so he must be a genius. In fact, I feel like other more honed art critics will appreciate Gyrus for what it really is, an expressive dream of the limits of reality and what it is to be human.
Interspersed between the fluid aesthetic is a plot about evolution and the meaning of reality. The fragile balance of reality and imagination, that veil of existential belief that keeps us from losing the grasp of so-called normalcy.
I can’t say that you will enjoy Gyrus, because it isn’t an easy film to absorb. There are moments in the film where I thought nothing was happening, but then I looked deeper and saw subtle motion and my focus shifted. It became an entertaining game to see if I could find the objects and their meaning.
There are clear recurring symbols in Gyrus that made me wonder how they personally impacted Chamberlain. At times you will see faded, old photographs, airplanes, lots of airplanes, and this disturbing use of sound that is off-putting and intriguing.
If you want to see something truly original, Gyrus is that transformative work of art that will confound you and challenge you to look inside yourself for meaning. It is unlike anything you have ever seen in your life. And the digital effects are quite remarkable.
Will you like it? I don’t know; art is a tricky business. But, I hope you’ll watch it and see for yourself.
