movies
BY RICK LEVIN
I Want to Believe
Sound of My Voice is this year’s sleeper triumph
I
f it’s true that nationalism and immigration are the
most dangerous issues confronting the planet in this
early 21st century, it’s reasonable to suggest that, at
the spiritual level, our soul’s greatest peril now lies in the
tension between belief and nothingness — a crisis of faith
that fi nds the New Age con pitted against the death of God,
where our need to believe is crucifi ed by our suspicion
that all our myths are shattered lies. It’s the curse of the
Enlightenment. Don’t laugh: This existential dilemma has
us all on the blocks, and we can no more hide from it than
we can safeguard against the wandering lunatic with a
loaded gun.
This looming cosmic crisis — our
millennial reckoning with mortal belief, with
meaning itself — is the subliminal subject of
director Zal Batmanglij’s haunting new fi lm,
Sound of My Voice, though it’s hardly necessary
to talk fancy about this as-yet-undiscovered
masterpiece. Like the fi nest works of art, this
movie — about a pair of lovers (Nicole Vicius and
Christopher Denham) infi ltrating an underground cult that
may or may not be a suicidal scam hatched by a woman (Brit
Marling) claiming to be a visitor from the year 2052 — fi nds
an unimpeachable balance in all its constituent parts: The story,
co-written by Marling (who also wrote and starred in
2011’s excellent Another Earth) is expertly paced
and excruciatingly suspenseful, playing out with
the brooding, reptilian intensity of fi lm noir; the
acting is unfl ashy and naturalistic, compelling a
suspension of disbelief that feels like one long
nightmare; and the seamless script, like such
classics as Chinatown or The Philadelphia
Story, presents a blueprint for deft storytelling,
hiding its philosophical depth in the warp and
woof of mesmerizing narrative.
Okay, enough, let’s out with it: This movie
kicked my ass. It’s easily the best movie I’ve
seen this year, and one of the best of the past decade.
Hypnotizing. Horrifying. Unshakable. Brit Marling is a
genius. And she’s only just begun.
ew
Sound of My Voice opens Friday, June 8, at the Bijou; bijou-cinemas.com
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48 JUNE 7, 2012
EUGENE WEEKLY
WWW.EUGENEWEEKLY.COM