The Blackout
1997 Directed by Abel Ferrara
There are spaces in time that our minds come back to over and over. Often they're traumatic, but even those moments of clarity become hazy in recollection. We reconstruct these memories through the lens of images and video that has become a part of every day life. "Video is the future" seems so mundane now.
It's very 90's chic that this film uses the camcorder as a specific plot and cinematic device. Similar in thematic overtones of videotapes as reality to Lynch's Lost Highway. It is Dennis Hopper that takes the reins here- delivering the seedy porno-art manifesto of amateur fuckery. Freaks that video tape ourselves!
In 2023 this feels oddly funny- as everyone has become the mask of their social profiles. For the 90s however there is an edgy club where people film each other doing eccentric things. This is the club that Matthew Modine comes into- a struggling actor who caused his girlfriend's abortion- lingering into a mess of self loathing and alcoholism. He's to become Hopper's main star- and Hopper goads Modine into a night of depravity where Modine blacks out.
It's in Modine's nightmares that he's constantly reframing the happenings of that night- and yearning for his epitomized girlfriend. He can't seem to shake this feeling even after becoming sober. His abusive misogyny and needfulness can't let himself live his own life- but this abrupt reconnection to his former self breaks him internally. Instead of finding the way forward he pulls himself back- wrapping in the guilt of moments that can no longer be touched. It's an emotional stasis- a death of the self as he chew inwards.
The film does this too- warping this reality in fake moments with real - with ever lasting torment of the mind. This replay takes up half of the film here- edging towards absurd moments that defy coherence. The general story is easily revealed however, leaving less a mystery as to what happened (as to Lost Highway) vs a revealing of the stark reality. The emotional recoil has so much weight that there is no escape- drowning him in sorrow.