The Tower

Preceded by “Tiny Rejections”

ERIC SAYS One of the freshest discoveries in our feature lineup, The Tower is a handcrafted gem of DIY filmmaking reminiscent of Slacker—and not just in the way you’re imagining. To be sure, like Richard Linklater’s breakthrough film 30+ years ago (and Robert Bresson’s late-career masterpiece L’Argent a decade before it), The Tower presents a wide array of characters followed by a liberated camera, always ready to swerve or cut to another storyline, character, or interlude. But it’s easy to forget that before Slacker, Austin (now a true hub of production), was a city rarely depicted on film—and much of that film’s joy came in showing us the undiluted quirks and charms of a community familiar yet oddly different. In a word: regionality. And for all the homogenization our country has seen in recent decades, much of the future of film can still be located in that word, as filmmakers show us the architecture, terrain, subcultures, and characters—real or imagined—that make their community singular.

Introducing us to runaway children, a guy who ponders towers, and a weightlifting tattoo artist who knows way too much about how pig feces is ruining the environment—with galvanizing punk-meets-chillwave vibes throughout—filmmakers Philip Rabalais and Auden Lincoln-Vogel hereby launch a one-film “Keep Fairfield, Iowa Weird” campaign. Slacker and Short Cuts are indeed solid points of reference—but throw in a dash of Harmony Korine, Jackass, and regional pearls like Tired Moonlight for good measure, and you’re even closer to the flavor notes that make up The Tower’s complex and delicious palate.