Glenn here. Each Tuesday bringing you reviews of documentaries from theatres, festivals and on demand.
One of the many benefits of doing this weekly column is not just talking about the sort of documentaries that we may be discussing throughout award season, but also being able to highlight those that deserve haven’t a hope that nonetheless deserve the attention. Such is the case with Jenni Olsen’s The Royal Road, an essay film that trades in experimental and avant-garde traditions as a means to explore deeply personal topics.
Using dry yet curiously hypnotic narration, Olsen swerves between discussing Californian history, a long-distance relationship with a woman named Juliet, classic Hollywood movies, and the effects of nostalgia (the latter of which even features a voice cameo by Tony Kuschner). Her film is a progression of beautifully captured California vistas of San Francisco, Los Angeles, and everywhere in between, filmed on 16mm by cinematographer Sophia Constantinou whose perfectly composed 4:3 ratio images recall the works of James Benning and offer a striking visual component that elevates the film to the status of true art. By using real film and embracing all of the dots and speckles that come with it, Constantinou’s work adopts the history of the worlds she is filming while also embracing Olson’s edict that nostalgia can be good.
On paper it presumably sounds all a bit pretentious. It’s probably true that it is – the film had only a minor release since playing at Sundance in 2015 for likely this very reason. Using the history of Spanish colonization and the missions of Blessed Junipero Serra throughout the El Camino Real, the most important thoroughfare between north and south California but now broken up by freeways, as a backdrop for more autobiographical ruminations about growing up queer might sound like a stretch to a viewer, especially if they aren’t versed in less traditional forms of filmmaking. But by taking such a method with the material, Olsen has crafted something truly unique that is able to get at some truly fascinating ideas.
Growing up in the Midwest as a gender-dysphoric tomboy, watching movies was a cherished relief from the awkward realities of daily life. Emulating the actors in my favorite classic Hollywood films, I happily acquired a new borrowed masculine persona. Experiencing myself as a fictional character has been a mode of survival for me ever since.
Queer audiences, and those with a deep passion for Hollywood – and especially those where the two elements overlap – may get the most out of Olson’s movie, her thoughts on sexual attraction of the unavailable woman a particularly insightful element that will speak to many despite the deeply personal autobiographical nature of the text. Her diversions into Vertigo, Sunset Boulevard, Double Indemnity, and more, a bonus treat. I have not seen Olson’s prior film, The Joy of Life, about her reflections on the Golden Gate Bridge as a suicide monument, but after The Royal Road I am desperately eager to. The Royal Road appears somewhat minor, it’s only 65-minutes after all, but through its collaboration of image and text it creates something altogether special. Something that is entirely personal to Olsen, and yet open enough to see ourselves within it.
Release: Out on DVD and VOD from September 6 via Wolfe Video.