Bodies, Rest & Motion

Review – Bodies, Rest & Motion is made for people in their mid twenties.  For those post, collegic aged individuals who find themselves standing on the edge of their future looking into the valley of their lives and demanding a question and answer period.

It’s geared for those who realize that their lives may not become all that they had wished. That through rest or motion fates will be decided.  Some will runaway, some cast away, others break away, but there is always a choice.

Eric Stoltz (Mask) produced this little gem in 1993.  It went on to be nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival that year and stands up pretty well to test the values of time.  Eric along with Tim Roth (Reservoir Dogs), Bridget Fonda (Single White Female), and Phoebe Cates (Princess Caribou) tell this quiet yet entertaining look at four twenty-something’s alive, but not really living, in Endfield, Arizona.

Like most independent films Bodies, Rest & Motion relies on its dialogue to tell it’s story.  However, it doesn’t come across as pretentious or as idealistic as many of its sister films have done.  It’s more of a breathing film, a rolling snapshot in time; I found that engaging, as it seems to give the film a lighter touch.  It makes it far easier to recommend.

I admit to enjoying Bodies, Rest & Motion more than the $ amount I’m giving it here.  I really wish I had seen it in 1993, before my adolescence had faded into adulthood, it might have had a different effect on my life and myself.  I doubt it, but I was idealistic enough back then to have appreciated the film in a way that I can’t any longer.  I’m too far along for that now.

Rest or motion, when your 25 and it seems like the disillusion of your future is absolute and an acceptance of reality is inevitable what will you do?

Who will you become?

What can you live with?

-m-