Daniel Kremer’s OVERWHELM THE SKY

Overwhelm the Sky, a new 3-hour microbudget mystery-drama shot in gorgeous black-and-white ‘Scope, is by far the best of the three features I have seen by San Francisco-based filmmaker Daniel Kremer (though I liked the other two of his that I’ve seen, namely Raise Your Kids on Seltzer and Ezer Kenegdo, quite a bit). It might even be a masterpiece. The earlier films are loose and wild, but Overwhelm the Sky, even while considerably longer, feels the tightest and shortest. If anything, this is one instance when a long movie could have stood being even longer (in particular, I would have loved seeing more of the intriguing character played by Alanna Blair). The shaggy-dog plot involves a radio talk-show host being sent down a series of Existential rabbit holes after the murder of a friend whose body is discovered in Golden Gate Park. The ambitious Kremer has long been working in undeserved obscurity at the relative fringes of the indie film scene — he is currently working on his eighth feature-length film — but I’m hoping that Overwhelm the Sky, which recently had its World Premiere at the San Francisco Independent Film Festival, is a game-changer for him.

The filmmaking is so confident in Overwhelm the Sky that it’s astonishing: The paranoid atmosphere and discordant orchestral score put me in the mind of early Jacques Rivette, but the formal control, perfectly calibrated camera movements, always surprising but ineffably right compositions, and precision of the cutting, put me in the mind of (believe it or not) Paul Thomas Anderson. There were parts where I had no clue what was going on on a narrative level, but I didn’t really care because I was so caught up in how masterful the filmmaking was, and therefore felt I was in good enough storytelling hands that I trusted I could just wallow in the mystery of it all. It feels like the kind of film that will reveal more of its mysteries with subsequent viewings, but probably also isn’t a puzzle with one ultimate “solution.” It also features the best acting of any of the three films of Kremer’s that I’ve seen. Whereas it seems he works a great deal with improvisation in his films, this one feels more scripted (yet I recently learned that his same improvisatory methods were used).

There is currently no theatrical release scheduled for Overwhelm the Sky in Chicago but I hope it turns up on a big screen locally soon. It would be an ideal fit for Facets, Chicago Filmmakers or the Nightingale.