''Northern Comfort'' is a 2010 American improvisational film starring Rod Webber and

Greta Gerwig Greta Celeste Gerwig (; born August 4, 1983) is an American actress, screenwriter, and director. She first garnered attention after working on and appearing in several mumblecore films. Between 2006 and 2009, she appeared in a number of films ...

. Shot in three days for three thousand dollars, the film is the second of Webber's films based on a manifesto which has been likened to DIY

Dogme Dogme 95 is a 1995 avant-garde filmmaking movement founded by the Danish directors Lars von Trier and Thomas Vinterberg, who created the "Dogme 95 Manifesto" and the "Vows of Chastity" ( da, kyskhedsløfter). These were rules to create films ba ...

films which use limited equipment and other resources in an attempt to create an atmosphere of realism not present in most traditional schools of film-making. ''

The Boston Globe ''The Boston Globe'' is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes, and has a total circulation of close to 300,000 print and digital subscribers. ''The Boston Glob ...

''’s

Ty Burr Ty Burr (born August 17, 1957) is an American film critic, columnist, and author who currently writes a film and popular culture newsletter "Ty Burr's Watchlist" on Substack. Burr previously served as film critic at ''The Boston Globe'' for two ...

called it "DIY Dogme dedicated to Webber’s guiding maxim: 'The movie already exists, it’s just waiting to be found.’" During an interview for Gerwig's ''Greenberg'' starring

Ben Stiller Benjamin Edward Meara Stiller (born November 30, 1965) is an American actor, comedian, and filmmaker. He is the son of the comedians and actors Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara. Stiller was a member of a group of comedic actors colloquially known ...

(Gerwig's first mainstream movie) she was asked whether she'd be doing more films for $3000 and replied, " aughsMaybe not $3,000 budgets but maybe $50,000 budgets. I'm interested in making low-budget films not for the sake of making low-budget films but because a lot of filmmakers that I want to work with and that I like are working on a smaller scale."

Synopsis

The film tells the story of Horace (Webber) and Cassandra (Gerwig) who meet while traveling to

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

. The pair skirt around their feelings as Gerwig deals with an illness which she's keeping to herself. "Because they’re damaged in similar ways — we learn they’re both the black sheep of their respective families — they make for sweet-and-sour traveling companions, or would if Cassandra didn’t keep disappearing on Horace. The people they meet on the road offer varying object lessons in coping with the disaster of living. A comically mismatched couple at a roadside motel (Joseph James Bellamy and Irina Peligrad) seem ready to seduce our heroes or at least drag them into a discussion of superheroes as modern gods. A hermit (Markus Nechay) offers Horace and Cassandra beds for the night, a musical interlude, and a glimpse of one man’s sad isolation. The closest the movie gets to a statement comes from an older man in a diner (Robert Koch) who locates nirvana in the act of tying flies."

Critique

'' described the film as "a tiny movie that casts a tiny but genuine spell." Paul Ryan of the Weekly Dig draws several comparisons between Webber and big budget director James Cameron saying, "God knows what James Cameron makes his movies for", says filmmaker Rod Webber, continuing " ere are real awkward moments, real distress and very little CGI as the pair bumbles their way through the plot, meets real people along the way, awkwardly waxing philosophy and never mentioning their feelings to each other, while being filmed. All of which makes Webber, decidedly anti-James Cameron."

Reel Fest

Northern Comfort premiered a
Reel Fest
Reel Fest 2 was May 28 to June 2, 2010.

References

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/greenberg/news/1919487/2/greenbergs_greta_gerwig_americas_next_it_girl

External links

* {{Greta Gerwig 2010 films 2010 drama films Films with screenplays by Greta Gerwig American drama films 2010s English-language films 2010s American films