What do you want from the movies you watch? Do you watch films to gain a deeper understanding of the human condition? Do you treat cinema like it's an art form worthy of dissection and in-depth examination of the deeper ideas and themes? Or are movies just a way to be transported out of your life for a few hours and into the realm of just pure entertainment? Honestly, there is no wrong answer for what you take from film, just as long as you feel like some aspect of your life is enriched by them.
For me, I get all of the above. I love deconstructing the meaning behind movies and really getting into the nuts and bolts of film theory and mise-en-scène, while also reveling in the technical side of filmmaking, spending hours poring over the benefits and issues with certain types of film stock and why a filmmaker would choose one lens over another for a specific scene. But I also love just being transported to another time and place by a story so well told that I have no choice but to follow along wherever it might take me.
"Fremont" is a film that checks all the boxes for me. There are a ton of thematic ideas to contemplate and, on a technical level, the film rewards a deep dive into every gorgeously composed frame, while also telling a lovely story that I was genuinely invested in following to its end. "Fremont" also feels like a true throwback to my favorite period of American independent cinema and the filmmakers that shaped my love of movies on a fundamental level.
"Fremont" tells the story of Donya (played by the mercurial and enigmatic Anaita Wali Zada), an Afghan immigrant living a lonely existence in Fremont, California, while working at a fortune cookie factory in San Francisco. The entire film is built on the sturdy foundation of scenes between Donya and her coworkers, her therapist and the other Afghan immigrants who live in her area.
Ultimately, that's the movie. There are no giant, messy scenes of over-emoting actors and awards-desperate screenwriters trying to Tarantino their way into history. Instead, writer/director Babak Jalali and co-writer Carolina Cavalli have crafted a wryly funny and stealthily moving look at a young woman trying to find her path through life as she struggles to sleep at night because of her guilt for her family she left behind in Afghanistan. All of the drama is quiet and funny and all of the humor is quiet and sad. A tightrope walk, if I've ever seen one.
The gorgeous black and white cinematography also sent me back to the early days of indie pioneer Jim Jarmusch and his "Stranger Than Paradise" (1984) and "Down By Law" (1986), while the line deliveries and sometimes absurdest humor reminded me of the unsung Hal Hartley and his films like "The Unbelievable Truth" (1989) and "Trust" (1990). There are even some notes of early mumblecore that reminded me of Andrew Bujalski's work like "Funny Ha Ha" (2002) and "Computer Chess" (2013). Yet, none of "Fremont" feels derivative; instead, it's almost as if Jalali managed to travel back in time and make a classic '80s indie movie that we've had 40 years to enjoy.
There's an intimacy to "Fremont" that is so rare in film nowadays. When the closing credits strike, you feel like you just spent a few weeks with Donya and the people in her life. You want her to be OK and you think, just maybe, she might be. Aside from just being a charming and lovely film, "Fremont" also manages to be a look at the immigrant experience that's different from any that have come before. If cinema is a machine for empathy, then I can't imagine a better tool for kindness, compassion and humanity than this lovely gem of a film.
