I Think We're Alone Now (USA 2018: Dir Reed Morano)

Cinematographer Reed Morano's first directorial offering was the harrowing Meadowland back in 2015. Its sombre tones find some companionship in her latest film (on which she also offers services behind the camera), a post apocalyptic riff on 'Robinson Crusoe.'

Del (Peter Dinklage), who lives in the library where he used to work, before an unspecified event wiped out most of the human race, is methodical in his daily routine of cleaning out houses for spare (canned) food and equipment, marking the streets off with crosses as he completes his forays. Some lovely touches define his situation - watching a series of laptops that he's acquired which successively die as their power fades for example - and in keeping with his former job his life is devoted to the maintenance of order, like using chopsticks to eat food and drinking his wine out of a glass.

But one evening some fireworks let off in another part of the city alert him to the fact that he's not alone, and the search for his 'Man Friday' leads him to Grace (Elle Fanning) who he first meets passed out in a crashed car. His new found friend's rather hedonistic approach to life is in marked contrast to Del's own - he's happy to stay put, while she plans to see all of the country's landmarks - and his initial instinct is to reject her presence, which is too messy and interferes with his routines. When asked whether he feels isolated, the small in stature Des responds that he felt more lonely in a town full of citizens.

But his 'Man Frida' sees through his apparent difference and a relationship of sorts forms between them, with Grace picking up a dog - later released by Des after it chews some of his precious books - and helping him out on his clean up expeditions (in one moving moment happening upon Des's former home, which clearly evokes too many painful memories for him to countenance living there). "With every piece of trash we pick up there's one less case for chaos in the universe," he explains, warding off the threat of entropy, prompting Grace to respond "has anyone ever told you you're a weird guy?" Des's comeback is one of the film's best lines; "Yeah, but they're all dead now."

But a glimpsed vertical scar on Grace's neck, which she keeps covered from Des, alerts us to the fact that all isn't well, and the sudden arrival of a couple (Charlotte Gainsbourg and Paul Giamatti) who both know Grace and want her to return to the west with them - is a massive shock for Des who thought the pair were all alone in the world. It also triggers a crisis of conscience in him. Does Des follow or remain sequestered in his own existence?

Morano's film is, as you would expect, beautifully shot and exquisitely paced, and Des and Grace are well defined characters despite just a few brushstrokes of descriptive dialogue. The casting is excellent; Dinklage's permanently furrowed brow and solemn expression instantly denotes a depth of thought and melancholy, in contrast with the tall, willowy but equally unhappy Fanning, her girl/woman features perfect for the role.

The film lets itself down slightly with a denouement which is perhaps more The Stepford Wives than it should be, but for the most part this is a satisfying exercise in the pleasure and pain of isolation, and ultimately a plea for the right to be miserable. Really, really good.

The Station Agent (USA 2003: Dir Tom McCarthy)

Here's another of the viewing notes from one of the south London FEAST Film Nights screenings (from 2015, hence slight out of datedness).

Finbar McBride is a lonely soul, a dwarf, gently obsessed by trains, who with his friend Henry runs a model shop in Hoboken, New Jersey. When Henry unexpectedly dies, Finbar learns that he has been bequeathed a small abandoned train station building deep in the country. With nothing left for him in Hoboken, the grieving Finbar ups sticks and moves into the rundown and rather pokey railway hut, building a fragile friendship with a variety of characters: happy go lucky Joe who runs an ice cream van, standing in for his ill father; painter Olivia, who has a sorrow of her own; a young girl called Cleo; and Emily the librarian.

The Station Agent was the first film from director and writer Tom McCarthy (who also produces and acts, the show-off). McCarthy is now more famously known for his latest movie, the riveting and powerful Spotlight (2015), which among other accolades won him ‘Best Picture’ and ‘Best Original Screenplay’ Oscars at the last Academy Awards. It’s tempting to make comparisons between both films – small people against the big bad world, if that doesn’t sound too trite – but in reality The Station Agent is very much a first film, unsure and hesitant, full of uncertain characters mired in their own worlds. This, by the way, is a good thing.

Peter Dinklage, with his sonorous voice and expressive eyes, is now a household name courtesy of the massively popular Game of Thrones TV series. But when The Station Agent was released the film gave the largely unknown actor his first major role. He is absolutely exceptional in this movie. Director of Photography Oliver Bokelberg’s camera spends a lot of time looking at him, as do we the audience. We’re invited to stare at and then move on from Dinklage’s dwarfism. This is because unlike many of the cast’s reactions to his size – shock, screaming, ignoring, staring and in one case taking a photograph – we also spend a lot of time in his company, and understand him first as a human being and second (or maybe third) as a person of small stature. What we never understand is his back story, which contrasts with the lives of Joe and Olivia, who feel comfortable confiding their troubles to Finbar. McBride in truth never invites these confessions – he just wants to live his life and indulge his obsession with trains, ambling among the discarded rolling stock of the New Jersey countryside – and the human cost of any personal interaction is clearly and brilliantly etched on his face.

In a 2003 interview McCarthy drew comparisons between casting a dwarf in a lead role with that of doing the same with a black actor thirty years previously. “Putting the financing together for The Station Agent you had people saying, 'Think about this, people aren't ready to watch a dwarf in the lead role of a movie'. I'd be like 'How do you know that?' A lot of the time I'd be talking to people about the film and, almost as an aside they'd say to me 'I have to say, he's very sexy'. You know, if it was George Clooney, they wouldn't be whispering that to me, they'd just come out and say it. It is almost taboo.”