Independent cinema, as I have noted on multiple occasions, only grows exponentially as a movement every year, with budgets getting lower as concepts get higher. One name has always stood out in the modern independent cinema landscape for a number of reasons, Alex Ross Perry. A filmmaker who appears, on the surface, to be just another mumblecore wunderkind has actually proven himself to be one of the most innovative and original voices in contemporary cinema. Amongst his previous films are Impolex, his obscure debut feature that was based on Gravity’s Rainbow, the impenetrable and utterly mesmerizing novel by Thomas Pynchon, the literary bohemian dark comedy Listen Up Philip and the incredible and hypnotizing Queen of Earth, a film that blended the social criticism of John Cassavetes and the raw intensity of Ingmar Bergman. Perry has built a career out of well-formed pastiche to artists who have come before him, and while many of these inspirations are not directly noted, their influence looms very heavily over Perry’s films, proving him to not only be a notable young filmmaker, but rather an essential figure in the current cinematic landscape. In his latest film, Golden Exits, Perry sets his sights on another remarkable, well-constructed piece of social criticism and a film that finds its way into Perry’s already tremendous filmography.

Golden Exits is concerned with looking at the lives and relationships of a small group of related individuals in New York City. The two central figures are Nick (Adam Horowitz) and Naomi (Emily Browning). Nick is an archivist working in a Brooklyn basement, dedicating his life to restoring and appraising documents (or rather, “materials”, as he calls them). To help him in the process, he hires assistants, with the most recent being Naomi, a young woman visiting from Australia. Believing her work with Nick will exclusively require her to be his assistant, she is proven to be both his professional assistant and personal companion, spending many long hours in seclusion with Nick, who is growing frustrated with his cynical wife Alyssa (Chloë Sevigny) and her demanding sister, Gwendolyn (Mary Louise Parker), both of which see Nick as a tremendous failure, as a professional and as a husband. Through very loose connections, the film also looks briefly at the lives of another couple, small-time recording studio executive Buddy (Jason Schwartzman) and his wife, Jess (Analeigh Tipton), who are both extremely unhappy. Jess’ own sister, Sam (Lily Rabe) is Gwendolyn’s assistant, whereas Buddy briefly had a teenage romance with Naomi many years before, and her return to New York City puts him on a journey of self-doubt and regret. Naomi disrupts the bitterly lifeless and mundane lives of a set of individuals, who are forced to reconcile with their own personal demons as a result of her presence, with her youthful essence and her beyond-her-years wisdom confusing these characters into questioning their own existences.

Perry has outlined himself to be one of the most audacious filmmakers in every facet of his career, and he has managed to attract some remarkable talent to his films, and considering that both Listen Up Philip and Queen of Earth were remarkable films that gave some actors some truly memorable work, it is not a surprise that Golden Exits features one of Perry’s most talented ensembles to date. Adam Horowitz, best known as Ad-Rock, a member of The Beastie Boys, finds himself moving away from the defiant hip-hop scene of the 1980s and 1990s and playing, quite surprisingly, a dull archivist living a mundane life. Horowitz is tremendous, creating a character that is inhabited by the spectre of mediocrity, in a constant oscillation between despairing over his past failures, and growing comfortable in his ordinary life. He is joined in many of his scenes by Emily Browning, an actress who once had such a promising career, but has unfortunately not been given the opportunities that I hoped she would. However, Golden Exits gives Browning quite a character to play, a complex young woman who disrupts the life of a group of bourgeois individuals. Almost as unlikable as the rest of the characters, and her charming demeanour conceals a dark and troubled soul. Chloë Sevigny truly is the reigning goddess of complex nihilism, and every word she speaks in this film is so painful in its truthfulness. Mary Louis Parker, who has been sorely under-represented in cinema, is tremendous and may steal the entire film from the rest of the cast. Jason Schwartzman, who I do find incredibly wonderful most of the time, is given a thankless role, a plot device only used to progress the central narrative and be an exemplification of the excessive lives of these characters, but he is still terrific. The cast is absolutely splendid, and everyone plays off each other exceptionally well.

In the most straightforward terms, Golden Exits is a film about life. Taking his cue from various filmmakers, perhaps most notably Éric Rohmer, Perry looks at the trials and tribulations of a set of ordinary Brooklyn residents who are disrupted by the chaotic presence of a young woman. Much like Rohmer, Golden Exits explores the limits of humanity through a frank and sometimes shockingly obtuse exposure of the middle-class nihilism that so many filmmakers attempt to capture but fail to do so with almost relentless incapacity. The cast is populated by unlikable, perhaps even outright despicable, intellectuals who believe themselves to be great thinkers and people of historical note, deluding themselves into the false sense of over-confident zealous arrogance and a hilariously inflated sense of self-importance. I do not believe there is a single character in this film that is admirable in any way, and these character almost approach wretched villainy with their own delusions of grandeur, believing their daily travails allow them to demand sympathy and respect, simply for the fact that their own personal existential crises and inability to come to a meaningful conception of self-identity outside of their proposed status as individuals making them undeniably nasty characters – and unfortunately, extremely truthful representations of people that exist in this world. The stark sense of realism Perry imbues in this film is astonishing, and like Rohmer, Perry doesn’t merely gaze upon the human condition, exposing the minutiae that govern the lives of ordinary people, but rather takes a firm and reckless grasp of society, and viciously tears it apart, exposing the hidden recesses that exist within. Golden Exits follows the same traditions that made Rohmer one of the most distinctive and humane filmmakers to ever live, with a minimalist approach to ordinary moments, through which, the truthfulness of these moments, as well as the society in which these moments occur, are uncomfortably and awkwardly made obvious.

Despite being extremely simple, and being governed with the minimalist approach of direct commentary on society, Golden Exits is anything but dull. It is a delightfully complex and extremely twisted exploration of the human condition, and there is a certain passion pulsating throughout this film. I was left breathless on countless occasions, as this film is brimming with fiery intensity, the likes of which are rarely ever seen so blatantly. It is a brutal investigation of existence, and these characters go far beyond the quirky representation of “normal” people that many similar films try and convey, where they are filled with flaws and their own crises of identity, but are ultimately quirky and adorable characters that are supposed to represent how people are supposed to act, being driven by the belief that ultimately, despite all of our inconsequential foibles and small challenges found in everyday life, we are all naturally good at heart. Perry disregards this concept entirely, as these characters are deeply troubling, not because of how bitterly cynical, immoral and irredeemable they are, but rather because they are so realistic. Golden Exits is a film with a strong philosophical basis, and it constructs itself as a film less about existential crises as it is about existential questions. The ways in which these characters come to terms with their own flaws, their own realisations that they are simply not nearly as extraordinary as they think they are, yet still continuing to see themselves as these grandiose, extraordinary people of note, whereas the audience sees them as they truly are – selfish, pretentious egomaniacs – is brilliant and bleak in equal measure. It goes beyond being a caricature of faux-intellectual society, with all sense of ridicule being overcome by the true hopelessness of the truth this film presents so subversively. Golden Exits, in all honesty, is one of the most harrowing portrayals of reality that I have ever seen, not because of the events that transpire (the likes of which are deliberately mundane), but rather because of its approach to showing the delusions of the human mind. If that does not say something about Alex Ross Perry and his relentless stranglehold over representations of society, then absolutely nothing else will.

However, having considered all of this, at its core, Golden Exits is about one thing in particular: unhappiness. The arrival of Naomi is only unsettling to these characters as her presence disturbs their idyllic existence – and I use the word “idyllic” extremely loosely, referring to the fact that their lives are anything about satisfying, but Naomi provokes the concealed unhappiness that lurks within these characters. History is revisited in uncomfortable forays into the past, and characters find themselves facing their own issues when that deep and harsh realisation that life is fleeting, and that these individuals are choosing to spend what limited time they may have on pursuing meaningless concepts rather than achieving what they desire, if they are even capable of that at all. As one of the characters states in the climax of the film (one of the most intense sequences I’ve ever seen, something that evokes very strong images of the psychologically-overpowering work of Ingmar Bergman), “desire, what a novel concept”. Unhappiness and desire are married in a complex set of interactions within this film, with these characters, all of which are stagnant and selfish, choosing to fall into despair and self-loathing over their perceived inability to achieve what they truly desire (as opposed to whichever hedonistic, meaningless distractions they consider to be what they desire), instead of actually growing as individuals and thus being able to pursue those desires. Perry is clearly not interested in giving these characters even an iota of a redeeming quality, and his decision to keep them as heathens to reality, making them ridiculously deluded and unquestionably flawed characters who refuse to do anything akin to introspection or self-reflection in order to improve themselves, shows his preoccupation with conveying the concept of disappointment, but the type that is not the result of society, but the result of one’s own arrogance. By the time Golden Exits has concluded, the audience is moved considerably, yet very little pity is given to any of these characters. Perry questions the concepts that make us unhappy, but instead of providing motivational solutions or an uplifting exploration of the ways in which we can become happy, he chooses to expose the audience to a band of socially-stunted misfits, too self-centered to address their own failures, rather choosing the path of blaming others and society as a whole, rather than themselves.

Golden Exits is an extraordinary film. Alex Rose Perry has crafted a deft, masterful work of uncompromisingly cruel and sardonic brilliance, the likes of which are rarely ever seen. The cast is absolutely phenomenal, and the complexities of the story are supported by filmmaking that is void of any traditional flair, but utterly stunning in its simplicity, with a haunting piano score and grainy cinematography that makes Golden Exit a remarkable throwback to the low-budget, character-driven independent films of the 1960s and 1970s. Perry is truly one of the most exciting voices in contemporary independent cinema, with his films striking a particularly poignant chord in their relentless, brutal pursuit of honesty and showing the lives of ordinary people in a way that is not pleasant, but also utterly irresistible. It is a gloriously twisted investigation of society and the humans that occupy it, and while it is uncomfortable at times, it is truly a film of extraordinary virtue and unabashed perfection in showing a side of the human condition very rarely shown in such macabre gorgeousness. Truly an incredible cinematic achievement, and further proves Alex Ross Perry as a figure that is going to help redefine modern cinema.