After debating whether to catch a late Tuesday night show at the Los Angeles Film Festival or just hit the sack early and catch more movies the day after, I finally decided to watch writer-director Mike Ott’s Analog Days, which revolves around a group of aimless twenty-somethings stuck in the dredges of Southern California – Newhall, to be exact, a right-wing desert town full of racists, homophobes, and assorted low-lives.
That may sound like a depressing time at the movies, except that Analog Days is anything but. Instead, Ott’s intelligent, funny, and quite moving feature-film debut presents an incisive but compassionate portrayal of young men and women who – rightly – feel that life is passing them by.
Although this low-budget film needs some sound work – I missed several bits of dialogue that made the narrative a tad confusing at times – and Ott’s camera set-ups are a little clunky here and there, Analog Days feels more real than a good many youth films out there. Particularly impressive is the director’s handling of his young and mostly inexperienced cast. The film’s five principals – Brett L. Tinnes, Granger Green, Ivy Khan, Ryan Johnsen, and Chad Cunningham – deliver remarkably naturalistic performances. And for once, here’s a youth film with a soundtrack that sounds as hip as it’s supposed to.
By the way, at the Q&A Mike Ott said that it’s unlikely that Analog Days will be screened in Newhall.