Blue Jay

A two-hander set in a small town. Jim has come back to the town where he grew up to clear out his mother's house. He runs into Amanda at the supermarket. They were together in high school and have not seen each other for twenty years. They go for coffee. Then to the old house. Then they find the cassettes in it and listen to what they recorded as teenagers. The film lasts one day. The narrative is entirely conversation: what they have done, whom they married, where each of them lives. The first half is cheerful. In the second the subject reaches their separation, and it emerges that what the two remember is not the same. It was shot in black and white and the dialogue is largely improvised; the script set only the structure of the scenes. The shoot took a few days with a very small crew. Mark Duplass plays Jim and Sarah Paulson plays Amanda. There is almost nobody else in the film. Alexandre Lehmann directed. A plain and honest example for anyone who likes American independent cinema and two-person storytelling. For a viewer expecting incident, it is entirely conversation and runs a little over an hour.