Wanda: Barbara Loden

I don't know if I've ever admired and enjoyed a film with such terrible audio. I get that Barbara Loden's Wanda was one of the first great indie films in an age when indie films weren't really a thing. And it's a powerful, dreamlike look at lower class alienation and ennui like Jon Jost's superlative Last Chants for a Slow Dance (1977). But I couldn't understand over half the dialogue because the boom mic was too far away from the performers and the audio mixing kept what was picked up drowned out. But I'm willing to accept that maybe my DVD of the film was in bad shape. Anyhow, the film is devastating in its quiet power; it's one of the most powerful cinematic portrayals of a woman beaten down by decades of emotional (maybe even physical?) abuse. Michael Higgins is terrifying as the possessive, mentally unstable petty thief Mr. Dennis, and Loden gives one of the best female performances of the second half of the twentieth century. And that cinematography is perfect: deliciously grainy 16mm projected into 32mm.

9/10