In Starland

In small-town America, 50-year-old Ernie (Clarence Maclin gives an astonishing performance in his first lead role) lives a quiet and unremarkable life. But his solitary existence is shattered after he encounters a group of twenty something influencers. Finding a place where he finally belongs, Ernie discovers a world of hedonistic pleasure and voyeurism in which every movement he makes begins to blur the boundaries between performance and reality.

As he searches for an identity lost in a mysterious past, fractures begin to appear between his new found friends and the town of which he has been a part of for so long and Ernie begins to wonder the cost of his new found notoriety.

The debut from Pathanaki – whose long history of credits as an actor includes films with Danny Boyle and Bong Joon Ho – is not only a beautiful and emotive character study but also a pointed portrait of the differences between two generations: one whose certainties have disappeared and another for whom absolutes have never existed.

Bold and provocative, “In Starland” is a coming-of-age story mixed with a searing indictment of modern culture and a lament on the death of the American dream.

Laurence Boyce