Invention

How well do we know each other? Is it even possible to know a person “well” nowadays, with our varieties of lifestyles and diversified sources of information? What if it is a family member? A close relative? What happens with us when the mentioned close person dies? Does our perception change? What does the grieving process look like according to that, even though there is no formula for grieving?

Those are the questions the subject/protagonist/co-author of the film Invention has to face. Starring Callie Hernandez, directed by Courtney Stephens and written by both of them, it tells the meta-fictional, mostly true story of Hernandez’s experience of losing her father whom she barely knew outside of his public persona as an eccentric telemarketer. Since the premiere at this year’s Locarno, it has been touring the festivals, including Italy's Lanceono D'oro, spawning a discussion more about its categorisation than about its qualities.

Our heroine Carrie, who is an obvious stand-in for the lead actress and the co-writer, comes to the prosperous town where her estranged father used to reside to claim her inheritance and to liquidate his latest business venture. She is aware that she did not know him that well and that she could not possibly know what he was up to. The father’s business was not booming and he had accumulated a significant amount of debt, but he was clever enough to set up a trust for his daughter and sole heiress. It consists of a house he probably could not have afforded, a patent for a medical device that uses electromagnetic power for healing that is in legal limbo since it is a bona fide patent, but is not approved by the FDA, and a safety deposit box.

That sets her on a mission to try to learn a thing or two about her late father – we get to see him, Hernandez’s actual father, in the snippets of his promotional videos edited into the film material – and his endeavours, which leads her to encounters with more or less eccentric and usually well of townsfolk. With one of them (no other than “the godfather of mumblecore” Joe Swanberg) she has to pray. With another (Sahm McGlynn), she has a casual hook-up followed by her listening to his sad stand-up routine. A neighbour and a patient of her father’s (Lucy Kaminsky) admits that only his device helped her with her illness…

It would be easy to write-off her own father and his buddies simply as weirdos, conspiracy theorists, or at least believers in the New Age bogus science theories about communication through vibration. It would even be possible to attach a diagnosis of paranoia, or some such, to them. But that does not change the bottom line here – that it was her father and that she rightfully loved him and even respected him and his “alternative” ways. And, facing the fact that he was somewhat of a beloved figure in a circle of people, she might even start believing in his genius.

Equally, it would be easy to write-off Invention as a fragmented, disjointed “barely-a-movie” type of experiment, but it would also be highly superficial. Truth to be told, there is a sense that neither Hernandez, nor Stephens, knew where the story would lead them and that the “investigation” does not end with unearthing some huge revelations. But it is a highly introspective and therefore inquisitive personal project, so its free-wheeling and vignette-like approach actually suits them, at least for the pleasant 72 minutes of runtime.

Hernandez, glimpsed in films from Machette Kills to La La Land and from Alien: Romulus to Jethica, carries the role bravely and captivates the viewers’ attention, while the team of supporting cast members coming both from the ranks of professionals and non-professionals blends with the background quite well. The execution on the technical level is also inspired, mainly due to the use of the warm super-16 camerawork by Rafael Palacio Illingworth, the sublime experimental score by the group of people who have seemingly come to a jam session and the perfectly quirky editing moves by Dounia Sichov and the director herself. In the end, Invention passes as a proper little indie with a lot of heart and inspiration.