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Impolex

2009

Impolex tells the story of Tyrone S., a United States soldier in Operation Paperclip, the mission to locate and retrieve German rockets and rocket science after the end of World War II. Tyrone is tasked with finding what he believes are the last V-2’s. Lost in the woods of an undefined European country, people from Tyrone’s past begin to appear in unusual ways, bearing strange tidings. A loved one he abandoned for the war is especially prominent in Tyrone’s journey, as is a fellow soldier and a mysterious man with tidings of the present and the future that are not yet known to Tyrone.

Riley O'Bryan Kate Lyn Sheil Ben Shapiro Bruno Meyrick Jones Roy Berkeley Eugene Mirman Brandon Prince Alex Ross Perry

Theatrical

11 Jun 2009

USA

11 Jun 2009

Theatrical

73 mins More at IMDb TMDb Report this page

Popular reviews

Review by john semley 2

This plays less like an adaptation of Gravity's Rainbow than an adaptation of a mumbled endorsement of Gravity's Rainbow from someone who half-skimmed it. And that's fine. Obviously the point is not to faithfully realize the novel or its concerns in their full narrative and thematic sweep, which would be impossible, but to serve as a sort of tribute to it. Having just finished the book, I can understand this impulse.
Pynchon thoughtfully and critically renders the foreclosure of hope in the modern world, and the absolute inability to combat the massive forces of corporatization and death, and so convincingly advances a theory of opposition by total withdrawal from political and social reality--a withdrawal he has himself made good on.…
Review by Nicholas ★★★ 9

It's quite often a bit too meandering, but ultimately I think this is pretty charming. I like the atmosphere it manages to build up, and I think ARP's talents as a writer are on display here, although definitely in their infancy. It's at its best when characters are talking to each other, because that's when it's engaging and funny. Riley O'Bryan's deadpan performance brings a lot of humor to the table, and I think there are some distinct formal elements at work, too. I love the use of soundtrack, there's also a great moment where O'Bryan provides voice-over during a manic tracking shot. I was feeling a 2.5, but the film ends on a really strong note with an extended conversation sequence that takes place outside of the core narrative that I thought was really excellent and elevated it. It's solid!
Excited to get further into the filmography!
Review by AlexandreFR ★★½

Adapter en 73 minutes un roman de 800 pages de Thomas Pynchon, c'est évidemment un peu ambitieux pour un premier film. Mais ça donne quand même des affaires amusantes, comme un personnage de poulpe qui parle.
Review by Kenji Fujishima ★★★★

This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

I haven't yet gotten around to tackling Thomas Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow yet, admittedly, so a) I'm sure there are a lot of references that flew over my head (at least outside of what I've read in other reviews of this film), and b) I'm not sure how much of its freewheeling, surreal surface to attribute to Pynchon or to writer/producer/editor/director Alex Ross Perry himself; I mean, episodic structure and use of 16mm aside, Impolex feels little like Perry's follow-up The Color Wheel in look and tone. Despite my fear going in that I'd find this impenetrable as a result of my lack of familiarity with Gravity's Rainbow though, I decided to give this a go anyway (I was bored, my…
Review by Brendan Michaels ★★★½ 1

Paul Thomas Anderson and Alex Ross Perry are the best Pynchon-esque filmmakers working right now.
Review by Daniel

I am not made of stone. "Mumblecore Gravity's Rainbow" is an objectively good bit. Surprisingly there is actually more to this basically-a-prank than the simple fact of its existence. Though it's inevitably and purposefully pretty weak as an adaptation it does manage to capture at least some of the hazy cosmic melancholy that is part of why the novel is so unbearably affecting (very little of the paranoia though - lame!). Even if you're just filming there for a gag the forest cannot help but be a place of mystery and poignancy. Does have a certain smug quality that feels very antithetical to Pynchon ("you ain't counterforce" to quote GB). But it's got atmosphere, and it's got laffs, and ultimately, these are what carry the day. Look forward to the Iguano '22 Crying of Lot 49 adaptation, working title "Stamps", which will handily outdo this.
Review by Kurdt ★ 2

First, massive thanks to Luke McCarthy for sending me this.
Second, I feel surprised, disappointed and even upset that I found this so awful. Not only because Luke went through the trouble of getting this to me so I felt impelled to enjoy it, but also because I genuinely thought I would. This is Alex Ross Perry we're talking about, the man behind one of my favourite films ever in The Color Wheel and the amazing Listen Up Phillip. What went wrong? Impolex is nonsensical but it's supposed to be. It's surreal but it's supposed to be. It's meandering and jumbled but again, it's supposed to be. But maybe that's the problem. Perry seems so intent on making the film…
Review by Luke McCarthy 2

MIFF Homework
Alex Ross Perry #1
The humour here is deadpan to the point of abstraction; every character seems to move around in an inhuman daze, half-awake and barely intelligible. Perry commits to the tone though, and what could so easily have come off as formless and indulgent instead feels confident and singular.
Perry also maintains a subtle balance between the film's surface level absurdism, and deep-seated sense of despair; the camera follows our lead character as he treks aimlessly through forest with a claustrophobic intimacy - the music transforms into a discordant drone, and we feel a genuine sense dread.
The plot of the film is so scarcely drawn that at around the mid-point it becomes clear that taking…
Review by Tony (tectactoe) ★½

[29]
Aggravatingly insufferable or insufferably aggravating? Does it even matter? Lowest common denominator indie filmmaking, relishing in aimlessness and aggrandized by willfully paraphrastic writing and a ton of mumbling, meandering, and pointless recirculating; had this been any longer than 73-minutes, I'm not sure I would've made it through. There's a sense of self-appointed guile and cunning absurdity that absolutely reeks from start to finish (I get the sense Alex Ross Perry thinks this is way better than it really is); only one sermon near the latter half even resembles something practical (worthy/heuristic/etc.), but it's still very much a pandering monologue at the end of the day that's wedged uncomfortably into a larger picture that surmises to something far less profound…
Review by evan gordon ★★★ 2

Alex Ross Perry’s debut film is pretty much the epitome of the “guy wandering aimlessly in the woods” genre, but it’s also the only (loose) film adaptation of Thomas Pynchon’s masterwork, Gravity’s Rainbow. I would not recommend it to anyone who isn’t already a fan of Pynchon and/or slow cinema, but there are a few real good nuggets in here if you share my proclivities. Kate Lyn Shiel unsurprisingly delivers a wonderful performance as Katje and homeboy playing Slothrop sounds like he’s got a mouth full of marbles every time he tries to speak.
Review by Alex ★★★ 2

Alex Ross Perry’s Impolex is a complex and flawed interpretation of Thomas Pynchon’s Gravity’s Rainbow, but it is a far more admirable and compelling film adaptation attempt than it seems to be recognized as. Having recently finished the novel, I figured this film would be at the very least interesting, and I was not disappointed.
First, a few words about the novel. (No spoilers here!) Gravity’s Rainbow is a massive undertaking, a novel intending to be hard to understand and amply succeeding in that task. Finishing the novel is probably the greatest achievement of my life so far and the hardest thing I’ve ever done. It’s hilarious, sometimes bringing me to tears. It’s poetic, melancholy, and beautiful in its descriptions.…
Review by 📼R📼 ★★★

Alex Ross Perry's FEAR AND DESIRE
three stars for the talking octopus

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