Reviews

Another Canadian to catch, Jamie Travis, is a stylish Vancouverite whose Patterns series manages to resemble something like a Guy Maddin remake of Pillow Talk.

The world of Jamie Travis’ short movies is one of obsessions, phobias, original settings and costumes, ‘de-psychologized’ characters and songs of soothing sorrow and sentiment. The director takes great pleasure in mixing elements of musical, thriller and melodrama with dream sequences, creating a colorful cocktail that combines true playfulness with real mannerism. He explores childhood trauma, loneliness, and the difference between the child’s and the adult’s perception of the world. In terms of content, his movies fall somewhere between Svankmajer and Lynch, but, unlike them, Travis deals in ‘real’ emotions—love, despair and desire. The clean formality of the composition, the synergy between images and music and the genuine peculiarity of his world make his movies accessible to any pleasure-seeker.

Jamie Travis’ The Saddest Boy in the World joined the conclusion to his Patterns trilogy, Patterns 2 and 3, as part of this year’s Short Cuts Canada programme. Though each is a distinct work, it is the strength of Travis’ signature production design and cinematography that stands out in each, and in The Saddest Boy in the World, Travis’ knack for expression of tone and theme is brought to the fore by the hilarious tale of a lonely boy coming to the end of his tether on his birthday. As moving as it is funny without ever being cutesy, it is as strong a statement of intent as a young filmmaker could ever aspire to create.

Travis was at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2003 (with Why the Anderson Children Didn’t Come to Dinner) and in 2005 with Patterns. This year with Patterns 2 and 3 he completed a challenging trilogy of work, that asks more of the viewer but reveals more of the filmmaker. Lovingly designed and filmed, it illuminates the tropes of film that inspired him. Patterns 3 features an extended song and dance sequence scored by Alfredo Santa Ana. This year’s brightest talent by far, I had the chance to talk to Jamie Travis during the festival . . .

If there’s a star at this year’s festival, it’s probably Jamie Travis, whose Patterns 2 and Patterns 3 complete a trilogy begun at last year’s festival that ultimately depicts—using vibrant color, frequent split-screen action and charming musical fashion—a turbulent relationship. The same attention to production design and eye-popping colour helps to make The Saddest Boy in the World just about the most hilarious representation of childhood depression ever chronicled on film—and the best 13.5 minutes of the entire week.

Patterns is a coloured amphetamine that spreads through your entire body, triggering all of your senses simultaneously, creating an instant addiction. Travis has either seen all the movies in the world and synthesized them in Patterns, or he invented the film as it would have been imagined by a man who had lived on an uninhabited island for 29 years and was subsequently brought back to America.

If Entourage has you hunting for someone to befriend before their career in the film industry takes off, you should consider cozying up to Jamie Travis. After the 27 year old UBC film grad got people talking about him in 2005 with his short Patterns, Travis didn’t rest on his modest laurels. Rather, he made three more shorts, Patterns 2, Patterns 3 and The Saddest Boy in the World . . .

His shorts combine the macabre subject matter of David Lynch and Todd Solondz with the art direction of Wes Anderson. The end result is something that seems wholly original and much more than pastiche . . . Passivity isn’t really an option when watching his films as the mise en scène is handled with the meticulousness of a serial killer and immediately draws you in . . . If Travis can pull off a 90 minute feature that keeps your attention like his 15 minute shorts do, then surely he’ll have his own stable of agents, managers and leeches all hugging it out behind the scenes.

It’s a rare thing to be compared to Wes Anderson and have it be kind of true, but Vancouver filmmaker Jamie Travis has a genuine eye for formalist detail and experimental narratives and his short films have played all over the country this year. His Patterns Trilogy is a wild series of films that blend stylized scenes, music and dark lyrical situations with a perfectionist’s eye for composition.

. . . there is an exhilarating, off-the-wall trio of films by British Columbia filmmaker Jamie Travis. As one of the most original voices in Canadian cinema, Travis contributes Patterns 2 and Patterns 3—the sequels to the fractured love story he screened in Toronto last year—plus the twisted, cruelly funny drama, The Saddest Boy in the World.

The very talented Jamie Travis expands on his amusing hyper-formalist pysch-out Patterns (2005) with a pair of similarly campy-creepy sequels ( Patterns 2 and Patterns 3), transforming what seemed to be a bizarre, lovingly art-decorated one-off into a multi-layered and strangely sweet relationship melodrama.

These are strange and playful films with gorgeous design; utterly hypnotic, and with the song-and-dance sequence of Patterns 3, endlessly quotable. Nigh on unmissable.