Vintage Violence is an absurdist crime thriller for phone addicts

Your video player now shows multiple streams of content simultaneously, replicating constant phone usage.

Vintage Violence, a new absurdist crime thriller from director Eugene Kotlyarenko, premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival. The film follows Cole Sprouse as a disgraced influencer who travels to Tokyo to sell vintage Levi's, only to become entangled in a web of scams and yakuza involvement. The movie attempts to replicate the experience of constant phone use by displaying characters' on-screen activities, such as texting and livestreaming, alongside the main narrative. This experimental storytelling can be chaotic but is central to the film's immersive intent. Kotlyarenko previously explored hyper-connected culture in his 2020 film Spree. Vintage Violence currently has no theatrical release date, and a trailer has not yet been released. The review also briefly touches upon two other films seen at the festival: a 4K restoration of Ken Russell's 1971 film The Devils and Marie Kreutzer's drama Gentle Monster.

The film Vintage Violence pushes the boundaries of cinematic narrative by integrating a constant stream of on-screen phone activity, from texts to livestreams, directly into the main visual field. This technique aims to immerse the audience in the hyper-connected, often chaotic digital lives of the characters, challenging traditional linear storytelling. Director Eugene Kotlyarenko, known for exploring similar themes in Spree, doubles down on this concept, creating a potentially disorienting but novel viewing experience that mirrors the multitasking nature of modern digital consumption.

This approach to filmmaking, prioritizing the replication of fragmented digital attention, signals a potential shift in how narrative is perceived and constructed for audiences accustomed to constant digital stimulation. It directly affects how viewers process information within a film, forcing them to engage with multiple visual and textual elements simultaneously. Future trends may explore further integrations of real-time digital interactions, blurring the lines between the film's diegesis and the audience's own digital habits, impacting how films are designed and how audiences consume them.