Posted By Steve Harcourt on September 11, 2013

Very much made from an Indie frame of mind, Some Days Are Better Than Others is to a certain extent exactly what you’d expect it to be. To debuting director Matt McCormick’s credit, it is also a lot more.

Centering on the lives of three characters, ‘Katrina’ (Carrie Brownstein), a worker in a dog shelter, ‘Eli’ (James Mercer), a slacker, and ‘Camille’ (Renee Roman Nose), a thrift store worker, this film examines their daily activities and interactions, laying them out for all to pick through, much like the clothing at the thrift store. ‘Katrina’ is obsessed with reality TV shows, is desperate to find her place on a show, and compiles video diaries detailing almost her every thought. By day, she works at a shelter for abandoned dogs, and in some ways feels as abandoned as them. ‘Eli’ is almost the poster child for modern disaffected slackers and could be characterised as being allergic to work, using a moral objection to corporations as an excuse. With a vague plan to return to school, he survives generally on temp jobs, but is mostly drifting. The third main character, ‘Camille’, is a socially awkward woman working in the sorting section of a thrift store, whose life consists mainly of work and then lonely solitude in her apartment. Other characters drift through the narrative, such as ‘Chloe’ (Erin McGarry), ‘Eli’s roommate ‘Otis’ (David Wodehouse), ‘Eli’s step-grandfather, and tangentially ‘Bryan’ (Joe Von Appen), ‘Katrina’s ex-boyfriend.

Throughout the film, which has a slow meandering pace, we get to see each of their lives unfold and see how each of them struggles with the day to day problems they face. Each of them profoundly feels disconnected, like human detritus in the wake of an uncaring world, separated from the love and positivity they each crave. ‘Katrina’ discovers that the boyfriend she was devoted to has been cheating on her and she feels a deep sense of betrayal, as well as heartbreak, sending her into a depression that makes her see a potential reality TV job as an escape from her own life and the chance to reinvent herself.  In contrast, ‘Eli’ is yet to find love and is frustrated at not finding the right person, especially as he has feelings for ‘Chloe’, his lesbian roommate.  ‘Camille’ is even more cut off with no significant human connections. So, when an urn containing a child’s ashes comes into the thrift store, she begins fixating on making sure the ashes are taken care of and not just abandoned.

Each of these characters feels a deep sense of loneliness and of being left behind as they struggle through the monotony of their existence.  All around them, people seem to be succeeding or living fulfilling lives, but either of those goals seem beyond them.  In all parts of their lives they have a lack of direction and they feel resentment at the bleakness before them.

There are numerous themes running through the film and this sense of people as discarded items not worth bothering with is strong.  As they go through the motions, the small pleasures they do get and their efforts to keep going almost seem like a simulacrum of ‘real life’, or at least how some may envisage real life to be.  The film does an excellent job of portraying the hopelessness of their situations. To a large extent, this is a very depressing film, but I think that is part of its charm, as it does give you things to think about as it sinks into the mire of their lives.  Each of us has our own struggles, but sometimes it is easier to see the common threads of an uncaring society through someone elses eyes.

Potentially, the film could be criticised for not having a particularly strong narrative and it does wander along without a strict story driving it forward.  It is also true that the three lives only interact very slightly, with the end of the film not really connecting them fully, but I don’t see this as a major problem though and to a degree think that this is what life is like, so there is a point to such an end.  There is also not that much depth to many of the characters or situations, but like the interconnectivity, it may well be the intention to reflect the shallowness of our own lives.

The characters are very well played by the cast, especially Brownstein and Mercer, who were both known as musicians first. Brownstein with ‘Sleater-Kinney’ and Mercer with ‘The Shins’.  Brownstein has made strides into the acting world since with Portlandia (alongside Fred Armisen), but from this you can see she was doing great work even before then.  The supporting cast has some good turns, with David Wodehouse providing the wonderful character of ‘Otis’, an old man obsessed with creating films from soap bubbles. There’s even a small part for Brownstein’s old bandmate from ‘Sleater-Kinney’, Corin Tucker.

Overall, this is a very slow moving, depressing piece about the monotony and sadness of everyday lives, but within that there are many things to both enjoy and to think about.  It doesn’t hit all that many highs or lows, with very much a linear feel, but is an interesting debut from Matt McCormick.

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Categories: Movies, Reviews
Tags: Carrie Brownstein, Corin Tucker, David Wodehouse, Depressing Film, desperation, Erin McGarry, heartbreak, James Mercer, Joe Von Appen, loneliness, Matt McCormick, Oregon, Portland, Renee Roman Nose, resentment, sadness, Sleater Kinney, Some Days Are Better Than Others, The Shins