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Kate lyn sheil5/1/2023 In their very first Skype conversation, things appear to be going well. The ying fills in the yang, the yang fills in the ying. On paper, Cody and Virginia are a perfect match, another successful e-copulation born of algorithms and personality profiling. It’s some ChatRoulette/ hybrid where interests are complimented, and people are summed up in bite-sized, infographic widgets. Exactly which medium connects the two starred-crossed lovers isn’t important. It’s how they found each other in the first place. Virginia and Cody live in a world where people, and by extension potential lovers, are available at the press of a button. Would you fall in love in the wild, wild west of romance that is online dating? What if you believe that your betrothed were living in a foreign country only to discover that they are instead a mere stone’s throw away? Would you get jealous? Angry? Violent? Director and writer Zachary Wigon provides his surreptitious take on the ‘romance as app’ generation in what can only be described as a wry, 21st century romantic thriller in the superb The Heart Machine. Though nothing resembling a must-see, A Wonderful Cloud is a exactly the kind of down-the-middle mumblecore fare that gave birth to the subgenre in the first place. Jealousy and childish rage populates his mind and he isn’t ashamed to let it all hang out. Nothing involved is necessarily laugh out loud nor is A Wonderful Cloud a film that will necessarily get you thinking but Kotlyarenko undeniably succeeds in his ability to bear himself – with all his ugly parts, including his unceremonious weiner. What follows is a dry, irreverent dose of laid back comedy and a has-been romance that transforms into a fairly compelling platform for Kotlyarenko and Sheil’s back-and-forths. They interact through and with technology, shooting selfies, skyping half-naked and disappearing into their online identities. Sheil’s trip to Los Angeles is meant to be all business but when she reunites with Kotlyarenko, he desperately tries to impress her with prodigious taco trucks and chic after-hours clubs. Memories of yesteryear may hold value to those having experienced it, but for us uninitiated in the audience, it fails to muster up much excitement. This won’t be the last time that Kotlyarenko reverts to long-lost footage of his and Sheil’s once fling and aside from providing proof that the two in fact copulated years ago, it distracts from the narrative in the here and now. And here on the big screen, its inclusion seems borderline self-absorbed. The raw realism intends to cue us into the unprocessed approach Kotlyarenko pursues but, like watching someone else’s home videos, fails to engage us in their relationship nor communicate any great degree of specificity into their affairs. It’s your average, uneventful but nonetheless preserved ex-GF video. Sheil’s got some more light in her eyes and Kotlyarenko has about an extra Chia Pet’s worth of hair. By kicking it off in this way, we set the foundation that we’re not just random actors going through the motions of being a former couple, but actually have this real history, baggage, chemistry, etc.” Says Kotlyarenko, “It seemed like a perfect way to show the audience that we were once truly young and in love, before introducing them to our present day selves. The fact that Kotlyarenko and co-star Kate Lyn Sheil ( The Heart Machine) both play versions of themselves – a semi-successful up-and-comer in the fashion world and a foot-dragging, clothes-flipping couch potato – and were actually former lovers gives an intriguing edge to Kotlyarenko’s mostly hands-off approach but it’s unfortunately rarely enough to light up the screen.Ī Wonderful Cloud begins with the notably lo-fi footage of a now outdated iPhone crammed in the personal space of a noticeably younger Kotlyarenko and Sheil. The events – like the comedy – are low-key and faintly directional, though are predominantly characterized by an overwhelming essence of a half-committed shrug. Eugene Kotlyarenko sets the cinematic stove to a low-broil in semi-autobiographical A Wonderful Cloud, a lackadaisical, off-kilter romp through a broken relationship in Los Angeles.
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