Commentary: Stuck Between Stations

Stuck Between Stations debuted this Friday evening at the TriBeCa film festival to an excited and receptive audience. Beautifully shot on RED cameras, the film is a nostalgic look at the transition between childhood and adulthood presented through the lives of two long-lost childhood “friends”.  After running into one another at a bar under somewhat unusual circumstances, Becky and Casper spend the night adventuring through Minneapolis, and talking. Their first conversation is stilted and childish. Becky does not recognize Casper when they see one another in the bar. Casper is elated to find the girl he idolized as a boy standing before him, but defensive in her overwhelming presence. One unlikely circumstance after another leads them into a night of wandering and talking: a circus party with acrobats (a cameo by Josh Hartnett gives them entre to this), a drop by performance in a bizarre public access television show, and an act of impromptu thievery. Watching Becky and Casper interact is much like watching seventh graders at a co-ed dance. Neither one is self possessed or confident. Like children, they verbally jab at one another, as they simultaneously hope for affection, comfort, and understanding. Though the film is gorgeously shot, its talk-centric plot is thin, and lacks the depth necessary to carry a film that is almost purely dialogue. At only one moment, does the dialogue turn away from the trite and into potentially interesting territory. Becky recounts a story that is shockingly painful and bodes further exploration. Unfortunately, her revelation is quickly introduced, then swept aside for more “talk”.  After this one potentially transcendent moment, Becky and Casper’s conversation swings right back to banality land, and ends there, wavering in between childhood and adulthood, much like its characters – bodily full grown, but spiritually unformed.