Flames is a nesting doll of performance art. That should already tell you if this documentary is up your alley.

Directors Josephine Decker and Zefrey Throwell videotape their romantic relationship for five years – the ups, the downs, the sex (the up-down-up-down?) – while also pursuing thought-provoking public displays of art. Decker and Throwell are very open in front of the camera, giving the audience raw insight into their romance and spontaneity. Their art, while interesting for passing onlookers, are only multi-layered for the viewer watching this doc. For example, the filmmakers meet up with fellow artists to play strip poker in a windowed room where people can look in. When Josephine starts showing signs of awkward discomfort from the gawkers outside, this display soon transforms into a piece about voyeurism where she acknowledges the ogling eyes.

The documentary is obnoxious, hyper, and envisioned through an unconventional style, but I still enjoyed Flames because Decker and Throwell are amusing; even when the fly-on-the-wall perspective was a supremely uncovered experience – literally. The problem with Flames is that the film can’t be trusted. The filmmakers overload their doc with so many layers, that it becomes detrimental to their credibility as storytellers. When they openly break the fourth wall and discuss the conception of this movie – and their relationship – as a possible art project, the film had locked me out.

Sure, I could be taking this all too literally. But, I mean, Zefrey is wearing a shirt with Andy Kaufman’s face on it when he’s discussing the documentary with Josephine. C’mon!

– Addison Wylie

Flames.2017.1080p.WEB-DL.h264.AAC.mkv

General
Container:  	Matroska
Runtime: 	1 h 24 min
Size: 	3.08 GiB
Video
Codec: 	h264
Resolution: 	1912x1072 
Aspect ratio:  	16:9
Frame rate: 	23.976 fps
Bit rate: 	5 108 kb/s
BPP: 	0.104
Audio
#1:  	English 2.0ch AAC LC @ 121 kb/s

https://nitro.download/view/487F427DF2AF615/Flames.2017.1080p.WEB-DL.h264.AAC.mkv

Language(s):English
Subtitles:English

The post Zefrey Throwell & Josephine Decker – Flames (2017) first appeared on Cinema of the World.