Mesmerized by the Performances
by Patrick Preziosi | Slant Magazine | August 15, 2022
As American indie cinema continues to make startlingly popular in-roads into extremely suffocating subjectivity—as evinced by the success of the Safdies’ Good Time and Uncut Gems, as well as the critical attention paid toward Eliza Hittman—it’s important to uphold the foundational impact of Lodge Kerrigan’s four films. The last decade and change has seen the director lending his talents to television, most notably The Girlfriend Experience, and, now, ahead of the release of the 4K restoration of his 2004 film Keane, it’s as good a time as any to reacquaint oneself with the singular potency of Kerrigan’s artistry.
Even after the visceral puzzlebox journey of 1993’s Clean, Shaven and the unnerving stateliness of 1998’s Claire Dolan, Keane still has a sideswiping power, which proved Kerrigan not to be some nominal provocateur, but a true disciple of some of the most penetrating of American directors of the back half of the 20th century, from Frederick Wiseman to John Cassavetes. As the eponymous William Keane, Damian Lewis ably registers both insurmountable grief and a more subtle mental imbalance: Perpetually searching for his missing daughter in and around the Port Authority Bus Terminal, where she was abducted some months earlier, Keane is a man reasonably drowning in obsession and paranoia, compounding his personal, stalled-out investigation with drugs and alcohol.
Continue reading Interview: Lodge Kerrigan on Remastering Keane, Rehearsing on Location and More