This quirky homage to silent films and the loose, on the street shooting style that marked the French New Wave takes the simple boy-meets-girl premise and lets its actors have fun with it. Director Tony K Hall and cinematographer Jake Wollner shot their micro-budgeted 60-minute romance in luminous black and white on the streets of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, creating striking visuals of imposing buildings, street fairs and storefronts which add to the atmosphere.
Burly, gentle everyman Guy (Zach McLain) takes his roommate’s advice to stop scrolling for love on his computer and heads to the beach. There, he meets offbeat, kindred spirt Roxie (Amber DeRuyter) who’s also a graphic designer. These two singles share a couples afternoon of strolling, eating cotton candy that turns day-go pink and blue, riding in a hot air balloon, and drinking at the beach tiki bar after which they inexplicably lose one another. Hall uses inter-titles and composer Tony Doubt’s original score mixed with big band standards including a perfectly placed “Stardust,” that highlight the exaggerated, silent-style comic romance. There’s even a spoof “damsel in distress” train tracks moment.
Despite the high tech, mobile phone-obsessed world that both Guy and Roxie are happy to leave behind for a day, they didn’t share contact info and so can’t reunite after their separation. The second half of the film delves into fantasy as sleepless and frantic Guy searches for the woman of his dreams, literally plunging into his computer screen and following a pink-haired Roxie who then magically appears in his apartment adorned, not incidentally, with posters from classic romantic films “In the Mood for Love” and “Casablanca.”
“Lonesome” is a romantic movie for the digital age as the lovers keep missing one another until a satisfying finale that includes a forlorn Roxie warbling a love song as she strolls along the street.
