Disorder

In a brief — but incredibly compelling — hour, up-and-coming Chinese director Huang Weikai earns the nickname “documentary’s David Lynch.” Disorder, his mysterious and hypnotic sophomore effort, is a disturbing, lyrical portrait of hell on earth, weaving together a series of striking observational scenes from the streets of Guangzhou, China. Between the chilling, surreal content, creepy, grainy aesthetic and disturbing lack of exposition, Disorder is captivating from start to finish. Fiction filmmakers have been painting dystopian landscapes for decades, often as warning bells for the paranoid masses. The settings are predictable; today’s 2012 was yesterday’s Y2K. Huang Weikai’s vision is startling not just because it’s real but because it’s grounded in the present. —True/False