Recensioni de* critic*

[Fremont] is in black-and-white; add the deadpan dialogue and you may be reminded of, say, early Jim Jarmusch. But there’s not a smack of hipness here, and Jalali is not on a quest for cool. Rather, the story is suffused with an uncommon blend of radiance and resignation.

Fremont is a film of such quiet musings... The jokes are drolly amusing, rarely trying to be more than that. The characters are endearing, even if we never get to know them too deeply.

[Fremont] is a droll, low-key charmer that shares some themes with his previous films – there’s a definite kinship with the melancholy immigrant disconnect of Radio Dreams – while also feeling like a significant step up in terms of ambition, reach and commercial potential.

It’s an intimate dramedy that strikes a delicate balance between melancholy and wryness... and while perhaps a little slight in content, Fremont is a stylish, sweet evolution for Jalali, and a poignant reflection on the modern immigrant experience.

[Fremont] is never didactic in its messaging, but neither is the political content cordoned off to the realm of extraneous subtext. And it’s this, the way that Jalali imbues the politics of film’s content into the essential conception and construction of the film, that makes a project that is already quite charming feel consequential, all without ever engaging in self-congratulation.

While there are some tin-eared readings that zap interactions of their momentum, and several recurring scenes, like those with Turkington, play increasingly like a gimmick, Jalali’s directorial eye vivifies and steadies Fremont

[A] coolly deadpan comedy... It takes nothing away from Jalali’s distinctive filmmaking voice to say that the economy and sorrowful humor of Fremont is reminiscent of Aki Kaurismäki and Jim Jarmusch.

[Jalali] presents the action in sharply detailed vignettes, filmed in mainly static black-and-white images, that emphasize both the poignant absurdities of Donya’s situation and the wider conflicts that underlie them. Zada, a journalist in her first movie role, endows her character with pensive depths and a shudder at what they contain.

A lovely, low-budget mood piece with a hypnotically deadpan temperament... The biggest achievement of Jalali here is the precise tone that he strikes with his mild-mannered movie: never cutesy... and always several feet deeper in its themes and deliberations around human isolation than meets the eye.

[The film] conjures a hum-drum hypnosis with its pacing, the way it goes from one slightly revealing interaction to another... "Fremont" finds depth in the seemingly bland, and can make you feel so much for its characters because it has very few open feelings itself.

Nodding to Kaurismäki and Jarmusch’s spare but beautiful and dryly witty tales of isolation, Fremont asks for patience... Gorgeous to watch, with enough sly comedy to maintain levity, Fremont is notable in its decision to be small and intimate.

Crafted with stillness, empathy, and clever drollness, “Fremont” is so striking it will simply and calmly demand your attention. So seemingly introverted, humble, and unassuming, it’ll force you to lean in, listen and heed all the humorous words of wisdom in its many little moments of providence.