Event

Hamilton

In Hamilton, first time director Matt Porterfield limits himself to just watch and listen, allowing for the narration to emerge by its own means. The plot barely covers two summer days in the life of a very young family: Lena and Joe, 17 and 20 years old, who have recently become parents by accident, and live with the rest of their family in the suburbs of Baltimore. Porterfield is not looking to develop the plot, but rather trying to transmit in a sensorial way the peculiarities of that place, those characters, and that social, family structure: a blue collar neighborhood. The film's long sequences with few camera movements and a highly detailed sound vividly capture the hobbies, common dialogues and domestic activities of the characters as well as various situations that would be impossible to analyze through the more conventional perspective of fictional cinema. Nothing dramatic ever happens in Hamilton: we just share the great kindness and charm of the observation.