DVD Bogus Features: 'Go Swiftly Along'

Bad times and worse places to hash out old hangups.

Official still

Dear Moviegoers,

With all certainty, it’s best to have a structured and well-communicated plan for developing any artistic material, no matter how loose one wants it to feel. In Jason Foster’s latest short film Go Swiftly Along, two actors and one director attempt a DVD commentary of their titular cult classic feature, only to hijack it with not-so-good memories and not-very-light feelings of the movie’s production—memories and feelings that perhaps would be best locked away for another day.

Ironically, it’s the juicy details and constant bickering that a true DVD commentary track is found. One that could very well eclipse the film being discussed and the marks they wish to leave.

Jason plays the ever-so-stressed young filmmaker Benjamin in a bit of very interesting self-casting, playing the director of a fake film while being the director of this real film. Throughout the attempted recording session over a selection of deleted scenes, Benjamin easily loses any semblance of control over its production, over his former actors, and over himself. Throughout their combative conversation, where the softly heard excised scenes of the romance movie are our only visual resource, Benjamin pushes forward in defensiveness and divisiveness, revealing to the audience that he, not the studio or the cast that he blames in equal measure for his poorly received debut film, was the one that made it all fall apart.

Somehow and someway, Go Swiftly Along makes metal out of meta. I mean that from something fluid comes something solid. And from that something solid, comes something special. The layers to this film aren’t as understood on the first watch, where it’ll likely be taken as a fun gimmick for people getting loud at one another. By letting it simmer, the truth comes to the front. Fan expectations, director’s desires, actor’s opinions, the black experience in art, the romantic visual of removed movie sequences over newly created and now ruined material, and more. It’s not complicated, but complex.

Framed as much by its gimmick as a DVD commentary track as it is by the story of independent black creatives at large, Go Swiftly Along’s fifteen-minute or so duration says much about the frustrated attitudes and unfulfilled endeavors of three artists, “swiftly” I might add, with no hesitation and no second-guessing. I didn’t get the impression that the anxieties and hard feelings between themselves and their places in an uncaring industry were based on real and raw events, but rather from their struggles within communities that don’t necessarily foster positive artistic outcomes, whatever they may be. Is metro New Orleans one such community? Maybe there are downsides everywhere.

Like with his In Search of…Pregame, Jason Foster utilizes the unconventional to express the natural. It’s wonderful to witness, in almost real-time, a filmmaker coming into their own, and most brilliantly. His knack for making personal experiences, especially those that he writes, unexpectedly cinematic looks all so effortless and with the self-esteem of a movie veteran.

Go Swiftly Along represents the new feather in the cap of a great Hollywood South filmmaker. It’s a lighter movie than his previous ones, but only on the surface. Listen closely, watch thoroughly, and a bright vision will appear. Well, among the shouting, I mean. 4/5

Go Swiftly Along will play at the Duluth Superior Film Festival on October 5th.

Sincerely Yours in Moviegoing,

⚜️🍿