Review: Box Elder | Newcity Film

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There are a lot of slipshod labels out there for strands of contemporary movie practice, which seem set to strangle the films and filmmakers in the figurative crib, but I would like to nominate Todd Sklar’s “Box Elder” for the first exemplar of the one-film “mumblebumstumblecore” movement. Reportedly influenced by Preston Sturges’ “Sullivan’s Travels,” the 24-year-old Sklar’s self-distributed “Box Elder,” is a modest regional effort, a post-“Animal House” cockeyed caravan of collegiate misbehaviors of modest charm and holding strong promise for work to come. It doesn’t hurt that it’s set in the great small city of Columbia, Missouri, a burgeoning hotbed of filmmaking and other artistic pursuits. More, please, soon. Music by Pavement, Beulah, The Modern Lovers and Baltimora. (“Box Elder” is an early Pavement song.) 91m. HD video. Sklar will appear at all screenings. (Ray Pride)

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