Littlerock (2010)

I really liked this sweet independent movie, winner of the Best Film Not Playing at a Theater Near You of the 2010 Gotham Awards, about two young Japanese tourists stranded in the titular town in northern Los Angeles County, near Palmdale. Atsuko and her brother Rintaro are on their way to Manzanar, a real National Historic Site where there was a World War II Japanese internment camp, and their car has broken down in Littlerock. The movie's languid pace matches that of the aimless slackers who live there, and who meet Atsuko (the U is silent) and Rintaro at their motel. Co-written by star Atsuko Okatsuka (her first script and third role, but the other two were shorts) and Carl McLaughlin (his debut) there's plenty of improvisation but a clear plot as Atsuko makes some risky choices despite speaking no English. 

Director/co-writer Mike Ott (winner for this movie of the Independent Spirit Someone to Watch Award) said in an interview (no spoilers) that many of the ideas were Atsuko's and they wanted to make a sort of reverse Lost in Translation (director/writer Sofia Coppola's 2003 movie about Americans in Japan). Rintaro Sawamoto plays Rintaro Sakamoto as mature and impatient, and Cory Zacharia (like many in the cast, he really is from Littlerock) plays Cory Lawler as immature and clueless. Many of the laughs in the movie are from Cory's lines, and I wonder if anyone intended that.

Not many people were at the university for its only screening the night before last week's earthquake/tsunami in Japan, and that's too bad. Ott has only one other feature behind him (his 2006 Cal Arts thesis, Analog Days, which I haven't seen) and I will look forward to his next project. This played one night only, in a double feature with Afterschool (coincidentally two words as one). Not for children, as there is some adult activity and drug use.