Ripples of angst and anguish, of miffed expectations of oneself, of stasis and change, of prevailing alienation, and of cultural misunderstanding rip through this impressionist fable, leaving behind a jumbled pile of thoughts with undeniable meaning and ringing with warranted vitriol. Riches’ shots are as much at art and pedigree as they are of high-rise heiresses and textbook narcissism. Some land better than others. More often than not, it’s his take on Miami that shines brightest.
A city that’s the modern day American equivalent of the Tower of Babel, the beach town setting is a breeding ground for multilingualism and yet everyone speaks a different language – both linguistically and emotionally. Strongman Beef is an island orbited by Conan and eventually Illi (Ashley Burch) and you feel his pain ripple from the screen, even when he’s not narrating his wandering stream of consciousness in his oh-so-much-more-elegant native tongue.
An emotionally resonant win for faux-cinéma vérité (with a surprise cameo from nerd prince Freddie Wong), The Strongest Man becomes occasionally untacked by amateur bits of visual collage work, the result of a first time DP throwing in the kitchen sink. But while slacking on the strongest cinematography, it excels on the quirky existential mood lighting that Riches is able to produce scene for scene. Don’t be mistaken, the weird, quirky and surrealistic vision quest that is The Strongest Man marks Riches as a talent to look out for down the line, once his technical marksmanship catches up with his creative core.
C+
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