Slow cinema, which is characterized by long takes and minimalism in everything from plot twists to musical cues, has its critics, who accuse its practitioners of using the style as a ready-made ticket to critical acceptance and festival invitations. Audiences, however, are more likely to fall into a coma.
In her first feature as a director, “In Her Room,” Chihiro Ito creatively reworks the slow cinema template. The film may be without music for its entire running time, save a children’s song that one character sings, but it is also not a fast cure for insomnia.
Scripted by Ito from her own novel, this relationship drama unfolds in a dreamscape that is by turns erotic, bizarre and unsettling. If Room 237 in “The Shining” gave you the heebie-jeebies, you’ll be prepped for the jolts awaiting you in Ito’s Room 101.