GFF 2023: The Ordinaries
It doesn't always make total sense, but Sophie Linnenbaum’s The Ordinaries is a zesty and inventive look at a deeply stratified cinematic universe
Film concepts don’t get much higher than German writer-director Sophie Linnenbaum’s zesty allegory Ordinaries. This sparky sci-fi fantasy imagines a world that revolves around a cinematic caste system with three strata. There are society's elites: the main characters. Lower down the pecking order are the supporting characters. At the bottom of the pile, the outtakes, who live in a walled-off ghetto outside the city's limits.
Linnenbaum’s meta-universe is playfully designed, with the main characters living lives that resemble candy-coloured Hollywood musicals, complete with extraneous moments where they burst into song. Our young heroine is Paula, a supporting character with aspirations. She lives in a drab, GDR-style concrete apartment with her supporting character mother, but is training for main character status.
Part of Paula's studies involves mastering her inner score, which is controlled by a heart monitor and swells on the soundtrack at moments of high emotion. But she gets distracted from her studies when research into her father, a famous main character, brings her into contact with a group of rebellious outtakes – including a miscast maid played by a man in drag, a boy who won’t stop jump-cutting and several monochrome misfits – who want to bring down this unjust, tyrannical society.
Sometimes The Ordinaries’ convoluted inner logic doesn’t quite compute. Who is directing this movie world? If outtakes are malfunctions, why are black and white characters included in this subcategory? And the political analogy is often heavy-handed to the point of patronising (at one point, a black-and-white outtake is told to move to the back of a bus). But The Ordinaries' ideas are so playful and the plot zips along at such a breakneck pace you’ll forgive some of its contrivances.
The Ordinaries had its UK premiere at Glasgow Film Festival; scroll on for more from this year's GFF, or listen to the latest episode of The Cineskinny podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts