GAZER Trailer (2025) Ariella Mastroianni

GAZER Trailer (2025) Ariella Mastroianni

GAZER Trailer (2025) Ariella Mastroianni, Thriller
© 2025 - Metrograph Pictures

"Focus. What do you see?" NYC's Metrograph Pictures has revealed the official trailer for an indie mystery thriller titled Gazer, marking the feature directorial debut of filmmaker Ryan J. Sloan. Now set for release in February 2025 in limited theaters if anyone's intrigued. This very grainy, old school, lo-fi thriller follows a young mother who, due to a unique condition that progressively affects her perception of time, is trying to save money for her daughter’s future before it's too late. Ariella Mastroianni stars as Frankie, a young mother with dyschronometria, who struggles to perceive time but is also a keen observer. She uses cassette tapes for guidance on a daily basis. She takes a risky job from a mysterious woman with a dark past, which leads her to become entangled in a tense web of revenge, deceit, and murder... The film stars Mastroianni with Marcia Debonis, Renee Gagner, Jack Alberts, and Tommy Kang. I watched this one in Cannes and did not care for it at all. Nothing interesting or unique about it, so dull, but that is just my own opinion.

Here's the official trailer (+ poster) for Ryan J. Sloan's film Gazer, direct from YouTube:

Gazer Film

Gazer Poster

Afflicted with a rare, fatal condition that affects her ability to perceive time & causes sudden blackouts, single mother Frankie Rhodes (starring Ariella Mastroianni) relies on self-recorded cassette tapes to help her navigate the world. Desperate to make ends meet while she fights for custody of her young daughter, she accepts a risky but high-paying job from a mysterious woman, drawing her into a world of paranoid conspiracies that threatens to swallow her whole. Gazer is directed by American indie filmmaker Ryan J. Sloan, making his feature directorial debut after a few other shorts previously. The screenplay is by Ryan J. Sloan and Ariella Mastroianni. It's also produced by Ryan J. Sloan and Ariella Mastroianni. This initially premiered at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival in the Directors' Fortnight sidebar earlier this year. Metrograph Picturs will debut Sloan's Gazer in select US theaters starting February 21st, 2025 coming soon. Curious?
Check out the trailer for 'Gazer,' out Feb. 21, 2025, starring Ariella Mastroianni, Marcia Debonis, Renee Gagner, Jack Alberts, and Tommy Kang, from Metrograph Pictures.

Gazer follows a young mother (co-writer Ariella Mastroianni) who, due to a unique condition that progressively affects her perception of time, is trying to save money for her daughter’s future before it’s too late. She takes a risky job from a mysterious woman with a dark past, which leads her to become entangled in a tense web of revenge, deceit, and murder.

Gazer is Sloan’s debut feature. The film was shot on a shoestring budget over weekends in the spring and fall for two years while Sloan worked as an electrician and Mastroianni in film programming in New York. Shot on 16mm, and co-written by its magnetic lead actress, Gazer is not only a fresh perspective on the legendary paranoia thrillers of the 70s and 80s, but also a masterful tribute to, and bold reinvention of, the work of many great cinema artists over several generations.
When you watch a lot of trailers, like we do, they all tend to blend together. Very rarely does one stand out as something unique and interesting. Today, that happened with the trailer for “Gazer.”

READ MORE: The 100 Most Anticipated Films Of 2025

As seen in the trailer, “Gazer” is a film that follows a young mother with a unique condition that prevents her from perceiving time normally. And after she takes a job from a mysterious woman, she finds herself in the middle of a big mess. But the trailer takes this story and frames it as a second-coming of a film like “Memento.” It looks dark, dangerous, and subversive. Frankly, it just looks more interesting than most of the other stuff that is out there.

READ MORE: The 20 Best Films Of 2024

The film stars Ariella Mastroianni, Marcia Debonis, Renee Gagner, Jack Alberts, and Tommy Kang. Mastroianni is not only the star of the film, she is also the co-writer, alongside the director Ryan J. Sloan.

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“Gazer” opens in theaters on February 21, 2025. You can watch the trailer below.

Here’s the synopsis:

Gazer follows a young mother (co-writer Ariella Mastroianni) who, due to a unique condition that progressively affects her perception of time, is trying to save money for her daughter’s future before it’s too late. She takes a risky job from a mysterious woman with a dark past, which leads her to become entangled in a tense web of revenge, deceit, and murder.
The tension within Ryan J. Sloan‘s indie directorial debut “Gazer” is almost unparalleled: Of course the IndieWire review pointed to comparisons between Martin Scorsese, David Cronenberg, Brian De Palma, and Christopher Nolan when it came to decoding just how thrilling the feature is.

“Gazer,” which was among our favorite movies at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival, premiered during the Cannes Directors’ Fortnight. Metrograph Pictures later acquired the North American rights to the neo-noir heist thriller, with Head of Metrograph Pictures David Laub saying in a press statement just how much writer/director Sloan’s vision echoes cinema history.

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“‘Gazer’ is a movie born of cinema and those who love it,” Laub said, deeming the feature “a brilliant homage to the unforgettable New York thrillers of the 1970s and 1980s.”

Well, we couldn’t agree more. Sloan, who co-wrote the film with breakout lead star Ariella Mastroianni, filmed “Gazer” over weekends across two years while working as an electrician. Shot on 16mm, “Gazer” was produced by both Sloan and Mastroianni, with Bruce Wemple, Mason Dwinell, Mitchell Cetuk, and Matheus Bastos co-producing. Sean Glass, Emily Korteweg, and Jillian Iscaro executive produced.

The official synopsis reads: “‘Gazer’ follows a young mother (Mastroianni) who, due to a unique condition that progressively affects her perception of time, is trying to save money for her daughter’s future before it’s too late. She takes a risky job from a mysterious woman with a dark past, which leads her to become entangled in a tense web of revenge, deceit, and murder.” Marcia Debonis, Renee Gagner, Jack Alberts, and Tommy Kang also star.

Sloan and Mastroianni began writing “Gazer” during the pandemic, after Mastroianni was furloughed from her job on the programming team at the Angelika Film Center. Sloan was working as an electrician in a prison. “It was a dark and uncertain time,” Sloan and Mastroianni told IndieWire. “The paranoia we felt shaped our desire to make a film like this. We started by watching a lot of noir. Revisiting films like Carol Reed’s ‘The Third Man’ and Roman Polanski’s ‘Chinatown’ lit a fire in us.”

“Gazer” started as an ode to “Blow Up,” “The Conversation,” “Vertigo,” “Memento,” “Blow Out,” and “Burning,” as the duo explained. Each feature “explored the fragility of perception and the consequences of unchecked curiosity,” they said, as the narratives for the respective films followed the “spiral structure” of returning to a single event or memory repeatedly. “We always say this film is a redemption story derailed by a revenge story,” the filmmakers said.

“Gazer” was entirely self-financed and self-produced. “Most of the actors came from Ariella’s acting classes and the locations came from my clients in the electrical business,” Sloan said. “It was a true community effort. We owe our friends and family and friends of family a lot for their support. We knew no one in the industry was going to give us an invitation, so we didn’t wait for one. I guess we were greenlit by pure recklessness, passion, and naivety.”

Co-writer Mastroianni also was set to star in the feature. “I wanted a challenge and to give myself the opportunity to play, stretch, and explore,” she said. “[My character] Frankie is so different from me. I’ve never approached a character like this before because there were two distinct parts of the process: discovering her on the page with Ryan and then putting her in my body. It was such an important learning experience because we had done so much work on her character as writers that when we finished writing I felt like I knew everything about her. And then, when I started to develop her physicality and her emotional life in my body, I realized there was still so much to discover.”

And the filmmaking duo had a goal of premiering at the Director’s Fortnight, despite not knowing anyone at Cannes. “We didn’t have any team, any producing partners, or any financiers,” Sloan said. “We didn’t have a cousin who knew someone who knew someone. We had nobody to vouch for us. The programming team, led by Julien Rejl, watched the film and connected to it. We learned after our selection how much care and attention each of the committee members pays to every film submitted. They watch everything. That was really refreshing to hear. I think we are still processing that experience.”

He continued, “To say that we premiered our first film at Cannes alongside our heroes like Paul Schrader, David Cronenberg, and Francis Ford Coppola, who all had films that premiered this year, is surreal. And to share that experience with our small but mighty crew, our friends, our family, who did so much to support our vision, is the greatest memory.”

“Gazer” will arrive in theaters on Friday, February 21. Check out the film’s first trailer, an IndieWire exclusive, below.
Film
Titel Gazer
Produktionsland USA
Originalsprache Englisch
Erscheinungsjahr 2024
Länge 114 Minuten
Stab
Regie Ryan J. Sloan
Drehbuch Ryan J. Sloan, Ariella Mastroianni
Produktion Ryan J. Sloan, Ariella Mastroianni
Musik Steve Matthew Carter
Kamera Matheus Bastos
Schnitt Ryan J. Sloan, Jordan Toussaint
Besetzung
Ariella Mastroianni: Frankie Rhodes
Renee Gagner: Paige Foster
Jack Alberts: Henry Foster
Marcia DeBonis: Brenda
Marianne Goodell: Diane Rhodes
Tommy Kang: Detective Gale Chong
Emma Pearson: Cynthia Rhodes
Grant Schumacher: Roger Rhodes
Gazer ist ein Mystery-Thriller und Neo-Noir von Ryan J. Sloan. Der Film feierte im Mai 2024 bei den Internationalen Filmfestspielen in Cannes seine Premiere, wo Sloan für die Caméra d’Or nominiert war. Im Februar 2025 soll er in die US-Kinos kommen. In Gazer spielt Ariella Mastroianni, die gemeinsam mit Sloan auch das Drehbuch schrieb, in der Hauptrolle eine Frau, die unter einer fortschreitenden neurologischen Krankheit leidet, durch die ihr Zeitgefühl gestört ist.

Inhaltsverzeichnis
1 Handlung
2 Produktion
3 Rezeption
3.1 Kritiken
3.2 Auszeichnungen
4 Weblinks
5 Einzelnachweise
Handlung
Frankie Rhodes lebt am Stadtrand von Newark. Sie leidet unter einer fortschreitenden neurologischen Krankheit, die dazu führt, dass sie das Zeitgefühl verliert und regelmäßig Blackouts erlebt. Um ihren Zustand in Schach zu halten, verbringt sie fast jede wache Minute damit, von ihr aufgenommene Kassetten zu hören. Ihre siebenjährige Tochter ist derzeit in Obhut bei der Mutter ihres Ehemanns, der sich vor kurzem das Leben genommen hat.

Bei einem Treffen ihrer Selbsthilfegruppe lernt sie Paige Foster kennen. Einige Tagen zuvor hatte sie beobachtet, wie diese von einem Mann zusammengeschlagen wurde. Paige macht Frankie ein Angebot. Wenn sie ihr hilft, ihr Auto von ihrem gewalttätigen Bruder Henry zurückzustehlen, zahlt sie ihr 3.000 Dollar. Frankie hat gerade ihren Job an einer Tankstelle verloren und könnte das Geld gut gebrauchen. Die Ausführung gestaltet sich angesichts von Frankies gesundheitlichem Zustand jedoch schwierig.[1][2]

Produktion

Regisseur Ryan J. Sloan und seine Haupt­dar­stellerin Ariella Mastroianni im Mai 2024 in Cannes
Regie führte Ryan J. Sloan, der mit Gazer sein Spielfilmdebüt gab.[3] Gemeinsam mit Hauptdarstellerin Ariella Mastroianni, die in Gazer Frankie Rhodes spielt, schrieb er auch das Drehbuch. Sie war zuletzt in den Filmen The Tomorrow Job und Island Escape von Bruce Wemple zu sehen. Renee Gagner spielt Paige und Jack Alberts deren Bruder Henry.[4] Weitere Rollen wurden mit Luis Arroyo Jr., Jarrett Austin Brown, Mitchell Cetuk und Jeremy Cohen besetzt.

Die Dreharbeiten fanden auf den Straßen im Essex County in New Jersey statt.[5] Kameramann Matheus Bastos drehte Gazer auf 16-mm-Film.[6]

Die Filmmusik komponierte Steve Matthew Carter.

Die Premiere von Gazer erfolgte am 22. Mai 2024 bei den Internationalen Filmfestspielen in Cannes, wo der Film in der Quinzaine des cíneastes gezeigt wurde. Im Nachgang sicherte sich Metrograph Pictures die Rechte am Film für Nordamerika.[7] Im Juli 2024 wurde der Film beim Neuchâtel International Fantastic Film Festival gezeigt und im September 2024 beim Festival des amerikanischen Films in Deauville.[8][9] Im September 2024 wurde er beim Fantastic Fest und Anfang Oktober 2024 beim Sitges Film Festival vorgestellt[10][11] und hiernach beim Woodstock Film Festival, beim Hamptons International Film Festival und beim Montclair Film Festival.[12][13][14] Im November 2024 wurde Gazer beim Internationalen Filmfestival Mannheim-Heidelberg gezeigt.[15] Im Januar 2025 wird der Film beim Göteborg International Film Festival vorgestellt.[16] Am 21. Februar 2025 soll er in ausgewählte US-Kinos kommen.[17]

Rezeption
Kritiken
Von den bei Rotten Tomatoes aufgeführten Kritiken sind 91 Prozent positiv.[18]

Simon Eberhard schreibt in seiner Kritik für outnow.ch, mit Gazer präsentiere Ryan J. Sloan ein atmosphärisch dichtes Regiedebüt. Hauptdarstellerin Ariella Mastroianni überzeuge in dem Thriller als junge Mutter mit einem tückischen Leiden. Zwar sei die vertrackte Story nicht immer über alle Zweifel erhaben, doch lohne es sich, für zwei Stunden in diese Welt der durcheinandergebrachten Zeit einzutauchen. Das Setting erinnere ein wenig an Memento von Christopher Nolan. Wie in diesem Film setze auch Gazer eine Krankheit bewusst als Spannung erzeugendes Stilmittel ein.[2]

Catherine Bray schreibt in ihrer Kritik für Variety, Mastroianni sei mit ihren hohen Wangenknochen und ihren großen Augen perfekt für die Rolle und spiele Frankie mit einer Mischung aus Härte und Zerbrechlichkeit. Sie erinnert Bray an Renée Falconetti als Märtyrerin Jeanne d’Arc in dem Film Die Passion der Jungfrau von Orléans, und Frankie könnte ihre moderne Inkarnation in New Jersey sein. Auch bemerkt sie, das 16-mm-Format sei die richtige Wahl gewesen, da diese Körnung dem Film eine Brücke zum Film noir baue, auch wenn in Gazer Elemente des Genres wie sexuelle Intrigen nicht besonders präsent sind.[19]

Auszeichnungen
Brooklyn Horror Film Festival 2024

Auszeichnung für das Beste Drehbuch in der Sektion Head Trip (Ariella Mastroianni und Ryan J. Sloan)[20]
Festival des amerikanischen Films Deauville 2024

Nominierung im Wettbewerb[9]
Hamptons International Film Festival 2024

Nominierung im Spielfilmwettbewerb[21]
Internationale Filmfestspiele von Cannes 2024

Nominierung in der Reihe Quinzaine des cinéastes (Ryan J. Sloan)
Nominierung für die Caméra d’Or (Ryan J. Sloan)
Montclair Film Festival 2024

Nominierung im Future/Now Competition für den Mark Urman Award[14]
Sitges Film Festival 2024

Nominierung im Wettbewerb[11]
Weblinks
Commons: Gazer – Sammlung von Bildern, Videos und Audiodateien
Gazer bei IMDb
Gazer im Programm der Quinzaine des cíneastes der Internationalen Filmfestspiele von Cannes (englisch)
Einzelnachweise
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-reviews/gazer-review-ryan-sloan-1235900814/
Simon Eberhard: Filmkritik: Keine Zeit. In: outnow.ch, 24. Mai 2024.
Jamie Lang und Elsa Keslassy: How 'Gazer', a Self-Financed Thriller from Amateur Filmmakers, Made It Into This Year’s Directors’ Fortnight. In: Variety, 16. Mai 2024.
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-reviews/gazer-review-ryan-sloan-1235900814/
Gazer. In: montclairfilm.org. Abgerufen am 29. November 2024.
https://variety.com/2024/film/reviews/gazer-review-1236160854/
Brian Welk: Metrograph Pictures Acquires Neo-Noir 'Gazer' Out of Cannes’ Director’s Fortnight. In: indiewire.com, 29. Mai 2024.
Gazer. In: nifff.ch. Abgerufen am 21. Juni 2024.
Gazer. In: festival-deauville.com. Abgerufen am 16. September 2024.
https://fantasticfest24.eventive.org/schedule/66cfc89c908740004850cadc
Sitges2024 Completes its Constellation of the World's Best Fantastic Genre. In: sitgesfilmfestival.com, 10. September 2024.
Matthew Carey: 25th Woodstock Film Festival Announces Lineup Featuring 'Anora', 'Blitz', Paul Shrader Tribute, 'The Bibi Files', World, U.S. Premieres & More. In: deadline.com, 16. September 2024.
Samantha Bergeson: Hamptons International Film Festival 2024 Announces New York Premieres of 'Conclave', 'Bird', and 'The End'. In: indiewire.com, 12. September 2024.
Full Lineup Announced for the 2024 Montclair Film Festival. In: awardsradar.com, 27. September 2024.
Gazer. In: iffmh.de. Abgerufen am 19. Oktober 2024.
Gazer. In: goteborgfilmfestival.se. Abgerufen am 8. Januar 2025.
https://www.movieinsider.com/m23532/gazer
Gazer. In: Rotten Tomatoes. Abgerufen am 26. Oktober 2024.
Catherine Bray: 'Gazer' Review: Promising Self-Financed Directorial Debut From a Former Electrician. In: Variety, 30. September 2024.
Brooklyn Horror Film Festival Announces Jury And Audience Award Winners. In: fangoria.com, 25. Oktober 2024.
Erik Anderson: 32nd Hamptons International Film Festival Lineup Announced, Clarence Maclin ('Sing Sing') to Receive Breakthrough Performer Award. In: awardswatch.com, 12. September 2024.
Kategorien: Filmtitel 2024US-amerikanischer FilmThrillerNeo-Noir