DEBUT, OR, OBJECTS OF THE FIELD OF DEBRIS AS CURRENTLY CATALOGUED

(The 2025 Maryland Film Festival ran November 5-9. Check out Chris Reed’s Debut, or, Objects of the Field of Debris as Currently Catalogued movie review from the fest! Seen it? Join the conversation with HtN on our Letterboxd Page.)

In the early 1990s, British author Nick Bantock published his Griffin and Sabine trilogy, a beautifully designed epistolary series in which the narrative was told through postcards and letters embedded within the pages, the latter actual pieces of paper which the reader would remove from envelopes to peruse at will. This combination of seemingly found objects and written text proved novel and exciting, further enhancing what was already an engaging mystery about apparent strangers forging a possibly previous connection. Even ordinary interactions became extraordinary through the magic of presentation.

In his first feature, Debut, or, Objects of the Field of Debris as Currently Catalogued, writer/director/star Julian Castronovo similarly transforms the conventions of investigatory drama via his own original cinematic approach. Self-consciously—and very ironically—intellectual to the n^th degree, his movie unfolds primarily through the lens of a MacBook camera. We see items photographed by the protagonist (Castronovo) as well as Castronovo himself narrating diary entries in the Photo Booth app. These are supplemented with occasional smartphone footage, audio from phone calls, digital animations, and more, all of it ostensibly discovered within a folder on the laptop after Castronovo’s disappearance.

As presented here, Castronovo is an aspiring artist who has come to New York City to study filmmaking. Our guide through his life is narrator Phillippa James, whose English accent lends an arch air to the proceedings. It’s never clear if she is mocking Castronovo or taking him seriously, and this deliberately ambivalent voiceover proves consistently intriguing.

Struggling to find subjects about which to craft stories, Castronovo explores his surroundings, particularly his apartment, and especially after he receives a letter addressed to its former occupant. As he goes down a research rabbit hole, Castronovo uncovers a 20-year-old account of an art-forgery crime, one of the perpetrators of which has gone missing. His inquiries eventually lead him to leave New York for Los Angeles, and then later Los Angeles for Prague. Along the way, he uncovers what may be a riddle only to himself or something much more sinister with malevolent forces involved. He is, after all, as of this writing, nowhere to be found.

In addition to Bantock, there is something of Werner Herzog in Castronovo’s influences: the way he takes outwardly mundane artifacts and layers them with meaning is a joy to behold. Sometimes it is also very funny. There’s a playfulness to Debut that belies any potential pretentiousness of conceit. The structure is the thing, and our pleasure in deciphering it is the movie’s raison d’être. The solution may lie within, but if not, the quest is still very much worth watching.

– Christopher Llewellyn Reed (@ChrisReedFilm)

Sony Pictures Classics; Julian Castronovo; Debut, or, Objects of the Field of Debris as Currently Catalogued movie

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