“The film is obsessed with geography, without ever quite managing to establish it. The characters are constantly mapping out vague spatial boundaries. Everything is next to something else; nothing is ever empirical or definite. “I’ve never been to that town, but I’ve been through it” is one of the famous lines from the trailer, to which the film ads such bon mots as “is that the room in the middle of the hallway?’”

You also note, “It is formally engaging, because it is so formally incorrect.” And you seem to believe “… it transcends mere incompetence.” I would add that it’s consistent breaking of certain formal rules, by replacing them with their opposites, creates a logic of its own, one that exhibits an exceptional competence as a “structuralist” undertaking.

Was this Region’s true intent? I have no idea. Clearly, there’s nothing to support my view in his few public statements, which could be seen to prove anything but. Even so, if he’s being coy, this is nothing new for artists. While most structuralists have a philosophical bent that leads them to pontificate endlessly, it is quite possible that Region simply doesn’t fit the mold.

The beauty of seeing this work without much context is that you are free to see it as you will. By stripping the film of expected forms of storytelling, it forces you to see this film as a story form without form, the rawest form of story. The story itself is disjointed and confusing, but nonetheless touches on a number of typical film storylines and genres: detective mystery, thriller, horror, ghost story, college dorm life, sci-fi, medical hero, and even a bit of gore. The stripped down script, the bland, uninflected acting allow each of these multiple genres to stand on their own as showpieces without any stimulation of the lower brain reaches (although, I didn’t want the killer to stab our two heroes).

But, what I liked most about After Last Season was our two unromantically involved heroes. Indeed, somehow their interaction touched me in a way that the generic romance, or even “best-buddies” film could never do. After all, I’ve seen those enough times for them to have become obnoxious and manipulative, pandering as they do to current notions of the path to happiness.

In this film the only path to happiness is the film itself: the cardboard MRI, paper on the wall, soundless CGI, self-propelled chairs, bursts of a few musical notes here and there, a potpourri of storylines underlaid by the “suspense” of catching the murderer, all designed to break all the basic rules that have been developed over the last century to enable our ability to suspend disbelief. I am grateful to Region for allowing me to have full control over my disbelief.