THE SCOUT
(The Tribeca Festival runs June 4-15 in New York’s Tribeca neighborhood and Hammer to Nail has boots on the ground! Check out Matt Delman’s The Scout movie review fresh from the fest. Seen it? Join the conversation with HtN on our Letterboxd Page.)
Director Paula Andrea González-Nasser pulls from her personal experience as a location scout in New York on projects such as High Maintenance and Never Rarely Sometimes Always, to create a breezy slice of life film simply titled, The Scout. While on the surface the film focuses on the mundane (the director cites Chantal Akerman as an inspiration), it is in fact bursting with life–of richly lived-in characters who we meet for only a few passing moments before being whisked along to the next setup. In this way, and in the frequent shooting in and around a car, The Scout is reminiscent of Jafar Panahi’s Taxi (2015). Star Mimi Davila shares a similar chill aura of the recent Palme D’or winner, that makes her an extremely likeable guide. Unlike Panahi, Sofia (Davila) must contend with multiple strangers hitting on her, which makes for some of the best comedic moments.
With the first static long-take of a morning wake up scene, González-Nasser forces the audience to adapt to her languid rhythms. While The Scout could be considered ‘slow cinema’, it is never dull. We are treated to an onslaught of voicemails that Sofia listens to on her drives, from residents and property managers returning her call in the hopes of making a little extra money from renting their space for her bosses’ TV show. The generic show calls for a variety of locations, including a fish shop, and an apartment that feels ‘murder-y’. While the vignettes are mostly drama-free, the ensemble cast brilliantly inhabit each character. There’s an older woman (Rutanya Alda) who rarely sees her son anymore since he moved to London. Sofia is also beckoned by a former friend/possibly former lover (Otmara Marrero) who saw her flyer and thought it must be her, using it as an excuse to reconnect. When Sofia shows up she is surprised to see her friend now 8 months pregnant. Her roof deck would be perfect for the shoot, except the only access is through a window, so her bosses tell her to, ‘find something just like that, but with an elevator.’ And so the search continues.
The obstacles and setbacks pile up, as do the parking tickets. By the third act Sofia’s car receives the inevitable boot. That’s the extent of the conflict in The Scout, which instead excels in comedic timing, partly thanks to pacing from editor Ryan Martin Brown, who also serves as a producer, and recently collaborated with González-Nasser on his own ‘5th Floor Picture’ Free Time (also a must-see). Both films show a reverence for awkwardly bad dates. One of the funniest pairings is the fish store manager (Matt Barats) who can’t be bothered to wait around any longer for Sofia to get her photos. Then on a dime he changes his tune and asks her out to dinner, and she feels like she has to accept in order to literally get her foot in the door. Over dinner he proceeds to pitch her his novel idea which is a blatant rip-off of Moby Dick. When she finally opens up to him, he switches gears to the size of the burritos. Clearly something like this has happened to the director before in real life.
The story ends on the beach, with Sofia falling to her knees in the sand as if to say the life and career she chose has worn her down into the ground. Despite her doggedness, or perhaps because of it, it’s clear the job has taken a toll on her. It doesn’t quite match the level of emotional release of the final shot of Anora (filmed close by in Brighton Beach), but it provides some emotional arc for our protagonist who has to this point proved mostly unflappable. And though no one in their right mind would want Sofia’s job after watching The Scout, it’s a film so effortlessly sublime that you’ll want to live in it.
– Matthew Delman (@ItsTheRealDel)
2025 Tribeca Fest; Paula Andrea González-Nasser; The Scout
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