The only place more sacred than a movie theatre to me is a great concert venue. I grew up going to concerts with friends and family. It’s one of the experiences I’ve missed dearly throughout the pandemic, that communal feeling of singing along to some of our favourite artists performing our favourite songs or the joy of discovering new bands. Poser captures not only that feeling but so much more.
Lennon Gates (Sylvie Mix) is an outsider who is head over heels in love with music and desperately wants to find a way to join that conversation with the people she idolizes. Those people aren’t the big bands or artists at the top of everyone’s Spotify chart, but rather the local heroes who continue to play at small local venues. They lie closer to being obtainable in terms of being able to speak to them. So Lennon decides to start a podcast to talk about the local indie music scene in Columbus. She brings her phone to record interviews with artists and includes clips from concerts. She loves the lo-fi sound so much that even though she records off her phone, she plays it later and records it on tape. Yes, it sounds a bit pretentious, but sometimes as an artist, you kind of have to be.
Before I fell in love with movies, I was in love with music, and there isn’t a moment in this film where I don’t feel that same emotion coming from both Lennon and the filmmakers Ori Segev and Noah Dixon. Segev and Dixon clearly came from a music background because so many of the sequences are shot and edited in such a romantic manner. The way Lennon glances at the people on stage, you’d think she’s fallen in love with them, but as she falls in love, again and again, it’s never with the people holding the instruments but rather with the way the instruments are being played. This is a film with a deep admiration of its local scene.
A few years back, I was part of a very similar podcast to the one Lennon runs in the film. A friend and I would speak to local artists, go to shows, and take photos with them. We’d network and make friends with musicians and be invited to new shows and future events they were hosting. Lennon befriends Bobbi Kitten (who plays herself), and the two become friends, but for Lennon, it is closer to an obsession.
Given the film is about the local music scene, the music is a crucial factor. And every song is used to perfection. As I took notes, I wrote some of the bands focused on for me to check out after the film was over, such as Bobbi’s band Damn the Witch Siren. The moments found in the venues as the guitars or other instruments wail away are beautiful and memorable.
I relate to Lennon a lot, specifically about how shy and reserved she was at the film’s beginning, hiding in a shell. After being open to these new experiences, you begin to break out of that shell, but the downside is that sometimes you’re not your authentic self. We often steal something from the people we speak to and hang out with the most. There are many turns of phrases, or words – even certain pronunciations of words – that I’ve stolen from some of my closest friends, but I’ve used them so much, I’ve adopted them as my own. It’s a way to welcome these crucial friends into our lives and take part in the things that make them tick that eventually make you tick.
The performances by newcomer Sylvie Mix, Bobbi, and the rest of the cast are honest depictions of giving yourself over to music or whatever art form you prefer. Cinematographer Logan Floyd shoots the film with a glossy romantic lens with close-ups of artists speaking to Lennon, or we the audience, explaining what makes them tick. Poser is a great love letter to music, your local music scene, and the communal experience inside a concert venue.
