“I don’t really care about plot very much,” said Midnight Special director Jeff Nichols in a recent interview with the Verge. “I think plot is very overrated.”
It’s a relief to hear a major director utter these words, especially when overly plotted messes like Batman v Superman loom over the landscape of mainstream film. Nichols would find much to appreciate in the work of maverick director Seijun Suzuki: Emphasizing visual style and mood, Suzuki dispenses with the expected formalities of film grammar and tosses narrative along the wayside whenever he sees fit, jettisoning continuity, character, and genre conventions with it. A touring collection of Suzuki’s work passes through the NW Film Center for the month of April, and the bracing, elusive films bleed with the Japanese director’s strikingly surreal style.