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The Unloved, Part 93: The Empty Man

This Unloved was made about eight seconds before I learned that David Prior’s next project fell outside of my ideological comfort zone. But I hope this stands as a testament to the strength of his ideological commitment and originality, and to the fact that unfortunately a lot of the time critics disagree with an artist and can still find quite a lot to like about their art. 

Whatever else is true of David Prior, "The Empty Man" is one of the most promising debuts in the last several years of American cinema. I greatly look forward to what he concocts next, whether I agree with its thesis or not. I enjoyed that while watching "The Empty Man" I was guessing the entire time what would happen next, and in every case I was proven wrong. That is rare enough without factoring in his considerable formal abilities. I like this movie a lot, and I’m ready for Halloween to get here so we can all kvetch about our shared need to be scared by the unreal instead of the very real. 


To watch the rest of Scout Tafoya's Unloved video essays, click here.

Scout Tafoya

Scout Tafoya is a critic and filmmaker who writes for and edits the arts blog Apocalypse Now and directs both feature length and short films.

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