‘Dead Mail’ SXSW 2024 Review: Weird Vibes Abound In Quirky New Thriller
Sometimes, when I let my mind wander, it drifts to strange places, like wondering what happens to letters that get lost in the mail. It’s always seemed so strange to me that mail could be lost, especially when in my young naive mind, the postal service was perfectly run and would never lose anything. It seems that co-writers and co-directors Joe DeBoer and Kyle McConaghy tapped directly into my subconscious with their new film Dead Mail, which starts with the answer to my very question about where letters go to, essentially, die. And that answer is surprisingly blood, a little sad, and full of impeccable 1980s furnishings.
Dead Mail begins with a man crawling across the gravel and shoving a bloody plea for help into a metal mailbox, only to be viciously grabbed by a faceless assailant. Quickly, we flash to the county post office where two women are going through the mail to correct addresses before they go out for delivery. Upon receiving the aforementioned bloody letter, they take the scrap of paper down to Jasper (Tomas Boykin), dead mail extraordinaire. There, he calls his mysterious connection to get a list of addresses to hopefully find the true recipient of the letter. It’s mundane work, but the pacing and editing make it feel like an intense spy thriller with life-changing stakes.
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From there, Dead Mail takes quite a few twists and turns that connect the letter to a lonely man named Trent (John Fleck) and analog synthesizer engineer Josh (Sterling Macer Jr.). It’s a strange tale that, again, is about the mundane sides of life, but thanks to DeBoer and McConaghy’s direction and sense of style, it’s elevated to something that feels dangerous. Their pacing takes a straightforward crime thriller and creates a fascinating puzzle to watch come together. It’s disorienting, but keeps you watching, waiting for the next bizarre reveal to round the corner.
Fleck and Macer, Jr. are stunning as the central duo, with Fleck orbiting Macer like he’s a guiding light, a reason to live and wake up in the morning. Fleck embodies a man who is trying desperately to make a friend but doesn’t really understand how to maintain it normally. Macer as Josh, on the other hand, is painfully naive, the epitome of a clueless nerd whose hyperfixation is his ultimate downfall. These are two personalities many of us know well, but here, they’re taken to darkly comedic and troubling extremes to comment on the destructive power of loneliness.
In a Dread Central interview with the directors, McConaghy described Dead Mail as “a bland Midwest film” and it’s the perfect description. While it may sound derogatory, it does embody the ethos of this film as it wants to capture a specific 1980s ennui that permeated even the suburbs of the Midwest. Everyone is simply just trying to get by, but sometimes getting by turns ever so slightly violent.
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Committed to the 80s aesthetic on a low budget, DeBoer and McConaghy make digital look analog with their use of film grain paired with Payton Jane’s production design. Importantly, this isn’t a film that wants to look back in fondness at the past as some idealized version of reality. Instead, DeBoer and McConaghy lean into, again, that ennui and existential anxiety that seeped into the faceless working class. Wood paneling and floral wallpaper are desaturated, looking more like delicate antiques than iconic memories of days past.
To say more would spoil the ride of Dead Mail, which I guarantee is worth getting on. DeBoer and McConaghy take contemporary ideas about the 1980s and nostalgia and twist them into a neo-Fargo narrative about being in the wrong place and the wrong time, small-town violence, and trying to just find a friend. A strong script and nuanced performances make what could simply be silly into a strangely sad and shocking piece of genre-adjacent cinema. It’s lo-fi indie filmmaking at its finest, quirky, bizarre, and deeply engaging.
Summary
‘Dead Mail’ takes contemporary ideas about the 1980s and nostalgia and twist them into a neo-Fargo narrative about being in the wrong place and the wrong time, small-town violence, and trying to just find a friend.
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