Fremont (2023)

3 1/2 Stars (out of 4)

Cookie Doe

By Jeffrey M. Anderson

Sometimes you just love a movie, even if it's hard to say what is special about it. It doesn't break any new ground, and it's just a little weird. Not all that much even happens in Fremont, which was directed and co-written by Babak Jalali (Radio Dreams). Stuff that does happen just kind of falls over a cliff and never comes back. But it does all this in such a sublime way that it had me blissed out. It reminded me of small, indie dramas by Hal Hartley and especially by Jim Jarmusch; the narrow frame, black-and-white cinematography, and deadpan style are all Jarmuschian hallmarks.

It tells the story of Donya (Anaita Wali Zada) a former U.S. military translator who has immigrated to the United States (Fremont, California), from Afghanistan. She speaks very deliberately and hardly cracks a smile, and will remind Jarmusch fans of cousin Eva, who comes to visit New York from Hungary in Stranger Than Paradise. She works in a fortune cookie factory in San Francisco (which was filmed in Oakland), spending hours wrapping individual cookies. Her co-worker Joanna (Hilda Schmelling) mostly talks while they work (looking for love, love advice, etc.), while Donya listens.

After work Donya dines alone in an Afghan-owned restaurant, while the owner watches soap operas. A neighbor offers to give her his appointment to see a therapist, so she can get some sleeping pills. But the therapist, Dr. Anthony (Gregg Turkington), mostly wants to talk about the Jack London novel White Fang. When the old fortune writer at the factory drops dead on the job (we hear the "thump" as her head hits her keyboard), Donya is promoted. She decides to put her own message out into the world, which — according to descriptions of the movie — sounds like the point of the whole thing but is really just another small moment.

Finally, in the movie's last twenty minutes, she takes her car to a quiet, lonely mechanic Daniel (Jeremy Allen White, now a household name from his hit show The Bear), and they talk a little. The ending, involving a ceramic deer, just did my heart good. Although there are little attempts to capture the immigrant experience (one of Donya's neighbors sees her as a traitor and won't speak to her), it's mostly an appreciation of life's small moments that most of us rarely have time to truly notice or appreciate. The beautiful final shot is perhaps the finest example of this. Indeed, Fremont is difficult to describe in a way that makes it sound like it's worth seeking out, but if you're a bit of a misfit, wandering a little off the beaten path, then you might find your home there.