Purgatorio

Purgatorio (2024)

co-directed by Stephanie Miracle, Auden Lincoln-Vogel, and Philip Rabalais
choreography by Stephanie Miracle
cinematography and editing by Auden Lincoln-Vogel
sound design by Philip Rabalais
performance by Jaruam Xavier, Lauren Linder, and Stephanie Miracle

"There's something really special here. The pace is perfect, and the movement on display is so simple in isolation to keep it from being overwhelming, whole also being engrossing in how it all connects to one another. My lazy review was going to be about how this could have been 100 minutes and I wouldn't have noticed, and while that's lazy because it's untrue and misses what makes this so great, it's very true that time melts away with the combination of film language used." - JackRyanG on Letterboxd

"I've seen other dance films that do some of what's here, with location-time offset correlations. But this one takes the composition of the screen to the nth degree, turning multiple scenes in various orientations, confusing what is up/down/left/right as it scrolls up progressively through bouncing balls, swinging rackets, crawling bodies, staircases, and what not. It's pretty cool to watch, just messing with perception, and always nicely assembled. The whole thing might feel chaotic neutral – the description quotes "You can't win a game you don't know how to play, but you also can't lose." But the again, you end hand-in-hand, almost heart-leaned." - Optical Noise

"Pretty spectacular, like a love child of Ericka Beckman and Matthew Barney with wonderful sound design. Sometimes films like this, with a stunning visual motif or that are technically impressive, play their idea right into the ground and wear out their welcome…luckily Purgatorio ends right on time; tight AND stunning." - Dan S on Letterboxd

Purgatorio (2024)

STEPHANIE MIRACLE DANCES