While Frank V. Ross’ Hohokam tells a simple story, only a reductive assumption would leap to dub it simplistic. While each part of Hohokam works fluidly, neglecting to draw attention to itself, it’s the intricate weaving of these simple layers that renders the film so heartbreaking at times and heartwarming at others. By making acute observations about everyday life, Hohokam plays as a story so nuanced and quiet that its poignance exists in a emotional level of aftermath. The moments and images explored in the film, unassuming as they are on first viewing, remain relevant long after the film has ended, been shelved and alphabeticized among the collection of its contemporaries.

Through the eyes of Lori (Allison Latta) and Anson (Anthony Baker), a couple traversing a rough patch of their relationship, the story focuses its lens on minor details, exploring in each an importance and allowing each to grow the tension between the characters. In terms of artistic progression, Hohokam marks Ross’ most quietly moving film to date and depends less on plot than on these details and the strength of its characters. Placed in the hands of Latta and Baker, the lead roles flourish with personal quirks and stillness, a balance negogiated in such a way that the connection between Lori and Anson, and simultaneously between the characters and the audience, develops with every scene.

Notable as well are the performances of actors Lonnie Phillips, Danny Rhodes and Joe Swanberg, all three who play peripheral characters that influence the Lori and Anson dynamic. Although all three spend little time on screen, their presence adds greatly to the film’s realism and pinpoints the ways in which people effect one another in seemingly insignificant exchanges.

A film, Ross claims, that has not one specific meaning or message, Hohokam studies moods and moments with an acute vision about miscommunication and communion, leaving the audience, atypically of a character study, on an end note of hope.

For more information on the film, visit www.molehillindependent.com.