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Tre

USA 2006 | 87 mins | HDCAM | English

IN PERSON (at select screenings): Eric Byler, Kimberly-Rose Wolter

With CHARLOTTE SOMETIMES (SFIAAFF ’03) and AMERICANese (Opening Night film, SFIAAFF ’06), award-winning filmmaker Eric Byler demonstrated a penchant for decidedly adult anti-romances full of sex, loneliness and smoldering jealousies. He continues his exploration of modern relationships with his third feature, fittingly titled TRE, focusing on friendship and infidelity. The result is arguably his darkest, most provocative film yet.

The boorish yet witty slacker Tre, recently dumped, crashes at the home of his
close friends Gabe and Kakela, who get engaged shortly after Tre arrives. Through some furtive glances, discoveries and a pair of experiments, it soon becomes evident that Tre and Kakela have an attraction that can barely be concealed—or contained. As in CHARLOTTE SOMETIMES, a fourth character proves the catalyst who disrupts the stasis of the love triangle, and sets off a chain of events that forces them all to confront some hard truths about themselves, their friends and their lovers.

The antithesis of usual Hollywood romances, the film pursues its hard-earned emotional truths by presenting atypical romantic leads and refusing to concoct easy resolutions. Tre is a caustic, frequently enigmatic anti-hero, and those looking for a bland boy-gets-girl love story will be rudely met with an unconventional portrait of relationships. Fans of Mike Nichols’ CLOSER will find in TRE an astute cinematic kindred spirit in which love—or what we imagine to be love—is as messy and complicated as it is in real life.

—Taro Goto