When it comes to meta experiments that blur those good ole lines between fiction and the filmmakers’ own non-fiction life stories, there’s a risk that the resulting feature can border on being impenetrable if audiences aren’t fed a load of exposition in advance. That’s far less of an issue for classically-told narratives from mega-famous artists delving into (semi)autobiography ( like Steven Spielberg with “The Fabelmans” ), but definitely so for smaller scale projects from independent filmmakers whose output is more peculiar. What can be a compelling behind-the-scenes story as described in a press kit may not necessarily translate into the finished feature as something engaging, or even coherent, to anyone coming to the work without the luxury of reading production notes before the screening.
This is thankfully not the case with “ Invention ,” a compact, compelling and warm fiction and documentary hybrid, credited as “A film by Callie Hernandez and Courtney Stephens ”: both women wrote the script together, the former also stars in it, and the latter directs. Hernandez made her screen debut as ‘Space Babe’ in “Machete Kills,” though her first role was an ultimately uncredited appearance in Terrence Malick’s long-delayed “Song to Song”. Since then, she’s undeniably popped more as an ensemble highlight in both studio movies and weirder independent fare from exciting auteurs.
Alongside fellow later breakout stars Jessica Rothe and Sonoya Mizun.