Ryan Trecartin made a 12-minute corporate fever dream and it's somehow the most normal thing he's done.
Temp Stop, as the title implies, has a disjunctive quality that separates it from the other parts of Re'Search Wait'S. As if emanating from the basement of Any Ever, each scene plays like a hidden-away epilogue rendering characters comparatively surreal--in part because they are often straightforward and ordinary. The movie opens with a less omnipotent Y-Ready barking an abusive monologue to hypothetical subservients and bidding Able to use The Re'Search to brainwash JJ into a duplicate of Wait. Able's work alter ego, Past Jessica, is battered by her office. She is out of time, and by that extension, timelessness in Any Ever is not equated with limitlessness but with total lack: no time.
Direction
Trecartin's ADHD editing feels like three tabs crashing simultaneously.
Production
DIY office hellscape that cost $40 and a friendship.
Director
Ryan Trecartin
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Part of Trecartin's Any Ever cycle, this was shot in actual basements and borrowed offices during the 2008 crash—corporate anxiety as found artifact.
The character name 'Past Jessica' literally haunts the present; Trecartin treats identity like outdated software needing constant patches.
US
