One of the more memorable elements of Nicolas Winding Refn’s “The Neon Demon” – and there’s really no shortage of them – is the presence of former model and emerging actress Abbey Lee. Lee plays arguably the film’s most deranged character, which is really saying something, and in a film so designed for maximum sensation, Lee’s arch, funny turn is hard to forget (indeed, it landed on our 20 Best Breakthrough Performances Of 2016). She made a similar impression in last year’s “Mad Max: Fury Road” and she’s even managed to snag a much-coveted role in the upcoming adaptation of Stephen King’s “The Dark Tower” novels. It feels safe to say she might be having a small but undeniable moment.
In “Snowbird,” a new short film released earlier this year, from the very gifted Sean Baker, writer/director of last year’s “Tangerine,” Lee manages to deliver a transfixing performance once again. Fans of “Tangerine” will surely dig “Snowbird,” which is filled with a lot of the same hallucinatory narrative flourishes — music video-style editing, oversaturated colors and whimsy coexisting freely with a unique sense of American rot — that made Baker’s breakout fourth film such a vivid experience. I can’t really divulge too much of what “Snowbird” is about without giving away some of its pleasurable surprises — though with narrative pieces such as these, it all comes down to mood and sensation rather than plot (as it did in “Tangerine,” which is comparatively busier than “Snowbird”). All I will say is that Lee plays a woman living a trailer park somewhere far off the beaten trail and the short’s fleet twelve-minute runtime mostly concerns her encounters with various oddballs and strangers she runs into. Oh, and there’s cake involved.
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Like “Tangerine,” “Snowbird” is about people who live in between the margins of where the rest of us operate. It’s funky and odd and filled with compassion and curiosity, and it’s an exciting reminder of what a good director Baker is and what he’s capable of. And, as he famously did with “Tangerine,” Baker shot the entirety of “Snowbird” on an iPhone 6s with little more than a clip-on lens and an $8 cinematography app. But, when you are an artist with Baker’s fearsome talents, others will find you.
“Abbey reached out to me, which was really cool,” the director told Dazed. “She was a huge fan of ‘Tangerine.’ She saw it twice in the theatre… It seemed like the perfect marriage.”
Does this mean Lee and Baker will be working together in the future? One can only speculate. In the meantime, watch “Snowbird” (which was produced in partnership with luxury fashion brand Kenzo).