Ronald Bronstein's already notorious low-budget New York psychodrama Frownland is opening this Friday, March 7, at Manhattan's IFC Center for a one-week run, distributed by the filmmaker himself. Reverse Shot contributor Daniel Cockburn takes a long, hard, eye-prying look at Frownland:

"Early in Ronald Bronstein’s debut feature Frownland, Keith Sontag (Dore Mann) sits in a car, waiting for his friend Laura (Mary Wall), prying his own eyes open for an interminable length of time. It’s a fitting mission statement for the entire film: staring open-eyed wider and longer than is comfortable. Audience reaction to this scene can vary from nervousness to laughter to boredom; we still haven’t received many cues as to what this movie is. To what end these open eyes, this long-held stare? That this mini-scene withholds emotional signposts, but not a payoff, is also representative of the film to come. " Click here to read Daniel Cockburn's review of Frownland in its entirety.