Well, the good news when it comes to football season winding down is that gets time to really dive back into movies. With the recent release of the Oscar nominations, I really should be writing about 2022 movies that I have yet to cover, but that’s not moving the needle for me so much. I needed something to kickstart the juices and I found it.
Door Mouse is filled with all the passion and creativity I love about indie films and is a love letter to the process. The punk-rock neo-noir feature debut from writer/director Avan Jogia is currently my favorite release of 2023. Excuse me while I spend the rest of the year petitioning for Jogia to get a sequel made.
An aspiring comic-book writer/artist who gets by working at a burlesque gets pulled into a dark mystery when one of the girls from her club goes missing.
By the time I hit the 15-minute mark, this was already one of my favorite films of 2023 and rapidly climbing the ranks of best comic book movies in recent memory. The rest of the film only cemented my position.
You may be quick to ask: is this even a comic book movie? While it may not be based on existing source material in the way we have been trained to accept when it comes to “comic book” movies, I can tell you with absolute certainty that, yes, this is 100% a comic book movie.
Avan Jogia’s visual storytelling is very much done with intent. I’ve heard the term “hyper-stylized” used when talking about the film’s aesthetic and that’s one of the biggest reasons I will say it is, in fact, a comic book movie. Set aside the actual animation that pops up throughout the film, the scene staging and framing of Mike McLaughlin’s cinematography speak to that as well. I actively read and collect comics, so it isn’t a coincidence that some of the shots look like they came right off the storyboard. That’s not even my favorite part though.
The film’s main character, Mouse, played wonderfully by Hayley Law, is an aspiring comic book artist. She literally writes, draws, and inks her own comics, binds them together with duct tape, and convinces her local comic shop owner to put her work up for sale. That’s as guerilla as it gets and it’s actually a metaphor for the film itself. She also doesn’t take no for an answer which serves her well when she gets into detective mode, but I’ll circle back to that.
It’s not a coincidence that Mouse is grinding as an independent artist, working a job she doesn’t particularly like, so she can work to get her comic book seen and sold. That message resonates loud and clear, especially in the context of an indie film. Jogia embued that energy into the script and the characters, so what we are seeing is actually reflective of that hard work to get the film produced and distributed. While it isn’t black-and-white pages held together with duct tape, it’s not hard to see this movie was made with a pretty small budget. I could be wrong, but I’m pretty sure there’s a “restaurant” scene that was shot in somebody’s living room. That’s what I loved about it though! Limitations didn’t stand in the way of creative problem-solving. You have to work with what you’ve got and the fact that it still looks as good as it does speaks volumes about the vision and creativity behind the camera.
That brings me back to Mouse. She embodies that spirit wholeheartedly and I love how Law leaned into the classic detective archetype along the way. She hits all those notes so well but still brings the character’s style to life in her own unique way.
Jogia didn’t stop at writing and directing this either, he also plays Mooney. If we were drawing a straight-line comparison to detective noir stories of the past, Mooney would be the occasional/past lover who begrudgingly agrees to help out the lead because of some dormant feelings. He’s got style too and that is something that really shows itself in all the character writing.
It was a blessing to have Famke Janssen and Donal Logue as part of the cast. Famke has a particular kind of moodiness that isn’t easy to find but works well as the club owner, and she fits the role of Mama perfectly. Logue plays Eddie who also works at the club, in some capacity I can’t quite remember, but it was a role that reminded me just how compelling of a presence he has on screen, even in smaller roles.
We also get some great character performances from Keith Powers as Ugly and Michela Cannon as Riz. Powers has a much bigger footprint in terms of the storyline because he’s playing the moral compass, more or less. He keeps Mouse on track and his affection for her helps keep the film grounded in familiar territory. Cannon gets to have a lot of fun with the dialogue and makes the most of it. One of my favorite scenes in the movie is a conversation between her and Logue sharing what seems like some stoner thoughts or, at the very least, some sketchy conspiracy theories.
Completing the neon-soaked punk-rock circle is a killer soundtrack that accentuates the costumes and setting while also setting the tone energy-wise. I see that Ketan Jogia (Avan’s brother) is listed for original music but I couldn’t find much in the way of soundtrack listings. With a little digging, I see that it was mostly music put together by the two of them (who are the band Saint Ivory), which I am going to spend the next few days obsessing over, and the main theme that plays at the end credits is “Big Mouth” by Necking. When it all comes together, it’s glorious and I want it injected into my veins.
Toward the end, it seems like the film is going to end and I was thinking to myself that I would actually like to see a sequel with these characters. The opportunity is there. Then there are another 15 minutes or so and things change a little in that regard, probably in case the opportunity for a sequel never materialized. However, I still want to see more of the characters even if that first story came to a close.
Recommendation: If you like detective noir stories and mysteries, this is a really good one that embodies that identity while also wrestling it to the ground and bending it to suit its will.
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