Jawnts: Film fest ends on smart note

There is a certain awkwardness about Uber. With a taxi or a bus, there's a professional divide that allows passengers to disassociate and pretend the person at the wheel is apart from them. With Uber, the driver could just as easily be on the stool next to you at a bar as behind the wheel of the car. He could be sucked into your life, or you into his.

Matthew Cherry's new movie 9 Rides, which plays Sunday at the final day of the BlackStar Film Festival, chronicles a night in the life of one Uber driver. The barrier between him and the passengers is almost uncomfortably porous. Depending on the passenger, the car throbs with menace, annoyance, and lust. Meanwhile, the driver himself is confronted with news about his fiancee that threatens to upset his world.

Cherry got the inspiration for the movie, in part, from last year's groundbreaking indie Tangerine by director Sean Baker, which follows two transgender prostitutes around the sunbaked streets of yuletide Los Angeles. Baker shot his indie movie on three iPhone 5 smartphones. That's what got Cherry thinking. Perhaps the influence of the Tom Hardy vehicle Locke, which takes place almost entirely within a car, can be seen as well.

9 Rides is shot on an iPhone 6, which is a thematically good fit for a movie about a service that is reliant on smartphones. But the camera-phone technique doesn't work quite as well as it did in Tangerine, where the image came through so clearly that it was hard to tell that such a device was being used. In contrast, 9 Rides, which works overall, has a few shots that are too blurry or poorly lit.

The film is also based on Cherry's experiences.

"I live in L.A. and I take Uber a lot," says Cherry. "It's cheaper if you take UberPool [which allows you to share a ride for cheaper fares]. You experience a lot of random stories and scenarios. During those rides, I saw that the potential of setting a movie all in the car would be really novel."

Cherry shot the almost 90-minute movie over six days. Instead of a script, he wrote a 20-page outline of the plot and the actors improvised their dialogue. There are a few moments when that hectic pace is obvious, but mostly it's impressive that he shot an engaging feature-length film in such a short period of time.

9 Rides will be shown at 7 p.m. Sunday at International House, 3701 Chestnut St. Tickets are $12 general admission, $8 for students and seniors, and $6 for International House or BlackStar members.

Have an event for Jawnts? jake.blumgart5@gmail.com @jblumgart