These days it’s Match Struck this, Match Struck that, for writer and director Tiffany Rhodes. But now the film is finished, and her work on it is over. “I sent it home; hopefully, they recognize their child.” Whatever that means is unclear whether festival or distribution deal, but one thing is for sure, Rhodes is just getting started.
Her indie film available on Amazon Prime, Collision, continues to be a secret gem with cult followers sprouting worldwide. It’s a film about a writer with an unsuccessful novel. Similar to Match Struck, her answer is, “In Collision, I attempted to kill off characters that seemed to haunt me. Subsequently, it turned out to be more of an attempted murder. Collision is a conceptual notion about writer’s block, killing your darlings.
So what is next for Rhodes? “A western. A psychological and violent thriller. All I will say is the battle in the film is historical and true. For this part of the story, I have taken great care and did extensive research. Everything else fiction.” All of her work I have seen so far is psychological. Is this an obsession or style? Rhodes said, “I’m merely fascinated by how brilliant and absurd the minds of humans are—it’s an ongoing biopsy which continually indoctrinates me.”
To know what’s going on in Match Struck is to ask, What is the motivation of this film? This isn’t a typical movie in which images and narrative fortify the story. On the face of it, it’s about a writer who is struggling professionally, personally, and mentally. But there is a feeling that we are watching a thematic apperception test—a psychological test showing 31 pictures to patients to reveal an individual’s perception of interpersonal relationships. The bigger question is, Who is the patient, Rhodes or the audience? To say, for example, that Match Struck is a riddle is true. You immediately want to rewatch. It’s a rollercoaster that is so wild it’s hard to see the details that passively build with such thoughtful intent. Not able to screen the final version, I look forward to collecting more evidence of what Rhodes was honestly saying with this film. Not to mention it’s her performance that rocks you. She holds nothing back, and I can’t wait to see what she does next! Match Struck is a genre-breaking film with drama, comedy, mystery, thriller, and just enough surrealism to remind you—you don’t know what’s real.
