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Sicinski, Michael. "Toronto Film Festival 08 -Wavelengths preview," GreenCineDaily.com, September 2, 2008 (excerpt)
Horizontal Boundaries - The latest 35mm abstract concerto from Pat O'Neill is actually the latest revision of a film that has been under re-construction for several years. (By my count this is the third variation, but I may have missed one.) The film instantly thrusts us into a chugging image-processing machine that arranges fragments of Southern California into a kind of superimposed light-table display in action. Rapid-fire segments of highly processed beaches, bungalows, car life, palm trees stutter across each other vertically as a horizontal line bisects the frame. Basically, the title refers to a kind of intentionally faulty registration, wherein images slip into and onto one another on the horizontal axis, as though film and projector aren't working in the same gauge. Carl Stone's thrumming washer-dryer soundtrack, punctuated with snippets of film noir dialogue, provide the counterpoint. Even though to my eyes Boundaries is more of a "container" film than a fully integrated work, it features passages of thrilling formal brilliance that only a master like O'Neill can provide. (Wavelengths 3: Horizontal Boundaries)