CINE June 2011 event film reviews.
Hello all! My name is Sean Wilson and, as a local film critic on talktorbay.com and devon-cornwall-film.co.uk, I’m bringing you a round-up of the first CINE event of 2011, courtesy of Clayton Fussell and Ashley Wing.
In addition to an especially diverse array of provocative short films, this month, we were graced by the return of Shooting People producer Paddy Robinson-Griffin, who expanded on his previous CINE chat to go in-depth on the subject of film financing. Paddy offered a frank insight into how to navigate the bewildering array of permits, equipment hire and more, a juicy talk for a rapt audience.
Lover Boy Max Swinton
Jack and Chlo appear to lead a healthy relationship but it soon becomes clear that Jack is riddled with doubt. Why does Chlo simultaneously attract and repel him? As he imagines, or perhaps recalls, a tryst with another man, it soon becomes clear he's more troubled than we initially imagined.
On the level of technique, Max Swinton's follow up to his striking Mr Fox is a very different beast, a pleasing indication he's a filmmaker keen not repeat his past work. However, although Lover Boy is composed of a formal, character-led approach, on the level of atmosphere, it's just as nightmarish and bizarre, if not more so, as Swinton moves his eccentric focus onto an ostensibly healthy young couple. Shots are held for an unsettlingly long time, often in close-up, forcing us to examine every emotional nuance on an individual's face; and brazen shifts in time and place hint blend fiction and reality to suggest dark psychological torment. Lover Boy is both separate from Mr Fox and a kindred spirit to it; challenging filmmaking that's short on answers.
Midnight Mosaic Jess Brownrigg
Masha and Ipral are two sisters in a nightmarish dystopian Britain where sleep is illegal and pills are designed to keep everyone awake. Masha has never slept before but when Ipral reveals herself as a 'sleeper', both women attract the suspicion of the locals at the café where they work. How long can they maintain the façade?
Midnight Mosaic is an enjoyably confident piece of filmmaking, avoiding obvious sci-fi staples and easing us into an alternate vision of Britain through carefully observed details in the mise-en-scene. There's little exposition; just watch out for that sign on the shop window near the start, one which almost incidentally informs us that we're in a Nineteen Eighty Four style world where sleeping is outlawed. In the style of dystopian cinema, the ideas are designed to inform us about our own world, particularly through the blitz of hideous neon adverts plugging the pills designed to keep people from sleeping. Yet director Jess Brownrigg's approach is compassionate, not merely centering on ideas but exploring the humanity within those ideas, ensuring the film is as much of an emotional experience as a brainy one.
Four Weeks Notice Pat Wintersgill
You've heard of serving four weeks notice for your job … but what about serving four weeks notice on your relationship? Pat Wintersgill's short film explores this nifty concept.
Wintersgill's film in all honesty requires a longer running time to do its terrific concept proper justice but it's a witty idea nonetheless and shot through with a quintessentially British eye for social embarrassment. In this era of disposable rom-coms, it's refreshing to see filmmakers subverting the genre, and performers Grant Gillespie, Justine Koos and Ian Attfield are on top form, utilising speech and body language to precision-tooled effect as one partner is disposed of in exchange for another. A charming idea that really calls out for a full-length feature.
Mr Lewis Louisa Fielden
Mr Lewis is in a quandary. Stuck in a kind of purgatory, he's desperate to make amends for a crisis in his recent past. As he pleads with an odd assortment of 'gatekeepers' to be allowed to return to the past, it becomes clear Mr Lewis is keen to prevent a girl's shooting. But is everything as clear as it seems?
The enjoyably loopy Mr Lewis seems to revel in its low-budget. Actually, it seems to make a plot point of it. For starters, the strange in-between state in which the central character finds himself is envisaged as a dark room. He is then required to bargain with a series of individuals who come across as cash-strapped variants on the Jigsaw killer wearing cartoon masks. It's clear the makers of Mr Lewis know their influences but the elliptical narrative is intriguing and as the hapless protagonist is forced to confront the central crisis again and again in the form of Groundhog Day, it does build a degree of tension. The film doesn't add up to much but certain images do reveal a kind of twisted artistry.
Flat-Footed Apocalypse Martin Lejeune
Two people are on the run from a terrible menace. It cannot be described, and there's no way of knowing who's infected. And yet, the epidemic is not what you imagine ...
Entered in the Virgin Media Shorts competition, Martin Lejeune's short does a brilliant job of wrong-footing the viewer. Spearing off from what initially appears to be a 28 Days Later style premise, it reveals a wonderful kind of macabre humour that would be churlish to spoil here. Suffice it to say, those with coulrophobia will find it a creepy delight.