(Adam Wingard, 2007)
A young man struggles to cope with rejection, drugs-binge-induced paranoia, and a possible ghostly presence.
Visually, Pop Skull is as overcooked as a 3-hour-boiled egg. It’s a relentlessly superimposed / intercut / colour-filtered / looped / strobed mess. If the question is "how do you turn cheap-looking DV footage into an edgy headfuck?", then unless “edgy headfuck” is somehow synonymous with “mid-80s indie band video” this film does not provide the correct answer.
Amid the mess, there are a few genuinely tense and creepy moments, helped by the soundtrack of drones, noise, feedback, etc, which to some extent succeeds where the visual effects fail.
It’s possible that if the script had restricted the character solely to the confines of his basement lodgings, to undergo a feature-length descent into drug-addled isolation and terror, then the puzzle at the heart of the film (“paranormal presence or paranoid hallucination?”) could have been exploited to full effect. Unfortunately, the puzzle gets resolved in a rather lame and unoriginal fashion about halfway through, rendering the second half of the film ineffective and increasingly tiresome.
Showing posts with label P. Show all posts
Showing posts with label P. Show all posts
01 February 2008
09 July 2006
Primer
(2004, Shane Carruth)
Two technological entrepeneurs, working out of a family garage, stumble across the discovery that the device they have been building acts as a time-machine, allowing objects placed inside it at the time it is deactivated to re-emerge at the time it was activated. They initiate a seemingly simple money-making scheme: turn on the machine in the morning, spend the day monitoring stock prices, enter the machine in the evening, power it down, and re-emerge in the morning forearmed with profit-making information. The possibilities of power opened up by the machine, however, prove to be too tempting for one of the pair, and events begin to spiral out of control in complex temporal loops of deception and manipulation.
Carruth’s debut is a subtle, low-key and intelligent sci-fi puzzler that concentrates on spinning a satisfyingly intruiging storyline out of dialogue rather than action. Admittedly, the sound quality is less than perfect (which isn’t surprising, given the film’s ultra-modest budget of $7,000) and this, in conjunction with the naturalistic style of acting (with characters conversing rapidly, sometimes mumbling, and often talking over the top of each other), makes it virtually impossible for the viewer to catch all the information needed to fully comprehend what’s going on. But this isn’t a film for those who like to be spoon-fed plots in easy to swallow, readily digestible chunks. It’s a film to be puzzled over (and, in this sense, is similar to the likes of Memento and The Usual Suspects). All the information is in there somewhere, and it’s down to the attentive viewer to extract it and piece it together. Viewers are offered this kind of responsibility all too rarely. It’s something to be valued.
Primer @ IMDb UK
Primer Official Site
Two technological entrepeneurs, working out of a family garage, stumble across the discovery that the device they have been building acts as a time-machine, allowing objects placed inside it at the time it is deactivated to re-emerge at the time it was activated. They initiate a seemingly simple money-making scheme: turn on the machine in the morning, spend the day monitoring stock prices, enter the machine in the evening, power it down, and re-emerge in the morning forearmed with profit-making information. The possibilities of power opened up by the machine, however, prove to be too tempting for one of the pair, and events begin to spiral out of control in complex temporal loops of deception and manipulation.
Carruth’s debut is a subtle, low-key and intelligent sci-fi puzzler that concentrates on spinning a satisfyingly intruiging storyline out of dialogue rather than action. Admittedly, the sound quality is less than perfect (which isn’t surprising, given the film’s ultra-modest budget of $7,000) and this, in conjunction with the naturalistic style of acting (with characters conversing rapidly, sometimes mumbling, and often talking over the top of each other), makes it virtually impossible for the viewer to catch all the information needed to fully comprehend what’s going on. But this isn’t a film for those who like to be spoon-fed plots in easy to swallow, readily digestible chunks. It’s a film to be puzzled over (and, in this sense, is similar to the likes of Memento and The Usual Suspects). All the information is in there somewhere, and it’s down to the attentive viewer to extract it and piece it together. Viewers are offered this kind of responsibility all too rarely. It’s something to be valued.
Primer @ IMDb UK
Primer Official Site
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)