Text © Richard Gary / Indie Horror Films,
2015
Images from the Internet
SGL Entertainment
107 minutes, 2014 / 2015
www.reminiscence-movie.com
www.facebook.com/reminiscencemovie
www.sglentertainment.com
www.mvdvisual.com
553AM Creative Group / Wild Eye Releasing
71 minutes, 2012 / 2015
http://thatshawnholmes.wix.com
www.wildeyereleasing.com
www.mvdvisual.com
Images from the Internet
I am putting both these reviews together
because they both deal with the distortion of time in various forms. The
trailers for both films are at the bottom of the blog.
Reminiscence: The Beginning
Written cinematography,
music, makeup and effects, and directed by Akcay KaraazmakSGL Entertainment
107 minutes, 2014 / 2015
www.reminiscence-movie.com
www.facebook.com/reminiscencemovie
www.sglentertainment.com
www.mvdvisual.com
It’s
nice to see a new twist on the whole Based
on the True Story framework, as the opening of this arthouse style film
states that it is “Based on true physics events and black hole theories.” Starting
off with a Slovakian couple on their way to set up camp on a stone beach in Cesme,
on the west coast of Turkey, this indie comes from that country, though the
dialog is in English.
Miska
(Michaela Rexova) seems to be some kind of theoretical physicist who studies
other dimensions, and her companion (husband? boyfriend?), Akcay (played by the
director, pronounced Ak-chai), start having strange experiences. They keep
running into each other, but it appears not to be the same person, as if there were
more than one of each of them. Plus, time occasionally stops, or goes backwards,
or they see strange people – referred in the credits as The Others – such as a
mysterious version of Akcay’s mom (Yasar Karaazmak, who I am assuming is the
director’s real mother).
All
this is happening while the same musical theme plays throughout most of the
film, with strikingly sharp piano chords; the director is also a musician. With
quick editing, little dialog (the most commonly used words are “darling” and “baby”)
that tends to be lower than the soundtrack and arty shots, sometimes I wasn’t
quite sure what was happening. Ironically and probably purposefully, it’s hard
to follow a linear storyline with people popping in and out with regular occurrence.
It
seems not just that “Billy Pilgrim has become unstuck in time,” but here it’s rather
unstuck in dimension as well. One minute someone/-thing is lifting a rock to
crush a head, the next, with head intact, the person is sitting on a beach. Another
person is half face-half skull (really nice effect, by the way), but the
explanation? Well…
The visuals
are stunning and beautiful. The natural rocks and beach of Cesme become a
character unto themselves, as the camera tends to look like selfie-style angles
with either long shots or very close-ups of people accompanied by the images
being shaky. While it tends to be way more artsy than (in my opinion) needs to
be, i.e., it feels more like showing off than anything else, I will also add
there are moments that are creepy as all hell, but would be more so if I understood
what I was looking at. I found the best way for me to address it was to take it
scene by scene, rather than a whole zeitgeist.
At
times, it seems like it’s the same people, but the consciousness of our two protagonists
jump from dimension to dimension in sharp jump cuts, which of course doesn’t
explain the malevolence or body distortions (scars, whited out eyes, missing
eyes, and the like). Is it a dream? A premonition? Hell? I’m not sure, but I
will say that “World are colliding, Jerry; world are colliding!”
There
is also a meta-story happening as we watch Akcay observing himself on the video
playback on his camera. He kind of figures out what is happening, even if it
remains somewhat unclear to the viewer (well, this viewer anyway). I’m also glad that I saw this on a small
screen, because if I saw it at a theater, I can imagine it inducing the same
kind of motion sickness inspired by the likes of Cloverfield (2008).
The
effects and make-up are really well done, both digitally and appliance, giving
some parts an effectively creepy overlay, even with the jumpy edits. Also, some
of the scenarios, especially those in a not-so vacant house are especially
unnerving.
Included
extras are two trailers for this film and something called a “Full Motion
Menu,” but I’m not sure what that is (perhaps an Easter egg, something I’ve
always been miserable at finding?). My one wish would be for captions.
Memory Lane
Directed by Shawn Holmes553AM Creative Group / Wild Eye Releasing
71 minutes, 2012 / 2015
http://thatshawnholmes.wix.com
www.wildeyereleasing.com
www.mvdvisual.com
Poor
Nick Boxer (as in fighter; Michael Guy Allen) is a returning war veteran with a
hard case of PTSD, as do so many others (thank you George W. Bush for spiritually
raping a generation by putting them into an unnecessary war to feed your daddy
and Dickie’s wallets, and you sit around and paint; but I digress…). As we meet
Nick and his sister Hannah (unconventional cutie Anna Szyszkiewicz), we are
only given hints early on as to why the stress for this particular GI. What
does the snail-mail letter he receives mean? What does a finger on a tube mean?
Relax; it’s all in the first 3 minutes so I’m not giving away anything.
Nick
needs to find a way to get past the psychological pain, and his way is
certainly unorthodox: it involves a bathtub and a plugged in radio. There is actually
is a high level of suicide among returning GIs after the things they have
needed to do, and the sights before them. It is not an easy life coming back
traumatized. But what is the cause? Ahhh, in there waits Memory Lane.
Through
a series of sometimes disjointed events, he meets Kayla M. (Meg Barrick, who
would soon go on to be a regular in the Cinemax series, “The Girl’s Guide to
Depravity,” with the name change of Meg Braden) who is (possibly) about to jump
off a bridge. Nick is hard to resist with his Ryan Reynolds vibe, and Kayla is
trouble(d), sexy and a touch dangerous, making her irresistible as well.
After
a brief (?) relationship, he buys her a house (from what money, I wonder) and
then a ring, flashing back to an earlier subtle reference. As he brings it to
her, he finds her deceased in their bathtub. He freaks out, of course, and
through a further series of fragmented events, finds that if he electrocutes
himself and has his two best buds (Julian Curi and Zac Snyder) bring him back
through a second shock, he can retrace some of his steps and see things he hadn’t
noticed the first time, which leads him to believe she was done in by another
than herself.
Well,
you can find most of that out from reading the box, IMDB, or even Wikipedia, so
I’m not giving anything away, I promise. This is all in the first 10-15 minutes
of expository, so the story really starts to take off from this moment.
What
Nick is doing is obviously dangerous, but his two loyal pals stand by him as he
is shocked to and from what they call Memory Lane, break into Hannah’s veterinary
(he’s a vet and she’s a vet; coincidence?) lab for equipment, and other acts that
could put them all in jail. After all, the dudes are literally killing their friend on purpose; think
the police are really going to say, “Oh, it’s okay, you were just helping yer
bud talk to his dead girlfriend”?
Self-considered
more sci-fi than horror, this was shot for a reported $300 (mostly spent on
food) in Wheeling, WV and across in Ohio, the film definitely has a good look
to it, with muted colors to represent the moodiness and angst. Shot on a Cannon
T2i and edited on a MacBook Pro, director Shawn Holmes makes the most of what
he has, such as talented acting roommates and friends who were willing to
devote their time and efforts into a project of which they could definitely be
proud. It’s no surprise it’s played at a number of festival, and even won some
prizes (including Best Director).
Honestly,
I watched the film three times, and I recommend that as well for the following
reasons: the first time through, I had a bit of trouble following the story here
and there, such as, how did he know she
was murdered by the events he saw? And how
did he come to know who the murderer was? Perhaps I’m thick, but I seemed
to have missed these imperative pieces of information. Because of questions and
what felt like some holes in the story, I found myself getting a tad antsy.
The
story and editing jumps a bit here and there, the latter being on purpose for a
reason that I came to understand through the second sit-through. The rerun was
with the director’s commentary turned on; Holmes does it solo (thank you) and
manages to do a magnificent job of it. He tells anecdotes, motives, and explains
some things about the plotline that I totally did not get the first time
through. It cleared up a lot for me, to the point where it made me happy (and
no longer antsy).
With
this knowledge in hand, I sat through it again, and a lot of pieces fell into
place that I had missed the first time (e.g., the ring I mentioned earlier). The
third time was actually more enjoyable than the first, even with the same computer
program created music droning through the whole film.
What
we learn through it all it that by whatever means necessary (realistically; I
would not recommend through self-electro-death therapy), it’s important to face
what you have done, even if it’s hard (such as Hawkeye did with the Vietnamese
baby on the bus during the last episode of M*A*S*H).
Lots
of extras abound, including the fact-filled commentary track. There is a
take-it-or-leave-it “Deleted Scenes,” “Memory Lane Short Films” that is a
series of kind of “Making Ofs,” “Promotional Videos,” and a couple of
interesting “Screen Tests.” Being a Wild Eye Releasing product, there’s also a
few fun trailers of their other releases.
The
film has been compared to Pi and a
couple of others that play with some aspect of time, but this is actually a nice,
mostly original piece that is well-written as a premise (even with some problem
areas). The cast is suburb, especially Allen and Curi, and I can see a possible
future for much of the top of the crew, such as the director and co-writer Hari
Sathappan, though this is his only IMDB credit so far.
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