Nearing the end of viewing the feature films from the Soho Horror Film Festival weekend dedicated to LGBT film makers,I decided to search round online for info about the titles,where I found that this was the movie generating the most discussions, which led to me going through the looking glass.
Note:This review contains plot details.
View on the film:
Following Charlie for years going down gravel roads and exploring the corners of every smoke-filled bar-room on the outskirts of town looking for her missing young daughter, co-writer (with Susan Graham)/ director Lauren Fash makes an astonishing feature film debut,thanks to closely working with cinematographer Damian Horan to cover Charlie's search with the thick fog of Southern Gothic atmosphere hanging over her, swaying in chillingly stilted wide-shots across the empty outskirts,and in striking close-ups,which subtly reflect the haze of a unreliable memory that Charlie is grasping at.
Scattering reflective surfaces across the background and in sequences expertly edited by Adriaan van Zyl & Lisa Zeno Churgin, fleeting dovetailed flashbacks to the memories Charlie still have of her daughter, Fash grips the memories Charlie holds most dear, and threads them into an incredibly complex,ultra-stylised arc shot, which horrifyingly, unveils a twist which completely changes the perspective of the events which had proceeded it.
Haunted when awake and asleep by the disappearance of her daughter, Robyn Lively gives a fantastic performance as Charlie, carrying the pain and anguished from the years searching in the darkness, and the complete cold shoulder the locals give to her, due to fingers remained pointed at Charlie as the suspect, and rampant, violent homophobia due to Charlie being a lesbian.
Threading together all the fragments of clues Charlie has found over the years, the screenplay by Fash and Graham pours out a rich Southern Gothic Horror mystery, filling the decayed bars and clubs with locals who attack Charlie with grotesque dialogue, when she digs in with questions about whispers going round town,as Charlie steps through the glass darkly.
Note:This review contains plot details.
View on the film:
Following Charlie for years going down gravel roads and exploring the corners of every smoke-filled bar-room on the outskirts of town looking for her missing young daughter, co-writer (with Susan Graham)/ director Lauren Fash makes an astonishing feature film debut,thanks to closely working with cinematographer Damian Horan to cover Charlie's search with the thick fog of Southern Gothic atmosphere hanging over her, swaying in chillingly stilted wide-shots across the empty outskirts,and in striking close-ups,which subtly reflect the haze of a unreliable memory that Charlie is grasping at.
Scattering reflective surfaces across the background and in sequences expertly edited by Adriaan van Zyl & Lisa Zeno Churgin, fleeting dovetailed flashbacks to the memories Charlie still have of her daughter, Fash grips the memories Charlie holds most dear, and threads them into an incredibly complex,ultra-stylised arc shot, which horrifyingly, unveils a twist which completely changes the perspective of the events which had proceeded it.
Haunted when awake and asleep by the disappearance of her daughter, Robyn Lively gives a fantastic performance as Charlie, carrying the pain and anguished from the years searching in the darkness, and the complete cold shoulder the locals give to her, due to fingers remained pointed at Charlie as the suspect, and rampant, violent homophobia due to Charlie being a lesbian.
Threading together all the fragments of clues Charlie has found over the years, the screenplay by Fash and Graham pours out a rich Southern Gothic Horror mystery, filling the decayed bars and clubs with locals who attack Charlie with grotesque dialogue, when she digs in with questions about whispers going round town,as Charlie steps through the glass darkly.