The appeal of "reality television" is, on the surface, easily explainable: there's an undeniable intensity to any viewing experience where the viewer can't tell himself, "it's only a movie" (or TV show). It ups the ante for the viewer, and is infinitely more compelling. Since this intensification is applied across the board, its presence in television is a match made in heaven, since it allows lazy producers to present half-baked contents and still make them effective.
This movie eschews the aforementioned ineptitudes and presents an already compelling topic and cranks up the intensity meter almost past the level of endurance. The "Blair Witch" way in which this film is presented - is it real, or isn't it? - is brilliantly done and genuinely convincing, and the first viewing of this movie, particularly if the viewer is unfamiliar with any of the production details, can be harrowing. To our mind, this really is happening on the screen.
And here's the spoiler which sums up the way the movie affected me personally: All through my first viewing, I couldn't get it out of my head that this all could be the real thing flickering on my screen. This movie never "blinks," it never tips its hand to let you in on a camera trick, or a jump cut...until the very end.
The very last scene, where the filmmaker himself seems to get murdered by his partner, looks as real as all which has come before it. Unless, that is, you focus your eyes on the trees in the background, and you see the tiniest jump of the leaves where the real footage and the fake death were masterfully spliced together. Watch for it, and instead of seeming like a flaw, you realize just how brilliant the cutting was.
However, considering that, immediately before this scene, the two filmmakers are discussing faking the death in that exact way, it still doesn't represent a break in the film's veracity. Masterful. Really masterful.
This isn't a fun film. But it's a film you won't soon forget, either.
This movie eschews the aforementioned ineptitudes and presents an already compelling topic and cranks up the intensity meter almost past the level of endurance. The "Blair Witch" way in which this film is presented - is it real, or isn't it? - is brilliantly done and genuinely convincing, and the first viewing of this movie, particularly if the viewer is unfamiliar with any of the production details, can be harrowing. To our mind, this really is happening on the screen.
And here's the spoiler which sums up the way the movie affected me personally: All through my first viewing, I couldn't get it out of my head that this all could be the real thing flickering on my screen. This movie never "blinks," it never tips its hand to let you in on a camera trick, or a jump cut...until the very end.
The very last scene, where the filmmaker himself seems to get murdered by his partner, looks as real as all which has come before it. Unless, that is, you focus your eyes on the trees in the background, and you see the tiniest jump of the leaves where the real footage and the fake death were masterfully spliced together. Watch for it, and instead of seeming like a flaw, you realize just how brilliant the cutting was.
However, considering that, immediately before this scene, the two filmmakers are discussing faking the death in that exact way, it still doesn't represent a break in the film's veracity. Masterful. Really masterful.
This isn't a fun film. But it's a film you won't soon forget, either.