I haven't covered much of his work here, but I like Brad Anderson's work. Since he did an Episode of Masters of Horror post-The Machinist, let's see...
His Story- which he Adapted from a Short Story and Directed- is about a man with good hearing, but not so good sanity...
A middle-aged career man uses his amazing hearing to monitor a Tech Company Call Center. There is one big problem though...
He discovered his son's ailment too late for it to be treated, so he's fresh off a pretty rough time.
Things are looking up though: his wife is pregnant. He doesn't take the news quite how you would think though.
As his tension continues to grow, our hero grows more sensitive to sound. He can hear creatures in the wall, the buzzing of lights is audible and even this fly sounds like he's stomping around!
Naturally, his growing uncertainty and insanity starts to effect his personal and business life. I won't SPOIL it all though.
Finally, things reach a head and he makes some pretty drastic and disturbing changes to his life. Again- no SPOILERS. It is too good to ruin for you. The End.
Crazy stuff. This one really plays to the Director's strengths. The Story is about a normal guy on the outside with some stuff on the inside that is just eating him away. With the use of extreme close-ups and genius bits of Sound Editing, you really feel like you are in his world. When he hears a fly, the Film shoots right up to it and exaggerates the sound of its feet tapping on the glass greatly. You could show someone acting upset by a sound, but THIS is the most visceral way to make you feel it. On top of that, all the Acting is good and it helps keep everyone relatable. Our hero starts out normal enough, but grows more angry and irrational. As you learn why, it becomes clear. You can't truly relate to his insanity (hopefully!), but this is the closest you can come. It is one thing to tell me that a guy is crazy. It is one thing to have you show me that someone is crazy. It is a whole different thing entirely for you to make me FEEL that someone is truly crazy. That's the benchmark reached here. Kudos. The only downside to watching this is that you see what the Director can do with a small amount of money and time. Why doesn't he get all sorts of money to do bigger Films like a Director akin to, say, James Wan? It's a shame. On the plus side, this is the second Film of his now which has tried (pretty well) to convince me that it was shot someone other than where it was...
Good, good stuff from Anderson. He does 'guy slowly goes insane' so well. It's a gift, I suppose.
No comments:
Post a Comment