Tensions rise time and time again in Aneil Karia’s wild and atmospheric tale of a security guard. Who embarks on a surreal odyssey after losing his job.
After some awe-inspiring short films, including the excellent work for which Bafta was nominated:
British director Aneil Karia is now making an angry, if inadequate, feature film debut at the Sundance Film Festival. It’s an angry, claustrophobic, and atmospheric study of pressure cooker Ben Wishaw, a young airport security officer played by Joseph. He succumbs to loneliness, insomnia, and unresolved feelings for colleague Lily (Jasmine) Jobson.
Joseph loses most of his job, quits his job. And walks London’s noisy and carefree streets on a journey of chaos. And confrontation with an almost sonorous brain throbbing with suppressed madness. This includes many scary scenes with strangers. And Lily and her equally unhappy mother and father (Eli Haddington and Ian Gelder). An encounter that brings them unexpected moments of tenderness.
The title of the film is well chosen. Almost every scene – and perhaps the film itself. It is a wave, a wave of meteorological pressure pressing down on Joseph’s head. Each series seems to build, build, build on something. But then instead of peaking. We then mysteriously cut to another scene and reset to a new psycho-emotional wave.
This is a cunning representation of the everyday disasters that Joseph used to experience.
Everybody search that Joseph was forced to carry out at the security gates involved. An unbearably formal intimacy with a stranger, one of whom was affected. And for one harrowing moment here, Joseph’s palpable instability is so significant that the audience can’t tell what’s crazy and what’s sane.
The Wishaw show is essentially a silent anthology of quiver, tics, grimaces, moments of eerie emptiness. Along with a little Henry-Portrait-of-a-Serial killer looking in the mirror. Violence or some outburst is inevitable, but it seems dramatically indistinguishable from tense, reflective foreplay when violence comes. It won’t work with less complete and charismatic actors than Wishaw. It must be hard to sell.
This is a compelling essay in a mood, but I feel like Surge’s feature film is testing the material. Perhaps it would definately have worked better as a short film, based on an excellent opening scene at the airport. With Joseph in a goofy V-neck sweater and drawstring ID. There were times when Surge felt hopeless: Desperate and nearly insane. And desperate for five pounds to buy an HDMI cable to fix a Lily-Joseph television. He turned it to a life of a crime with him no longer doing traffic jams without ever dealing with police. Wouldn’t the police be a bit more involved in something like that? Probably not.
Surprisingly, this crime itself feels like part of an evil dream with no light consequences:
Namely, Joseph’s illegal existence. Karia never lost control of her moods, but her own seemed to change barely. There are some unusual pictures, most notably one where Joseph, delirious. It gives a room in a luxury hotel then rips off the mattress and climbs into this pseudo-lap. Karia is a brilliant director, and it’s a worthwhile start.
London is the most-watched city outside of China. Joseph must have witnessed every injury. Surge doesn’t just focus on the dark side of city life. In those few sunny summer days, history has shown that London comprises a dynamic variety of cultures. A group of dancers from South Asia set the stage for a transcendent ending. And the music they danced to was laudatory.
The story is told through body language and camera movement choreography. And editing options that bind audiences to Joseph Wishaw. It has a layered sound design and carefully distributed music by Tujiko Noriko, which adds tension.
Even though Wishow appears from the screen, the actor who plays the parents deserves credit. Ian Gelder is an excellent rock crank. Eli Haddington – known as Coronation Street from the TV show in the UK. It is a new face to me and a fantastic face! He described Joseph’s mother as a woman so n*ked. And sensitive that her skin is dishevelled. As events escalated, he also dared to talk about his son and himself. This is a touching and brilliant moment.