Surveillance

A good thriller is my favorite genre and I was hooked into this film within the first few seconds and stayed involved for the entire ride. It kept me guessing throughout. The contrast between eerie cop shop and stark, beautiful prairies is a stylish treat for the eyes. The performances are believable and compelling. Well cast, without exception. The little girl is surprisingly good. Her even performance made me wonder about what had happened to her and drew me into the story. When she wasn't on screen, I worried about her safety. The ending is a clever, eerie choice. I was taken completely by surprise and I usually predict a telegraphed ending a mile away. In this case, any other choice would be a cop-out (pardon the pun). I was glad that the director resisted the temptation for a blood-fest. It could have gone much further in that vein. Instead the tension relied upon intelligent visual storytelling. Kudos to everyone involved. I thoroughly enjoyed this film.

I'm usually happy to spoiler away in reviews - this time I shall be very careful not to spoiler.

I hadn't realised that the tendency to make disturbing movies is hereditary, but Jennifer Lynch's Surveillance is every bit as disturbing as anything Dad David has made. It starts with a moderately familiar scenario - two FBI agents arrive at a small police station (4 officers, one captain, one dispatcher) in the back of beyond to tape video interviews with the survivors of some sort of incident: the nature of what happened is revealed during the interviews. To say any more is to spoiler, so I'll shut up about the plot.

But I will say that "disturbing" is the best word to describe almost all of what follows. And not just one lot of disturbing, but several. The film is gripping, visceral, and features some stunning performances, notably from Bill Pullman who is not someone who I would normally have put high on my list of those I expect to surprise me performance-wise.

Not an easy film in many ways, but definitely worth catching.

How have I not heard of this movie before? Absolutely fantastic. It's difficult to review a movie by Jennifer Lynch without comparing it to the work of her father. 'Surveillance' possesses the Lynchian small town banality, stilted dialogue, awkward character dynamics, brutal violence, truly twisted killers, and generally off-kilter weirdness that you'd expect. But despite the stylistic similarities, the two are very different filmmakers. 'Surveillance' has a far more traditional structure with a familiar art-house/indie conceit of multiple perspectives and unreliable narrators. The central mystery is expertly revealed through the eyewitness accounts of several individuals, slowly building the sense of dread to a knock-out last act revelation that doesn't disappoint. One of the best thrillers in recent years and deserving of a much larger audience. More than enough evidence that Jennifer Lynch is a talent in her own right.

A pair of serial killers is on the loose, and their latest hotspot is Nebraska. When the FBI investigates, they find that all the witnesses have conflicting stories and are leaving out parts that make them look bad.

Jennifer Lynch is not her father, and it is not fair to her for everyone to compare them. However, for those who are concerned, this is not on the level of David Lynch (but few things are). In its own right, it's a very entertaining and suspenseful film, and it might keep you guessing until the end. For the first half, we are only given a small part of the story, and it works well... I just had to know the rest.

Bill Pullman is fantastic as always (though he's beginning to show his age). I can't see anyone else in the role. Julia Ormond is not familiar to me, but she is also excellent. Cheri Oteri and French Stewart did a great job in serious, and in Stewart's case menacing, roles... a nice adjustment from their past.

I haven't seen anyone compare this film to the crimes of Charles Starkweather (which inspired "Natural Born Killers"), which strikes me as odd. Two killers driving through Nebraska? Seems like a connection... but then, maybe I'm just crazy.

This film is worth seeing and a fine piece of work. It may not be remembered in a few years (it has already begun to fade quickly), but hopefully word of mouth keeps the attention on it for a while.

As if to demonstrate the old adage that "the apple doesn't fall far from the tree," director Jennifer Lynch gave the world in her belated sophomore effort, 2008's "Surveillance," a film just as disturbing as any in her father David's oeuvre. Her follow-up to 1993's "Boxing Helena," the film follows two very atypical FBI agents, portrayed by Bill Pullman and Julia Ormond, who are investigating a string of homicides in the plains of Nowheresville. (The picture was shot in the grasslands outside of Regina, Saskatchewan.) The pair interviews three salient witnesses: a young female coke addict (Pell James, who is excellent here), a local cop and an 8-year-old girl (Lynch elicits a wonderfully mature performance from young Ryan Simpkins). By the film's end, the conflicting accounts yield a somewhat clearer picture, before a twist ending really pulls the rug out from under the viewer. Indeed, this ending--a remarkably downbeat, merciless and outrageous shocker--should stun and flabbergast most of the film's audience. A repeat viewing of "Surveillance" demonstrates how very fairly the writers and Lynch have played their game, and will give an added appreciation for certain actors in the cast. "I promise you, it's not like the other films you'll see," Ms. Lynch tells us in one of the DVD's copious extras, and darn if she isn't right! I cannot offhand think of another picture so deliberately amoral, and so blithely ruthless in the treatment of its entire roster of characters. While some might walk away from "Surveillance" clucking "sick, sick, sick," most, I feel, will applaud its bravura daring, technical brilliance, fine acting and shocking windup. It's certainly not a movie to watch with the kids or with Aunt Petunia, but for those game for something different, it should just prove the ticket....