Country:
USA/Canada/Germany
Recognizable Faces:
Bill Pullman
Julia Ormond
Michael Ironside
Directed By:
Jennifer Chambers Lynch
Film Noir buffs, rest assured. The ghost of Jim Thompson is not anywhere near resting in peace. There are still artists who keep the spirit of psycho noir alive. This time, it's a lady, Jennifer Chambers Lynch who wrote and directed this bleak, twisted and hopeless little piece of cinema. I'm always happy to see a female presence in the darkest lair of crime fiction. Noir is a genre often accused of sexism, because the women are depicted as wild, sexy and uncontrollable beasts that will make a man sell his soul, so it's interesting to me to see how a noir written by a woman, starring a woman in a lead role will fare in the storyline. Can it really be that different? SURVEILLANCE is a movie with a pair of brass balls and a set of brass knuckles that will challenge the viewers' fortitude and moral compass. I can only thank reader Ed Raso for recommending this well-buried gem to me and pass the word.
In SURVEILLANCE, there are two sickos touring the U.S, invading homes and leaving a trail of blood and gore behind. Agent Hallaway (Pullman) and Agent Anderson (Ormond) have been on their trail for a little while now and take over the police station at the location of their latest murders. Small midwestern towns aren't easy though. The two federal agents are trying to piece together the story behind their investigation subjects' latest strike but they have to extract every bits and pieces of information from the mouth of the protagonists. And the portrait isn't pretty. There is a station-full of dirty cops, a cocaine addicted beauty on a sleepless night and a newly orphaned little girl. Everybody has a story, but nobody has the truth. The mysterious killers piled an awful lot of bodies behind them the night before. So what the hell happened? How will they ever know the truth if nobody's willing to tell them?
There are many things Jennifer Chambers Lynch did right with SURVEILLANCE. She understands the aesthetics of noir very well. Her research for settings and her scene-building is tremendous. I don't know where she found that police station, but it's so old and worn out. It reminds me of my old elementary school where the janitor couldn't keep up with the work load and there was always grime on the floors. The cast is also full of surprising underdogs who look like they're overplaying at first, but who have a surprising depth to their game. Kent Harper for example (who also co-wrote the script) does one of the best jobs I've ever seen as Jack Bennett, the rottenest of rotten cops. French Stewart as his partner, Officer Jim Conrad also shines. For the longest time I thought Pullman and Ormond were the weakest link of the movie, but they do all the little things right and grow on you as the movie goes along.
SURVEILLANCE is tough, bleak and gory but it never steps out of purpose. What makes a real atmosphere in a movie is the economy. Nothing had to be overdone or feel overdone anyway. That's something Jennifer Chambers Lynch understands really well. There's not an avalanche of bodies, the bad guys keep their cool and don't behave like savages and the settings vaguely symbolize what's going on without exagerating one character's inner turmoil. SURVEILLANCE is the best film noir I've seen in recent years and one of the best movies I've seen this year alone. It's not easy, it requires some work and cooperation from the viewer but it will sucker punch you with delightful twists when you least expect it. It's a dark, almost Western-ish portrait of the law in America, but it's amazing at what it does. Drilling inside your skull that is. Think STRAW DOGS meets LOST HIGHWAY.
SCORE: 90%
There are many things Jennifer Chambers Lynch did right with SURVEILLANCE. She understands the aesthetics of noir very well. Her research for settings and her scene-building is tremendous. I don't know where she found that police station, but it's so old and worn out. It reminds me of my old elementary school where the janitor couldn't keep up with the work load and there was always grime on the floors. The cast is also full of surprising underdogs who look like they're overplaying at first, but who have a surprising depth to their game. Kent Harper for example (who also co-wrote the script) does one of the best jobs I've ever seen as Jack Bennett, the rottenest of rotten cops. French Stewart as his partner, Officer Jim Conrad also shines. For the longest time I thought Pullman and Ormond were the weakest link of the movie, but they do all the little things right and grow on you as the movie goes along.
SURVEILLANCE is tough, bleak and gory but it never steps out of purpose. What makes a real atmosphere in a movie is the economy. Nothing had to be overdone or feel overdone anyway. That's something Jennifer Chambers Lynch understands really well. There's not an avalanche of bodies, the bad guys keep their cool and don't behave like savages and the settings vaguely symbolize what's going on without exagerating one character's inner turmoil. SURVEILLANCE is the best film noir I've seen in recent years and one of the best movies I've seen this year alone. It's not easy, it requires some work and cooperation from the viewer but it will sucker punch you with delightful twists when you least expect it. It's a dark, almost Western-ish portrait of the law in America, but it's amazing at what it does. Drilling inside your skull that is. Think STRAW DOGS meets LOST HIGHWAY.
SCORE: 90%