Last things first

I've been silent for a few days, despite much avid movie-watching, mostly because there hasn't been time for both attending blog fodder and posting blog content. So, now that the Nashville Film Festival is all but over, I've finally got a few minutes for a recap.

I'm starting with the movie I saw last night called Adrenaline-- it was a bonus screening for a little Nashville-made film that I didn't think I'd be all that interested in--it's a thriller-sorta about a guy whose car satellite system gets intercepted by a hacker who claims to have abducted the guy's daughter-- nor did I think I'd have time to see it. However the fates conspired and apparently, I was meant to see this movie. When I first read about it, I felt rather disinterested, based on plot-outline alone but then as I learned a little more about it, I realized that it's hard to be a Nashvillian and not have some connection to it... and, you know, that just-nearly-touching-the-action thing is always fun. So here are my connections to it: David Alford, the star/co-writer, is a pretty prominent local actor and heads the Tennessee Repertory Theatre (probably the most notable local theatre group, for my non-Nashvillian readers). Now, when I was in high school, I volunteered at the Nashville Children's Theatre, helping out with costumes... and David was in a couple of those productions... and my recollections of him as a totally sweet and unassuming guy made me feel like I ought to go support the film. And when I mentioned to my mom that I was gonna skip out on dinner to go see this extra screening, she got all excited and starts telling me about interviewing the guy who invented Dippin' Dots (do people not from Tennessee know what Dippin' Dots is, I wonder?)-- and apparently, this guy happened to be the executive producer for this film. So, basically, Nashville is the smallest of all the small worlds.

Now the thing is, this film is destined to be picked up by some distributor somewhere, undoubtedly. I say this mostly because it's the sort of novelty that's likely to get some attention. It's 88 minutes long and the whole thing is just one shot. Yep, in the tradition of Hitchcock's Rope and that brilliant thing that came out a few years ago Russian Ark (if you haven't seen it, do so. Do so NOW!), just one little bitty shot. Or rather, one exacting, meticulously choreographed, driving-in-circles-in-downtown-Nashville, extremely loooooong shot. And they do a pretty good job of it from a technical standpoint. In the Q&A session after the screening, they confessed to several mishaps that we, in the audience, would never have noticed--like, for instance, Alford's hooked up to a live blue tooth all the way through and was in constant contact with this blonde woman (didn't catch what her job actually was, but I gather she was important) but in the middle of the 5th take-- the one that we saw-- apparently, his blue tooth died about 20 minutes from the end and when he leans over to vomit (scheduled, cued vomiting, mind you), he's really telling the DP that he's just gonna wing it for the rest! And this is pretty amazing, seeing as the remainder of the film is all a pretty tight action sequence. So, because this thing is so remarkable in its execution, I'm pretty sure everyone will have access to it sooner or later. And I can certainly reccommend it for the experience of it... it's a pretty fascinating experiment in filmmaking.

However, I feel I should offer a few caveats. For one thing, I think they had to make some pretty serious concessions here and there for continuity. I mean, the voice-over dude (the bad guy who's talking to Alford over the car satellite system) tells him to turn left a few times while he notably turns right. He plays a recording of the daughter's voice in which she repeats herself and doesn't answer questions-- which is a dead giveaway that Voice-over Dude is just pretending to have abducted her. Little plot issues like this seem par-for-the-course in this kinda genre film and didn't particularly worry me. But the Voice-over Dude himself? He vascillates between being campily sarcastic, issuing painfully overwrought decrees dripping with Hollywood evilness and obsequiously quoting Shakespeare (is this supposed to remind us that the writers are smart guys who've done their fair share of reading/stage-acting? Yes, thanks, I kinda already knew that). Basically, Voice-over Dude is Telephone Dude from Scream. Though, he's less ironic and aware of his own hamminess. Which is really too bad. He just chucked me right out of the moment with giggle-inducing cliches ever now and again.

That is not to say, however, that the film doesn't manage to mount a pretty serious tension. Because there is never any break from filming our protagonist, his own mounting anxiety is palpable and it's relentless. And, because Alford's plenty talented enough to go well beyond the bounds of the Nashville theatre scene, his Chris Thompson character is about as natural as they come.

This sort of thing is really what film festivals are all about: seeing some little experiment that some folks made for $65,000 (that may or may not catch fire) and being part of the local excitement. I just checked the NaFF website, knowing the awards were presented this morning and it looks like Adrenaline has won the Tennessee Independant Spirit Award for local filmmakers... and hopefully that'll give it some momentum. So, congratulations and good luck, David, et al! Should be at least as fun a ride for those guys as riding around an 8-block radius of downtown NashVegas, anyway!