Silver Haze

Vicky knight did an amazing job portraying her character, i feel she was probably able to draw upon her own physical and mental scars from her own burns and her own experience (yes her scars are real) , the character of florence is flawed and messy and annoying, and her story arc was inconclusive to me. I felt also that franky's story deserved a better ending but at least it was somewhat wrapped up, if slightly ambiguous.

I am a fan of these british made films that arent flashy and big budget, but raw and show social/economic issues which is the sad truth many face even today. The sister and mums story was a bit strange and not well developed but i have still given the film a 7 out of 10 as it did a really great job for its budget and its genre :) i will look out for more projects from the director and the main actress.

Hospital nurse Franky (Vicky Knight) is covered with burn scars from a fire 15 years ago when she was a child. She meets troubled patient Florence (Esme Creed-Miles) who tried to commit suicide. She suspects her mother's friend having set the fire and it continues to haunt her.

The film is filmed in the style of 'fly on the wall', or graphic documentary style. And given the subject matter and stated storyline, that's not the best way to do it.

It presents southern English people as common, uneducated, ungracious people with no manners or courtesy and not even able to speak English properly. That for me takes away form the central story and starts to take on the role of a social commentary on the way people live in Britain.

In the first half of the film there are only 2 references to a fire, so rather than Frankie's search for the truth of what happened to her, the first half of the film is nothing but anti-social behaviour, swearing, arguments and graphic, but completely unnecessary lesbian sex.

I'm sitting here at the half way stage still waiting for the story to start and for someone to be able to speak English.

I've given it a 2 and that's more than it's worth.

Hospital nurse Franky (Vicky Knight) is covered with burn scars from a fire 15 years ago when she was a child. She meets troubled patient Florence (Esme Creed-Miles) who tried to commit suicide. She suspects her mother's friend having set the fire and it continues to haunt her.

This is an intriguing character. I wasn't sure if the scars are real. I figured that a low budget indie would have difficulty doing big-time prosthetics. She's a very compelling actress with a completely unique look. The lower budget does have one drawback. This is setting up for a flashback reveal of the fire during most of the movie. Of course, there is no way for them to film a full-blown bar fire on a limited budget. The movie misses not having that scene.

"Silver Haze" is a beautiful example of how the cinema still didn't run out of new creative ideas for coming-of-age films. Sacha Polak, the director, succeeds with her 4th feature film and her 2nd colaboration with Vicky Knight in creating an unmistakably small-town English aesthetic with depiction of struggling lower-class society. Vicky Knight shines brithly in the leading role with her rusty voice and cockney accent as she works her way through every part of Franky's story. From childhood trauma (both physical and mental), dealing with loss, discovering your true self and your sexuality (LGBTQ+), losing a family while gaining a new one "Silver Haze" presents a clear vision in all its aspects and leads the audience to a perfect closure at the end. I also have to mention simple yet intimate cinematography and a very fitting soundtrack, that pairs perfectly with what is happening in the film.

It might seem reductive, considering that this is a deeply personal piece of filmmaking but there are shades in here of Clio Bernard, Andrea Arnold, Lynne Ramsay, Alan Clarke (who I think is the most direct companion to this work, from the at-time guttural sensitivity), with other works I'm reminded of including Naked, Mona Lisa, and Nil by Mouth.

This is a film that is difficult viewing for those that find themselves not necessarily refracted in the characters, but in the dynamics, tone, and mood, which can at times feel overwhelming.

The palliative care sequences were particularly gut-wrenching for me, and handled carefully.

The performances are almost feverish, as if dictated by, or caught in, circumstance,-and this does seem like a definitively unique contribution to filmmaking, that will over time, I imagine, be viewed with the same eyes as those that look back on a work like Nil by Mouth.

It seems slightly pointless to try to describe the story as a way into the film, since what this really feels like is delving headfirst into a study of complex dynamics that I don't think someone could have directed had they not gone through them.

There is a deep austerity to filmmaking rarely being done like this anymore.