Magpie

It is always a dangerous thing to go into watching any kind of film, short or feature, from a filmmaker whose work you have seen before. With Stephen Fingleton, his most notable short film is 'SLR', by way of festival exposure and plaudits, which I reviewed some months ago. Hence on learning about Magpie I kept my expectations at bay and came to the film with a fresh pair of eyes and ears (though ones ears won't have much to take in with Magpie).

Does Magpie work let alone work as a short? I am not so sure that it works as a short let alone a good short as there is no real story but more a slice of life, in the future, of a character that forages so as to survive and that's pretty much it with a very predictable middle and end. The interesting use of the opening credits to convey the back story is a great device but Fingleton seems to demonstrate a deftness with devices. Where he seems to fall short is in creating an interesting enough story that holds one's attention through it's entire running time. The short comes to an obvious conclusion but does not impress or leave it's mark/impression upon you.

I suppose Fingleton can be forgiven for this lack-luster offering as it is a precursor to a feature that is already filming. My hope is that the filmmaker will be making every effort to bring a lot more to the big screen in his feature. That said it is possible that Fingleton was keen just to have more content on the web and in the festivals - I say this because I am hoping that this 'short' is not the ticked box for what the feature should be. With a well-known and recognizable cast in Magpie; Olivia Coleman (Sixth Sense, etc), Mia Goth (Nymphomaniac, etc), Martin McGann (The Pacific, etc) - (two out of three of the cast figuring in the feature that is in production), one can see that the short will obviously get attention from festivals where programmers will outweigh the lack of something interesting and anything original for the 'marquee' names.

This short film opens with a cleverly engaging graphic. A red line runs across the screen and we follow it as markers indicate that it is the movement of time. Next we see that it is labeled 'population'. The a blue line shoots straight up (labeled 'oil production') and the red one follows and follows till the blue peaks, tapers and drops – rapidly followed by the red line falling like a stone. It goes on for about 90 seconds but it is well done and it tells you everything you need to know without the viewer feeling like we have been spoonfed everything with the usual words on screen approach.

From these minimalist beginnings we continue in the same way as the film puts us into the middle of woodland with one character foraging for food while also keeping an eye out for dangers. I will not say too much more than that on the plot – although in fairness most of the film is following the activities of the character who fits the title. There is a narrative here although it is a little obvious once it gets close to any actual events; more importantly than this is the tone of it. It is bleakly and silently delivered in the main, with a focus on the feeling of emptiness and basic survival. Ultimately the film is creating a world for us which it will then expand in the film The Survivalist, which according to IMDb is currently filming. I see from the cast list that no characters or actors seem to be shared between the two projects, so there is really only the atmosphere and background that I guess will link them.

If this is the case I am fine with it, since the short does very well to carry a sense of death and also is brutal in some of the things it does. The look and sound of the film is very well done, with emptiness and the loudness of small actions in an empty world making up what you can hear, while visually it has little color or cheer to it. Although the focus is on creating a place rather than delivering a story, the short film does manage a reasonably satisfying conclusion – mainly because it reinforces what we understand rather than tell you everything else.

The feature will need to bring much more to the table than this, but for the short it is all about atmosphere and focus and it works on those terms.