katherineannwriting

Nyctophobia looks stunning but doesn't have much narrative outside of the protagonist's struggle to break free from her nightmares and anxiety. By nature, experimental filmmaking doesn't require a narrative, but 90 minutes is quite a long time to not have a plot or character fleshed out beyond suffering from nyctophobia; casual viewers might find their attention waning after the first 30 minutes. Having said that, as an informative art piece, Nyctophobia succeeds at both representing symptoms of the disorder beyond just a fear of the dark and the general surreal nature of dreams and nightmares. The woman struggling to sleep peacefully, credited as Liz (Olivia Clari Nice), is dropped into many strange scenarios without much of a blink, rolling along with the dream "logic" even though it always roughly ends with masked figures blocking her path and even causing her harm. There's a recognizable pattern to her behavior and her dreams; there's even a sequence where she's taking a school exam, a common anxiety dream even for people without an anxiety disorder. All of this strangeness is sold through not only Nice's excellent physicality (there isn't much dialogue, so her body language takes center stage) but also through the overall look and sound of the film. The bursts of color throughout the otherwise black-and-white film are carefully measured, never feeling like too much, and the sound design is hypnotic, especially towards the end when Liz's sleep becomes more restful. While I do think it might have worked better as either a much shorter film or as the same length but with a more realized character, Nyctophobia is still a visually and aurally arresting piece for those into more arthouse films.

Winner (2024) has an interesting base concept, really good technical direction, and the lead actress is fantastic. The problems come from the little details of the plot, with some things happening ridiculously quickly, others way too slowly, and almost every other character outside of Chloe being such an extreme exaggeration.

Alex (Emille Lacsa) has absolutely no nuance; whatever the worst thing the character can say is, that's what he says. The same goes for the mother (Corinne Kelly) who seems just as emotionally abusive towards Chloe as Alex. The movie so exaggerates the two's negative qualities that eventually they become caricatures instead of real characters.

The main plot is pretty melodramatic. There's not only blackmail, but also a snake venom threat, which is straight out of an old pulp mystery novel. I really liked the overall concept, but not every piece of the puzzle fits together. It's mostly little things - like the pacing and the way no one seems to think the blackmailer's methods are strange - but there's enough of them that the movie just feels jumbled.

Having said all of that, Koko Marshall is electric to watch as Chloe. She's the most naturalistic of the entire cast and even when she has bizarre dialogue, it comes out sounding believable. The technical production was also great; editing, sound, lighting, camera angles, all of it felt polished. The whole movie takes place mostly in one small room, so it could have quickly become visually stale if the production team hadn't known what they were doing, but they definitely did.

Basically, it's a well-directed movie with a very talented lead, but the script is not as developed as I'd have liked.