Phobos

I appreciate what writer-director Alex Proyas was going for with 'Phobos,' and the effort undertaken without the apparent involvement of anyone else. It's an interesting concept, even if not particularly arresting.

There's a great deal going on here. Most immediately we have to first recognize the skill of star Bonnie Ferguson. As there is specifically no crew credited here, I assume that means Ferguson assembled her own sartorial arrangement and did her own makeup, and even in black and white, she looks fantastic. More substantially, we so clearly read on her face the expression of fear, uncertainty, and anxiety as the protagonist takes the long way home, alone. We readily recognize ourselves in her, especially if we've ever had to make a similar trek. I immediately get the sense that Ferguson is someone to watch out for, and I look forward to seeing more of her films.

As the protagonist loses her car, then begins heading home by other means, there are a minimum of visual effects that raise the tension of her experience: a couple glitches in the picture; single-frame apparitions of skulls over nearby persons, whether in her field of vision or not; a vague, shadowy figure on the periphery of the scene. Do these flashes of portent signal some force actively stalking the protagonist? Are they simply manifestations of her highly alert imagination, seeing danger all around her? Or are they simply visuals overlaid on the film to emphasize to viewers the protagonist's emotional state, and the mindset that fear puts us in?

If nothing else, that last bit is the true crux of the short, for 'Phobos' is - in clear intent and in final realization - an examination of fear. The journey of Ferguson's character allows us to visualize an example of fear manifesting in real life. Meanwhile, in the first few minutes of the short, this small, simple tale is also interwoven with shots of the moon of Mars, named Phobos, during which interstitials we're treated to a voiceover discussing fear, as we know it. While the cutaways to the celestial object end quickly, the narration - heavily manipulated and altered with voice software - continues over top of the protagonist's trek for the remainder of the film. It defines fear, and elucidates the word's etymology, before proceeding to discuss fear as a physiological response; its place in human lives and culture; philosophy; and fear as it relates to those things that fill our lives on a daily basis.

This is not at all what I was expecting when I sat to watch 'Phobos.'

As the narration ends, the film concludes without any real sense of resolution or denouement - just the continued steps of the protagonist, with one final visual effect to again denote the all-encompassing, universal experience of Fear.

This is interesting. 'Phobos' is an exercise in film-making the likes of which I'm familiar with as a concept, but which I don't think I've really actually seen before. Short films with little to no narrative, open to interpretation, are one thing; short films that set out to examine, in the most ostentatiously artistic way possible, a specific aspect of the human condition, with or without narration? That's bold. Pretentious, perhaps, but bold. A gold star to Alex Proyas for the effort, for the concept, and for seeing it through; a gold star, too, for Bonnie Ferguson for her stark honesty as our wayward protagonist.

But: is 'Phobos' worth watching? For a general audience, the average viewer - no. There's not truly a narrative, no grabbing "punch" or story beat; the highfalutin concept and format here is off-putting. This is a short for folks who are open to watching anything, and giving it earnest consideration, whether it's "up their alley" or not. This is a short with very limited, specialized appeal.

I don't know that 'Phobos' is quite my thing, but the more I watched it, the more I liked it. There's little here to truly keep us absorbed, but the sheer audacity of making a niche feature like this is worth a great deal in and of itself.

You had my curiosity. Now you have my attention.

Is "Fear" your ally or enemy? "It is by going down into the abyss that we recover the treasures of life. Where you stumble, there lies your treasure." - Joseph Campbell. "Phobos" means "Fear" in Greek.

The visuals are spellbinding, immersive and viscerally-palpable;...grabbing at the jugular (as Fear does to one)...becoming a powerful narrative design accessing the darkest labyrinths in the subject matter, experienced through the sensory sensibilities and sensitivities of Bonnie Ferguson's character. Although, I feel that she's dancing with an invisible partner, the character of 'Fear' itself. I'm entranced by the hypnotic reflections writing their own metaphysical alchemy on reflective surfaces...like the ceilings in the electronic walkways... turning the trick on the trickster...and reversing convention...allowing the ceiling to "ground" more in what it reflects about our fears and subconscious through its abstractions. Sometimes, it's within the absolute abstraction that we discover an understanding with piercing clarity. Exploring labyrinths of the mind by giving it a face through the settings of suffocating, encroaching corridors like a simulated lab maze the "subject" has to navigate through and within...it really did something to my own pulse rate and anxiety. Alex Proyas celebrates his masterful understanding, creation and implementation of a film language that "induces" feeling the story and its subject(s), rather than merely observing...incredible! The labyrinth of corridors, walkways, tunnels, underground train platforms collectively feel as if they give "a face" to a complex, multi-layered foliage, network, organic vascularity of your most invisible and pan-suffocating protagonist "Fear" itself. The B/W enhances the internal battle of the light and dark at the core of our being, and highlights the chiaroscuro that itself feels like a character...the embodiment of a suffocating fear, paranoia... The voice-overs of he who "conducts" the experimental observation...another race...an "outsider" of sorts(?) is a haunting character that forever presides through lateral time...a fascinating layer of consciousness that informs as he intrigues, questions rhetorically in an organic manner...and very subtly challenges your own thought processes. Its sound design induces an otherworldly seduction which identifies what is blind to us through the relativity of our sensory lexicon and cognizant process. Some perceive our cognizant process as a "controlled hallucination"...which is beautifully given reference to (through the DP work) when the "focus"/ understanding/ perception ..."blurs"...and what that may say about Fear itself as an agent in our lives...and what it does. Perhaps the "blur" is the clarity somehow...?

PHOBOS is a riveting exploration into 'Fear' as an evolutionary character within ourselves...within our DNA and its memory, being simultaneously a driving and regressive force, a life-carving and altering 'gravitational push and pull' within our internal cosmos. It's a cinematic awakening into how Fear proves to be both the Hope and Peril of our being. Following on the auteur director's signature, mind-blowing style, PHOBOS explores the hijacking of our cognizance and induced fear through mass culture and its diverse portals. The iconography is seductive as it is powerfully evocative: including iconic, cultural references 'Saturn Devouring His Son', 'Guernica' and Munch's 'The Scream' - to mention a few - in that visual slipstream of cutaway referentials that galvanize an arresting narrative design, hinting at how dots connect and weave a consciousness that induces "the prison of Fear". Even more haunting are the cuts in the end as she's walking... It makes us sense her fear...that she in fact fears the possibility/ies of her own quantum potential... Indeed the greatest fear is the fear within ourselves...the fear most relative to us...and no external "monster" could ever top that... The only thing to fear in the (in)human condition...is well...'Fear' itself. Alex Proyas weaves a narrative design through the marriage of image and sound, pace, settings, costume and makeup designs...in a spellbinding, seductive, haunting...and ultimately interrogative manner! Fear is the greatest ally the master puppeteer has to execute mass subjugation;...whoever owns the "arena"...owns the masses (ref: GLADIATOR)...

Actress Bonnie Ferguson's expressions are very powerful - much harder to do in a film that has her completely mute. But in a way she speaks far louder than words ever could through her captivating facial expressions, physiognomy (it's a deafening silence) and compelling, quality acting. I'm sure a lot of the choices came from Alex Proyas' direction, but ultimately it falls on the actress to convince us...and for us to 'see' semblances of ourselves through and within her. An actress to watch out for, with a promising career.