Bait

'Bait (2019)' looks like a movie from the late twenties/ early thirties, with black-and-white cinematography and overdubbed dialogue. It's an odd decision, since the narrative doesn't demand this treatment in the slightest. The story is like something out of a soap opera, a small-town tale of tourism vs local business. It isn't just its abstract aesthetic that marks it as distinct; its plot is peppered with contextless scenes that could either be flashbacks or flash-forwards. This strange choice makes the movie much more confusing than it ought to be. It sort of comes across as an attempt to arbitrarily 'liven up' the flick's relatively straightforward story. Though it does transform the flick into somewhat of an enigma, it never really feels necessarily. The picture just doesn't quite come together as satisfyingly as it perhaps ought to. Its aesthetic is well-achieved, though, and its narrative is typically rather interesting. It's ultimately a fairly engaging experiment. 6/10