Observance (2016)

There is the skeleton of a story draped around the film, enough to make you think it might be going someplace or mean something, but it will all be abandoned, or ignored in favor of obtuse, confusing, unconnected occurrences strung together for no reason whatsoever. There are some good creepy moments, one particularly effective scare, and even reasonably strong performances, but basically it's a 20-minute student film made by a potentially talented filmmaker, whose sole dictate was to create a mysterious and creepy ambiance - stretched to 86 minutes without the least idea (or perhaps intention) of providing anything more. There is enough of a plot to leave you frustrated when it veers away into disjointed nonsense whose dots will never connect, padded out with a man hearing strange noises, the source of which doesn't matter and is never explained, or hearing strange voices on recordings which may or may not be ghostly voices, and photographing images that may or may not be some time-displacement issue, seeing a bottle filling up with inky liquid for no discernible reason and certainly not connecting to anything else in the film, or showing shots of blood drops run backwards. And then there are the extreme close-ups of rocks, and suddenly spitting out tar. You know, anything permissible under the rubric of "it's surreal", or "it's art" but far more likely "it's kinda like something David Lynch would do." Which might be justification for crafting a 20-minute student film, but not enough to try and pass it off as a feature film. I personally love complex films that make you work intellectually; but that's a far cry from incoherent, lazy film-making where nothing logically fits together however technically accomplished it might be in places. Considering its minuscule budget it is extremely well-done and uses its limitations wisely. Too bad there wasn't a thought-out screenplay that all of this could have been in service of.

Following the death of his son and wife's refusal to talk to him, Parker (Lindsay Farris) takes on a task as a private investigator. He lives in a dump of an apartment as he watches the blonde (Stephanie King) across the street. He descends into madness (or whatever was happening) as he spies on the woman who has an abusive relationship with her fiancé (Tom O'Sullivan). In addition to weird occurrences happening in his apartment, Parker becomes physically ill as he discovers there is something else at play...an offering? Does it relate to the past? the doctor? Who the heck knows, the film didn't give me closure. Almost as confusing as that Jake Gyllenhaal thing (Enemy).Guide: F-word, brief sex. Nudity? Ummm...she lived in apartment 126. He is across the street in 128. Shouldn't one side be an odd number? Just observing.

I live in Australia and like a lot of Australians, we try and support our film industry, however there seems to be more flunks than triumphs. I watched this movie on the back of a particularly good Aussie flick. This film is extremely slow to start, that slow I was tempted several times to switch off and go to bed, it was just lucky I had to wait for something. So as the movie progresses the tension is palpable, even had be jump a little now and then, so much so I thought I would stick it through, then as I found out later there was another very slow part. I still hung in there and woe is me forever trying to watch this movie. NO ending is what awaits for you unless you expected it all along.Stephanie King gets the lead in the billing, what for? Who knows, yes she played, what there was of her role well, the star who shone with acting ability and totally believable was second billed was Lindsay Farris, totally believable, excellent performance and realistically the whole film rides on his back, it is a shame the director or writer could not see the extremely long slow spots and a bit more of an ending, can't say more because I don't write spoilers.

Movies that are stake outs and that may feel weird to say the least, do have issues with character credibility at some point. And it's not different with this one, where you think, shouldn't our main character do something else instead? Shouldn't he see the signs and react to them rationally? But we wouldn't have a movie if he did. Also the actions are somewhat explained by his financial situation.So while you can argue these flaws and bumps in the story, you can also just a "enjoy" the suspense this builds up. And it has some very shocking moments indeed. It's a one location sort of deal, but it makes the most of it. And the suspense might be killing some people. And that's why I was surprised to see the lower rating here on IMDb. Didn't expect that to be truthful