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| Tenneal (Stephanie King) does not realize that she's being watched in Observance--Joseph Sims-Dennett (2015) |
Two amazing things frequently happen at the Fantasia Film Festival. First, you often get to see the World Premieres of films--screening a film before any other audience has seen it. And during those premieres, you get to meet the people behind the vision--directors, producers, cinematographers and other cast and crew. With Joseph Sims-Dennett's
Observance, I got to experience the best of all things. Not only did the film premiere at Fantasia, but the director and producer were in attendance even in my little afternoon screening (since the big shindig was the previous night). I feel pretty bad about kind of dissing this film in my summary from a couple of weeks ago. I pigeon-holed the film as a voyeur gone bad, Dad needs dough, mourning his dead kid, kind of picture. I'm not saying that those elements are not a part of the film. They are. Nevertheless, this film is so much more complex than my summary suggests. I was confused and questioning for a great deal of the film, and I mean that in the best possible way.
Observance was a majorly wonderful surprise!
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| Parker's haunted grief over his son takes on an increasingly nightmarish tone |
The film follows Parker (Lindsay Ferris), who returns to a work at a surveillance job far too soon after the tragic loss of his son in order to pay for some extremely steep medical bills (in the six digit range). He receives his instructions from a voice on the phone (Brendan Cowell) and he's told to stay put, watch Tenneal (Stephanie King), and report on her actions at the end of every day. Parker has some concerns regarding the ethics of watching Tenneal, fearing that something violent will occur and that he is meant to watch and "observe." While the job is only supposed to be for a few days, Parker is asked to stay longer. At that point though, strange things have started to occur, and Parker really, really is not feeling well. Since the film is almost entirely from his perspective, spectators can create virtually no distance between themselves and the grieving Parker, and as for Parker, the line between what's happening, and what he thinks is happening, becomes increasingly hard to discern.
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| Has Tenneal come to ask Parker to "stop looking?" |
Observance is definitely a slow burn until Parker starts to seriously unravel both physically and mentally. The film raised so many intriguing questions for me, that I think I can list some of them without remotely spoiling the film. Did I see something swimming in Parker's milk glass? What is this mysterious institute where Tenneal works? What is up with that bottle of ink in Parker's bedroom? What exactly happens to him in the shower? Why is this apartment such a broken down mess compared to Tenneal's cozy home? What does Tenneal's boyfriend, Brett, have to do with any of these events, and how is he linked to his father's sordid past? Why does he warn Parker, or does he? And finally, who is exactly watching whom in this film??
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| Who Are They?? |
After hearing Joseph Sims-Dennett speak on this unique (and slighly confounding) film, I think he would be delighted that these questions are what the film provoked in me. Sims-Dennett regaled the crowd with tales of his days making KFC ads (sounds bloody awful), and how he shot the film in 11 days in the midst of a horrible heat wave in Sydney in 2013. It's incredible what he and his producer, Josh Zammit, accomplished with a tiny budget in such a small amount of time. The film is frequently gorgeous, even at its most grungy moments. The gore is actually pretty subtle, even though there are some good ICK moments in there. The score is not overpowering; in fact,
Observance masterfully uses silence to ratchet up the dread. And there were just enough moments where I asked myself, while viewing, "what am I seeing here?" This film retains a level of ambiguity and mystery that I find very rewarding. I was quite impressed by
Observance, and I eagerly look forward to Sims-Dennett's next film.
