FanTasia 2010: NEVERlost
Years after his college sweetheart Kate perishes in a devastating house fire, Josh Higgins, a failed screen writer living a banal existence, has seen his life spiral out of control. Tortured by the tragedy, and the corrosive relationship that he shares with his wife Meg, Josh soon finds himself subjected to frequent panic attacks and a rampant case of insomnia. it isn't until he takes a seemingly harmless prescription of sleeping pills from his family doctor, that Josh is thrust into a disturbing sequence of events that illuminate an unknown ability to reach out and touch the past while amplifying the delusions he fears he's falling victim to.
After he unexpectedly awakes one morning in Kate's presence, Josh determines that his own sickness has somehow opened a pathway back to the life that he was once destined to have. As his condition worsens, and his marriage to Meg continues to disintegrate, Josh becomes increasingly obsessed with what may be a fatal exploration into his own unconsciousness.
Plagued by his increasingly volatile surroundings, his own mother's worrisome involvement and the ominous presence of a strange man following his every move, Josh soon realizes that his window of opportunity to vindicate the past is quickly closing. as the walls of his own psychosis slowly start to close in around him, Josh must race to save himself, Kate and the parallel life that he vows can never again become... lost.
A tight knit group from Quelph, Ontario, having worked together on many projects already, have created a very nice fantasy/thriller that has you second guessing which state of Josh's mind is reality, or, perhaps wishing for one over the other, believing one is better than the other even if you believe it isn't reality. Though each reality is distinctly different, all thanks to great production design, Archibald's screenplay gives each world enough credibility that either one of them could be the real one; by subtly changing up the circumstances in each one, either world could be real. But as you will find out neither world is without their own perils, furthering blurring the line between them. If Josh is dreaming and life with Kate is so good then why is their a looming sense of dread in it.
As good as his story his so is Archibald's presence behind the camera. NEVERlost is competently lensed with some very creative transitions between the two worlds i.e. the nose bleed especially. He doesn't get carried away with movement and effects are used sparingly. I have to keep in mind we were the first audience to see the film and there were a few effects missing and sound levels oscillated a touch here and there with exception to the very loud voiceover moment near the end of the film as one of Josh's realities begins to cave in on itself. Along side Archibald his DOP Martin Buzora also helps create some lasting images in the film.
There were some brief moments where the dialogue and acting felt a bit rigid and 'acted' and lost the natural flow. Perhaps proving it is easier to reach a darker place and be numb or mean but the demands of being light and happy are more challenging. But NEVERlost is anchored by the stronger performance from Ryan Barrett as Josh. His approach to Josh in the primary reality was to make him completely numb to everything around him. His motivation worked that I at least understood his pain though not connecting completely with it. And he achieved a boyish charm and a brightness in his eyes when he was with Kate. Credit to Ryan because there wasn't much time in the schedule to move from Kate to Meg and find that point of numb disillusion.
As ScreenAnarchy readers you know that we often lament about not paying much attention to genre film being made within our borders. Not so much our fault. The mandate of ScreenAnarchy has always been to look outward at international cinema and not inward. And we can say it is because we're Canadian, that it is a part of our social psyche not to boast about ourselves; and that patriotism or nationalism only come about every four years when Mens Hockey is part of the Olympics. But then because only a handful of us actually live here in Canada then why aren't any of our other writers looking back at us and saying, 'Woah. Did you know that such-and-such a film came out of Canada?' Sad I know.
But in recent years Canadian genre film does come out of the woods, howl at the moon, and everyone takes notice. It is possible for Canadian genre filmmakers to make noise. Bruce MacDonald and Pontypool. Vincenzo Natali and Splice. John Fawcett and Ginger Snaps. And there is a young breed, or brood, of Canadian genre filmmakers out there making their voices hears as well. Jon Knautz and Jack Brooks: Monster Slayer and The Shrine. Jason Eisener is currently working on a feature length Hobo with a Shotgun.
And will we be looking forward to more projects from Chad Archibald? Based on what I saw in NEVERlost, I am. As he and this community of filmmakers from Guelph continue to grow and hone their skills they are fully capable of putting out some great stuff that will help establish a voice for Canadian genre film.
