High Fantasy (2017)

High Fantasy: Directed by Jenna Cato Bass. With Qondiswa James, Nala Khumalo, Francesca Varrie Michel, Liza Scholtz. 4 young South Africans go on a camping trip to the white girl’s family farm. When they wake up next day, they’ve magically switched bodies. Later, when they’ve switched back, they’re interviewed documentary style.

“This is undoubtedly the worst film I can recall having seen in recent memory. Itu0026#39;s very amateurish and shot with phones. Thatu0026#39;s o.k. The framing on most of the shots is sloppy and the acting and dialog are terrible. Thatu0026#39;s o.k. Itu0026#39;s an independent film. I get that.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eBut I cannot forgive the absolutely awful storytelling here. The film tells the story of four frenemies who go camping in the middle of an open field that belongs to one of their families. They wake up one morning to find out that theyu0026#39;ve all mysteriously swapped bodies with each other. All of this is intercut with after-the-fact interviews with each about their experiences.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe films attempts to tackle issues of racial tension and chronic womanizing in South Africa, which is no doubt the only reason it was accepted to the Toronto International Film Festival. They love that sort of thing, I guess. The only problem is that it wasnu0026#39;t an undertone or a theme in the movie. It was the story, it was all the obnoxious characters talked about. There werenu0026#39;t thirty seconds where they didnu0026#39;t keep beating it to death. Everything out of their mouths was either an attack on each otheru0026#39;s race or an attack against the way that men treat women. It just wasnu0026#39;t believable that these four, while spending three days together camping, could find nothing else to talk about. Surely the subject would drift at some point.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eAnd the whole part about the body-swapping was completely unbelievable. It felt like a bad YouTube video that the makers put zero planning or rehearsal into. The whole film felt that way. But the whole point is that after swapping bodies theyu0026#39;re supposed to understand each other better, yet the film offers no answers, no solutions. It merely suggests, in the end, that men are pigs and white people are evil, just as was posited at the beginning of the film.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe only reasons I didnu0026#39;t give this film a lower rating was because it was pretty short for a feature and also one of the characters tells kind of a funny joke at one point. Itu0026#39;s not worth watching it though. But honestly Iu0026#39;m glad that these kids put in the time and effort to put together an entire feature film. Itu0026#39;s a lot of hard work. But I did not care for the final product. Not one bit.”