Videotape (2017)

Videotape: Directed by Andrew Yorke, Kevin Michael. With Andrew Yorke, Allison Varley, Kevin Michael, Daniel Thomas Phipps. First-time directors Andrew Yorke and Kevin Michael invite you on an experimental cinematic journey through the lives of troubled youth in troubling times. When a pregnant women is found dead in a warehouse, all signs point to suicide. But a freelance journalist gets a tip that an eyewitness with a different story is ready to talk. Yorke and Michael immerse viewers into a world beyond normal youthful indiscretion, one that’s dark and safely self-contained until pressures from mainstream society shatter everything. Videotape is a raw, powerful exploration of the darker side of human nature, with crucial questions screaming to be answered.

“This film was a very, very difficult watch and Iu0026#39;ll confess that Iu0026#39;m grateful that I had other things to do with my time while it ran. The film starts with a quote from Shirley Jacksonu0026#39;s u0026quot;The Lottery.u0026quot; Other than perhaps an attempt to be artistic, I have no idea what is the correlation to this film.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eSo what is this film about? It was difficult to say as most of it is drunken, drug-induced or just plain unintelligent blather that you might see in an uneducated town with people who have time but nothing to do. Over time you find out that there was a pregnant girlfriend of one of the main characters ends up dead (and first appears to be a suicide). The survivor of a bad day where other friends were killed ultimately sheds light on the situation to an interviewer who came to get his story on what really happened. As to why this takes place… itu0026#39;s difficult to make much sense. It was hard to pay full attention at all times.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eSlow pacing… glacial to say the least. To me felt like no script, just concept, with actors believing they could do method acting and getting the film to move in a direction. The problem is that this was a story that could have been done in 10 minutes but drawn out to make a feature length film. And the gimmick is immediate, with the interviewed character wearing a hat that covers most of his face. Why… because. In fact the film is so dark that often you canu0026#39;t see faces clearly if at all. If this was intentional as it seems, it was not a good choice and not effective on the viewer.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eOn the bright side, the no name actors who have never appeared in another film are actually fine. But all of them may be just saying what normally happens in a bored Texas town, just blabbing to each other about nothing in particular and provoked prolonged drivel. People drink, take drugs and engage in mindless banter on a regular basis. And that is what you must sit through for over an hour to start getting to u0026quot;the revealu0026quot; which isnu0026#39;t really much to reveal, is predictable and not credible and really not interesting.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe camera work is an attempt to be artistic but is annoying, using what is attempted to be old footage using VHS, which is just like horrible attempts to use bad lighting and absurd camera angles which make you wonder (a) why would anyone ever put a camera at such a bad angle; (b) how would it even get into that position; and (c) reminding you that youu0026#39;re watching a really poor film and seeing part of a guys face or some other poorly positioned lens in order to set the tone… I guess. Letu0026#39;s not forget the use of shaky cam in order to make this really feel authentic.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eI feel like Iu0026#39;m being exceedingly generous with my rating. The other person who rated the film a 6 sounds more like a sympathetic reviewer providing feedback, which I think would have been a very good idea when they started going down this path.”