24FPS at LLGFF 2011: The Four Faced Liar [15]

DIR: Jacob Chase
CAST: Marja-Lewis Ryan, Emily Peck, Todd Kubrak,
Daniel Carlisle, Liz Osborn

The Four Faced Liar is the first feature film written by 25 year old Marja-Lewis Ryan, and while it is far from perfect it marks her out as someone to watch in the future. The story is very generic; gay college student Bridget (Ryan) and her flatmate Trip (Kubrak) meet Molly (Peck) and Greg (Carlisle) in the titular bar one night, and they hit it off, Bridget and Molly in particular begin spending a lot of time together, and it becomes clear that there is some attraction between them, which places strain on Molly and Greg's very sweet and rather conservative relationship. You can probably guess, given that this is the closing film in this year's London Lesbian and Gay Film Festival, how things develop from there.

That's really the problem with the film, being generic is one thing, but almost every beat of The Four Faced Liar is predictable, down to almost the last detail. Every scene you expect to see in a dramedy about a lesbian and a straight girl getting together is played out almost exactly as you'd expect it to be and the film rounds off with the last in a long series of tremendous clichés.

That said, it's hard not to like this film, thanks largely to the details of Ryan's screenplay (based on her earlier stage play). The general shape of the film is familiar to the point of being hackneyed, but the character writing is top notch. Ryan shows a real knack for establishing an individual voice for each of her characters, and for detailing the relationships between them. Too often the characters in movies all sound like the writer, not so here, there aren't any moments where you feel the dialogue could be interchangeable; none of Bridget's speeches could be delivered by Molly, none of Trip's by Greg. There is also a nice sense of the closeness between old friends Bridget and Trip, and of the growing relationships between Molly and Bridget and Trip and Greg.

These qualities in the writing are also aided by strong performances. Ryan and Peck are both excellent, giving natural low key turns, and playing the film's often funny dialogue entirely straight and real. Kubrak, courtesy of a more outgoing character, has fun giving a larger performance which has most of the film's funniest moments. The only slight problem acting wise is that Daniel Carlisle can come off somewhat flat, but then Greg is such a drip that this may be a choice on his part.

24 year old first time feature director Jacob Chase handles the largely hand held visuals well, usually making sure that the camera remains unobtrusive. There is a definite guerilla feel to the filmmaking; it's not polished, and a few scenes (notably the love scenes) are perhaps a little darker than they should be, but for the most part the direction serves the film well, and energises the film enough that it doesn't feel like a filmed play.

The Four Faced Liar definitely has its issues, but there is plenty here to like, and to suggest that many of the people involved will go on to make better more fully realised films in the future. I'd certainly suggest checking this one out though, whether at LLGFF or when it comes to DVD next month.

If you'd like to buy this film on DVD (UK Release April 11th), and help 24FPS out at the same time, please use the links below.

24FPS at LLGFF 2011: Break My Fall

DIR: Kanchi Wichmann
CAST: Kat Redstone, Sophie Anderson,
Collin Clay Chace, Kai Brandon Ly

Almost more frustrating than a truly bad film is one that just misses the mark, one you can see the potential in, and yet have to watch as it trips over the hurdles on the way to the finish line. That's what Break My Fall is like.

The film shows us the final stages of the breakdown of the relationship between girlfriends and bandmates Liza (Redstone) and Sally (Anderson), which seems to have reached a stage where it vacillates between the two having a deep desire to remain together, but fighting whenever they are. Things are also complicated by a mutual friend, Vin (Ly), who earns a living as a rent boy, but has clear designs on Sally.

There are plenty of things to admire in Break My Fall. The script is sharp, and defines its characters clearly and quickly, though it does remain dedicated throughout to making them all (except perhaps Collin Clay Chace's supportive gay friend Jamie) as unsympathetic as possible. The four leading performances are also a strong centre for the film, with Kat Redstone especially impressive as she engages with the most difficult character, one whose mood swings seem near bi-polar. There are some real standout scenes here too; a funny confrontation with a café owner made me wish that the rest of the film had a bit more humour about it, and a supremely awkward band practice after Liza and Sally have fought is both the quietest and the best scene in the film. It's also worth mentioning the excellent, uber-cool, indie soundtrack.

The problem is that while these individual bits are fine, the film just doesn't knit together as a whole. The biggest issue is that it's very hard to really identify with or care about the central relationship. We see nothing of how it was, of the happiness that Liza sometimes speaks of, and so it's hard to care much about the broken state the movie depicts it in, or root for it to get mended. It's also guilty of real longueurs, many scenes run much longer than they need to (an endless scene in which Liza goes home with an older butch woman after a night out, for instance) and the last twenty minutes are an extended exercise in redundancy; this film ends with a missed phone call, the following twenty minutes change nothing, add nothing.

Break My Fall ultimately feels like an overextended short film, and that's a shame, because I suspect a 30 minute version would work really well. That said, there's enough going on here that I'll be keeping an eye on, in particular writer/director Wichmann and Kat Redstone, as I suspect that there is much more satisfying work in their future.