FILM REVIEW NOTES:

1. Film titleOUT

2. Introduction: what you expected from the film.I expected a dark thematic film with exaggerated sound with a dark and gritty atmosphere also a challenging but shocking story line. And Phoebe delivers with many similarities with her last work ‘My Mind’ she does not miss out on bringing her skills with creating a thriller film to conjoining them with a social realism film.

3. Genre: what type of film is it? Does it have a message?This film holds the conventions of a Social Realism and a Horror. The introduction of the film starts of at night with a lone car driving down a poorly lit road the setting fits in with the horror genre and this setting can be seen in many other horror films. Also the lighting in the film is low key and naturalistic creating a dark and unknown world for the story; however the story line fits under the genre of social realism and uses the convention of using shots that last longer than they would in a horror. The message behind this film could possibly be that everything you do see is not what’s truly going on.

4. Plot: What happens in the film? Does the plot make sense? Is it easy enough to follow? Is it believable? First of all we suspect that this teenager has come home late and is about to get a scolding from her mother who has waited up for her, but when we find that Lane is rather the one confronting her mother our suspicions are quickly wronged. Instead we find that we have been swept up into a hostile situation where Mother has a difficult task to execute. The plot has a climax throughout the tense situation and ends on a huge twist like many stories, but this twist is one not expected. The plot has many resemblances to the short ‘Soft’ and how the final act comes from the least expected character. The story line is believable as it can be related to by many teenagers and families in the same predicament.

5. Characters: Who are the main characters and what are they like? Who are the actors playing these parts, and are they good in the parts? Phoebe challenges the conventions and sets her story around two main characters Lane and Mother, Lane is not the stereotypical teenager normally represented in films, she is far more complex. We are first introduced to Lane getting out of her car and going into the house – where she is met by an empty silent house. Lane is then met by her weeping mother who then tells her the awful thing she has to do, but rather than Mother confront Lane we find it is the other way round, Phoebe is cleverly representing Lane as the responsible adult in this film. Mother is not the adult anybody would expect she is rather pictured as the child in this story; she is not strong and is easily bent. It is as if Phoebe has reversed roles for these two characters in turn creating a unique situation.

6. What is the camerawork like? Are there moments when the camera is used in an interesting way?The camera work in the film is interesting as from the beginning Phoebe uses a vast amount of different mid shots and close ups to create suspense for when Lane first enters the house, but compared to the start there are limited different shots which suits to the conventions of social realism making it appear realistic rather than sudden.

7. Would you recommend this film? To what sort of people? Why?

I would recommend this film to those who enjoy horror and those who enjoy expecting the un-expected. Because in this film the monster is just a simple husband and step- father to a teenager and wife.

8. Are there any other films you can compare this film to? This film all together is very similar to the short film ‘Soft’, where the film is based around to protagonists a teenage boy and father and in this case teenager girl and mother. Both sets of characters are faced with a violent antagonist who can only be beaten by violence and instead of the adult dealing and settling the conflict – the teenager is left to resolve it in a unconventional way.