"Quiet Night In" trailer
“POISED
TO BE CALLED A COMEDIC MASTERPIECE”
Larry
Jenkins, GayNZ.com:
[edited for spoilers]
With
a title like “Quiet Night In” you can expect irony, and in an
indie film by a talented media expert, Golom-like: you getses what
you expectses, though not in the truckloadses you might have
anticipated.
The
irony in Chris Banks' film evaporates after the situation is set,
but then something miles more challenging takes over – a dada-ist
sense of the ridiculous, honed by cryptoexistentialism and spiced
with a bit of camp nonsense.
Wannabe novelist Jessica (Kenny) seeks the eponymous nocturnal calm
to do some serious work on her novel, though she also seems to be
preparing to receive a gentleman caller.
Plagued by phone calls from her mother and frequent flashbacks concerning her writing attempts, she's further prevented from either intent by the farcical arrivals of, in this order:
Rob (Lambeth), a self-obsessed pretty boy with whom she may or may not have had a relationship, who may or may not be bi or gay (he certainly is pretty and watching him trying to apply foundation to his own left nipple is hot); Rebecca (Gay), as narcissistic a cow as Rob is a wanker, shrill and irritating - an emotional leech; Lawrence (Mckay) and William (Helviphat), a mock May-December relationship, or are they?
These
Pinteresque proceedings are tightly bound by the board game
‘Cluedo’, even to the colour-coding of each character and the
plethora of references to that famous rainy-day amusement.
Jess avows that her novel is inspired by the game; certainly
Banks' film exploits it. Murder
weapons appear as symbols in the film, and there is that same sense
of fun with an underlying macabre tone present when we all indulge
in it.
The twists and turns of the script are one thing, but scattered
around are enough symbols to colonize a Wagner opera.
There are Hitchcock-like flashes of photographs (one half
expects a cameo appearance from Banks himself), numerical puzzles
and riddles, references to other films, personal allusions (one
assumes), and mysterious turns enough to make Christie (no, dear,
Agatha - not Julie) fanatics dance for joy.
I've viewed it twice and I can already see that it could catch on
and be as trendy a pastime as Trivial Pursuit, the inheritor of
Cluedo's popularity. Picture
us in future trying to one-up our dinner guests by knowing who was
in that photograph on the table, or why the cutlery was grouped in
sets in Jess' kitchen drawer, and why that normal bottle of wine
seemed to contain a magnum or two.
Perhaps it'll spawn its own board game.
Richard J Lambert's art direction is brilliant – an entirely retro
set (I'd kill for those mock-leopard settees) and lighting producing
a clean, pseudo-cartoon effect.
I kept thinking that if were to BLOWUP a frame I'd discover
all the images were composed of dots.
This is a must next time you're in your local VideoEzy. It's poised
to be called a comedic masterpiece by people who know one when it
hits them in the face like a custard pie.
