Blinders, 2020.
Directed by Tyler Savage.
Starring Christine Ko, Vincent Van Horn, Michael Lee Joplin, and Dusty Sorg.
SYNOPSIS:
A young man’s budding romance is threatened when he befriends an unstable ride-share driver.
The Cable Guy gets a grisly millennial update in Tyler Savage’s (Inheritance) sophomore feature Blinders, fleshing out a potentially over-familiar stalker thriller with trenchant observations about contemporary living.
After breaking up with his girlfriend, downtrodden Andy (Vincent Van Horn) moves from Austin, Texas all the way to Los Angeles, hopeful for a fresh start. After a night out at the bar sees Andy connect with the similarly lonesome Sam (Christine Ko), he additionally ends up befriending his “Ryde” driver Roger (Michael Lee Joplin), an eccentric but seemingly well-meaning guy.
However, it quickly transpires that Roger is pathologically obsessive, and doesn’t take too kindly to Andy’s polite attempts to keep him at a distance. Soon enough, Roger begins intrusively insinuating himself into Andy’s life with devastating consequences.
Even before Roger announces the full grim extent of his proclivities later on, this is a movie with a pulsing, haunting quality about it. The spectre of Andy’s breakup clearly looms large from minute one, yet as his relationship with Sam begins to blossom while Roger’s obsession similarly grows, the audience is left to consider just how far Savage will take it all.
Beyond this, Savage and co-writer Dash Hawkins use the familiar enough setup to satirise the soullessness of large cities, especially L.A., where time for small talk – if not basic humanity – is fleeting. Other thematic poles include the self-exposure endemic in modern social media habits, freely offering up so much of ourselves as we do for others to potentially exploit. As the film categorically reminds us, with the right social engineering nous, it’s hilariously easy for a malevolent party to intimately infiltrate someone else’s life.
One of Blinders’ major distinguishing features is its of-the-moment style, fluidly swapping between a conventional cinematic presentation and interstitial smartphone cutaways, offering up glimpses of Andy’s Instagram stories, his various video calls with friends and prospective clients (he’s a tutor), and so on. Without becoming an overly gimmicky mixed-media affair, it lends the film a distinctly current air compared to many otherwise similar stalker movies.
Cinematographer Antonio Cisneros also deserves a special commendation for his eye-wateringly gorgeous lensing throughout, crisply evoking the superficial allure of L.A. and getting in tight with his characters during their most intimate – and yes, traumatic – moments. This is easily one of the best-looking films at this year’s Frightfest, and shows few tells of its presumably low budget.
In addition to the trenchant writing and sharp style is a trio of well-honed performances; Vincent Van Horn is spot-on as the likeable everyman Andy, who becomes increasingly exasperated by Roger’s advances and portrays the mental anguish with an easy plausibility.
As his new girlfriend Sam, Christine Ko is a charming love interest and gets plenty more to do than be a mere token supporting femme, while Michael Lee Joplin creates an unsettling portrayal of simmering psychopathy that’s tinged with a slight desperate sadness, ensuring Roger is ever more than a maniacal cartoon.
All in all, Blinders delivers an entertaining good time out of familiar elements, offering just enough of a contemporary gloss to feel fresh, even if its final twist might prove a tad too unwieldy for some viewers. If nothing else, Savage commits to the full, disturbing, marrow-rich content of his vision from first minute to last.
A tightly-wound riff on well-trod material, enlivened by strong direction and game performances.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★ ★
Shaun Munro – Follow me on Twitter for more film rambling.
