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Here is a film that I am glad I gave a chance. A directorial debut, shot in his own house, in 5 days and on a budget of $50,000 does not sound like the type of film I have time for, but Coherence manages to entertain, confuse and delight.
8 friends get together for a dinner party the night a comet passes by Earth. Just as the comet passes, the entire street neighbourhood suffers a blackout,only one house has their lights on. As the people decide to investigate and ask for help, strange things begin to happen and they start to question their own reality.
Okay, not much to go on, but I feel if I say anything more regarding the plot would spoil the 'discovery' of the film. Coherence is very much a discovery movie as it likes to peel away at its own layers to reveal bits and pieces of the mysteries. I went in blind, only knowing that my uncle had recommended it and it starred Nicholas Brendon from Buffy fame. I didn't expect the film to be as enthralling as it is. The film is essentially people talking to each other in one room. How exciting can it get?
Byrkit wanted conduct an experiment, Coherence is the result. The test was to shoot a film with no crew and no script for the actors. So each actor was given a paragraph for the specific scene and their goal was to achieve whatever was on that paper. For example, one actor was told he had to leave the house to investigate outside, another actor was told to make sure the guy doesn't leave the house no matter what. The rest is improvisation on the actors. Most of the dialogue is improv, which provides a more causal atmosphere. You'll usually see this in a film about people simply hanging out, like in the film Drinking Buddies. Coherence is very much about people hanging out, but the impressive part is how structured the mysteries are and the peeling away at the core elements presented by the director. The second aspect was the skeleton crew behind the scenes. Two sound guys, a producer, the director and the DOP. That's it. Coherence is impressive to me based on these facts and the final results.
Great filmmakers can do a lot with very little. Byrkit does this with Coherence. I won't call him a great filmmaker just yet, the jury is still out on that. The visual style here is very basic, Byrkit serves the story first and negates the visuals. Not a big deal, but now that we know the guy can direct, let's see what he can really do with some change in his pocket. The cast itself helps propel the film to where it needs to go. The improvisation helps this, they all seem to really work well off each other and when the impossible starts to be possible, they seem to have a lot of fun with the concept.
Coherence is a math puzzle that is a lot of fun to solve, fans of the horror film Triangle will definitely get a kick out of this one. When a film asks the viewer to look for and solve clues, it's always a fun time. Give this unknown little independent film a chance, you might be surprised by the results.
Coherence
(James Ward Byrkit)
(James Ward Byrkit)
Here is a film that I am glad I gave a chance. A directorial debut, shot in his own house, in 5 days and on a budget of $50,000 does not sound like the type of film I have time for, but Coherence manages to entertain, confuse and delight.
8 friends get together for a dinner party the night a comet passes by Earth. Just as the comet passes, the entire street neighbourhood suffers a blackout,only one house has their lights on. As the people decide to investigate and ask for help, strange things begin to happen and they start to question their own reality.
Okay, not much to go on, but I feel if I say anything more regarding the plot would spoil the 'discovery' of the film. Coherence is very much a discovery movie as it likes to peel away at its own layers to reveal bits and pieces of the mysteries. I went in blind, only knowing that my uncle had recommended it and it starred Nicholas Brendon from Buffy fame. I didn't expect the film to be as enthralling as it is. The film is essentially people talking to each other in one room. How exciting can it get?
Byrkit wanted conduct an experiment, Coherence is the result. The test was to shoot a film with no crew and no script for the actors. So each actor was given a paragraph for the specific scene and their goal was to achieve whatever was on that paper. For example, one actor was told he had to leave the house to investigate outside, another actor was told to make sure the guy doesn't leave the house no matter what. The rest is improvisation on the actors. Most of the dialogue is improv, which provides a more causal atmosphere. You'll usually see this in a film about people simply hanging out, like in the film Drinking Buddies. Coherence is very much about people hanging out, but the impressive part is how structured the mysteries are and the peeling away at the core elements presented by the director. The second aspect was the skeleton crew behind the scenes. Two sound guys, a producer, the director and the DOP. That's it. Coherence is impressive to me based on these facts and the final results.
Great filmmakers can do a lot with very little. Byrkit does this with Coherence. I won't call him a great filmmaker just yet, the jury is still out on that. The visual style here is very basic, Byrkit serves the story first and negates the visuals. Not a big deal, but now that we know the guy can direct, let's see what he can really do with some change in his pocket. The cast itself helps propel the film to where it needs to go. The improvisation helps this, they all seem to really work well off each other and when the impossible starts to be possible, they seem to have a lot of fun with the concept.
Coherence is a math puzzle that is a lot of fun to solve, fans of the horror film Triangle will definitely get a kick out of this one. When a film asks the viewer to look for and solve clues, it's always a fun time. Give this unknown little independent film a chance, you might be surprised by the results.