4/2/2023 0 Comments Ipanic fold![]() It’s a well-oiled cooperation of craftsmanship that’s ultimately only stymied by its narrative. ![]() There’s a through line with the performances, the washed out and dreary aesthetic, and the cavernous echoing auditory landscape. Their chemistry, while strained, feels real there’s a weight and an equal alacrity to their dynamic that works. It proves an even bigger shame in the face of the clean and nuanced performance from DeRock and McGuire. The narrative beats and tone hearken back to some of the best in the investigative whodunnit subgenre, but all the punches are pulled, the denouement defanged. It seems, however, no one remembered to come back into the kitchen and turn the heat up at the end to boil off that tension. A decent amount of care is taken to maintain the mood and tone, keeping the dread simmering just below the surface. David, Lisa, and the audience are held balanced on a tight wire that ultimately proves to be nothing more than an old clothesline stretched across a convincing chalk drawing of two skyscrapers. As the rabbit hole opens wider, suspects both believable and shocking surface and cover-of-night rendezvous with shadowy affiliates on both sides of the crime create even deeper forks in the road.Īt a certain point, the duo, nearing their breaking points and flouting the confines of ethical journalism, finger a particularly juicy suspect. The pair work in tandem and begin to uncover overlooked aspects of a similar case, a case that was too tidily wrapped up when pinned on a local sex offender. ![]() David’s tact and soft touch with the people of the town compliments Lisa’s direct and brash approach. Despite the unresolved issues, the pair work well together. Old tensions surface, both between the estranged duo and in their interactions with the town when Lisa talks her way into covering the disappearance. Oh, did I forget to mention that David and Lisa have a past? Yeah, somewhere between colleagues and former lovers, their relationship ended with Lisa’s abrupt and unannounced departure. As if dredging up the town’s dark past with its traumatized denizens weren’t enough, David is also tasked with helping the paper’s newest writer, Lisa ( Sarah McGuire), settle in. Frozen in time like the Mary Celeste or the colony at Roanoke, it begs, “What happened here?” You’d be forgiven for assuming that the remainder of the film’s 92-minute run time sets about answering that question, but…not so much.Įnter David ( Davis DeRock), a small-town journalist assigned by his cantankerous editor Jason ( Daniel Compo) to cover the anniversary of the infamous unsolved disappearance of twelve-year-old Susie Potter. Things start well enough: haunting, lingering shots of a house at night, the front door open, a plaintive phone off the hook, a cigarette smoldering in an ashtray. Disappearance you say? Do go on…Īnd it does. It opens with the disappearance of a young girl. Naturally, then, you can imagine my interest upon hearing the synopsis for writer/director Clayton Scott’s feature debut, Below the Fold, which just made its world premiere at this year’s Panic Fest. When Netflix announced its plan to resurrect Unsolved Mysteries, I was flooded with a joy ordinarily reserved for the arrival of Chinese takeout and long-lost lovers returned from the sea. True crime documentaries, police procedurals, limited series based on true events, you name it, we love it.
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