Thursday 14 February 2013

Titus (2012)

Director: Robert Garcia & Nicki Legge
Stars: J P Frydrych, Emmy Boucher, Kelley Rence and Devon Garcia

Talking with some of the more experienced folk at the IFP Breakout Challenge last week about the chances of others, a few mentioned Jump Ship Productions, a newer company on the AZ block who are doing good work and snapping at the heels of their established competition. They nailed it, as Jump Ship took home five awards for The Face of Innocence, including the audience favourite and the runner up slot for best film after Mission Control. The first time I saw a Jump Ship film, a similar thing happened: Titus landed six awards at the Masterpiece Challenge, winning for best film, best director and best actor for J P Frydrych. Both films won for technical achievement and music too. Before that, The Duel, which I haven't yet seen, did well at Beat the Clock last year, winning for best actress and coming in third overall against tough competition. No wonder people are paying attention to these guys. Who knows what they'll be doing by next year.

Titus is certainly an accomplished piece with a lot of ambition. The look is 35mm, with the colours and flicker looking old. What's cool is that this is futuristic, set in 2060 in a world with little oxygen and toxicity levels run scarily high. 92% explains the calm voice calling for people to evacuate to shuttles, which is what our protagonist is trying to do, but he has to find his daughter, Samantha, first. She's flitting around, playing some sort of game, and without an oxygen mask. The energy of Titus is palpable and the crew obviously tried to make a movie that did more than its competitors. The performances are solid, it looks very good indeed and the twist to the story is very agreeable. There are flaws, as it runs long and ends quickly, but it's strong generally. What stood out most for me though was Nile Popchock's score, which constantly reacts to the plot, speeding up or slowing down, adding beats or dropping back to piano. He'll win a lot more awards yet, as will Jump Ship.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I seen these guys and they are amazing.