on May 18, 2009
What if you got stuck in traffic and could never get out? Ever? You just need to turn, but no one is slowing down, you can’t back up, and in the modern cityscape, there is no place to walk, no escape on foot. Perhaps it is just an urban nightmare, but has any city dweller not pictured it, however briefly, while sitting in a concrete parking lot?
Director Michael Lucas plays with that fear in Turn, a witty ten minute surrealistic journey. Ambitious Christine is going nowhere fast on the crowded roadways, so takes a short cut through a narrow alley, trying to get to work for an important presentation. But harried Leo has already tried that alley, and after two hours of attempting to make the turn out of it that would put him on the main road, has given up. With no sidewalks, and an unending stream of roaring cars zipping by only inches from the alley’s exit, what are two people to do?
Metaphors run rampant: modern life as a frustrating and meaningless road that can often take us to places it’d be better not to go; the truly important things encompassed in a simple alley; an artistic portrait superimposed on a diagram represents the joys in life sometimes being able to burst through the clutter. You can find themes and sub-themes and the cousin of your sister’s best friend’s themes; plenty to keep this picture coming back to your consciousness. But this is no heavy message piece. It is quick, and funny. You can take it on the simplest level and be well entertained.
While only two characters speak, and all but a few seconds take place in a thin valley between nondescript buildings, Turn seems like an expansive film due to the deft camera work of Shing Fung Cheung. The only claustrophobia is in the minds of the Christine and Leo.
Short films cannot bring us deeply developed complex characters; there isn’t time. The format, like that of the short story, is best at illuminating a single idea, event, or joke. But within the limitations of time, Turn does a remarkable job of making Christine and Leo real. I know people like them and in some ways, I am like them. That made their story richer, and their foibles funnier.
Turn was shot as part of the Australian Film Television and Radio School (AFTRS) program, which has produced far more than its share of entertaining short films. A year after Turn, AFTRS put Peter Templeman, who is flawless as Leo, in the director’s chair for The Saviour, which became an Academy Award nominee.
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Interesting premise, I like it, yet leaves a few things to be desired. Pacing is critical in a film like this—we, the audience, need to be convincingly led along. It also could have benefited from opening up the camera a bit at that final key moment to see an expanse of no traffic. But an enjoyable film, all in all.
Disagree, the closeups were brilliant. After all like Matthew says, the traffic is metaphorical so too much specificity would hurt. Besides from a simple logistical level it would be hard to produce to the traffic, and even if you could produce it, the scenario was absurd, its hard to show the traffic without giving way to the obvious fact that someone could muscle their way in if they were dead set on it.
I’m speaking of the final shot where the cinematography could have reflected the psychological transformation by opening up to reveal an expansive empty street as a contrast to the narrow field throughout the film. Something it looks like they attempted, but couldn’t fully deliver on—budget restrictions perhaps (looks like a rough stage set). The bigger issue I have is really with the directing. It’s a dramedy, and I didn’t find it all that funny or dramatic. The dialogue, delivery, and pacing all flattened what was a fresh idea.
A different take on the same initial jumping off point from a few years back is Mark Jenkin’s The Man Who Needed A Traffic Light. I like that it takes a dark comedic approach to the ‘stuck’ situation.