SBIFF: Day 6
Criminal Doings and the Dangers of Going Home

Tuesday, February 7, 2017
By Josef Woodard (Contact)


Crime pays with several of this year’s SBIFF crop, thanks partly to the “Crime Scenes” sidebar, an extension of earlier sidebars. Film noir-ish tendencies and crime-based narratives state their case in this group of films, in different accents and varying degrees of criminality and aesthetics attached thereto.

By Accident, for instance, simmers and keeps us guessing, rather than going explosive. French director Camille Fontaine nicely conveys a tale of a humble Algerian family — of which the father is undocumented — in the hills of France, drawn into the crosshairs of social scorn and the courts by an auto accident. The sassy and sneaky Angelique (guardian angel or fallen angel?) appears as a witness to clear the mother’s wrongdoing, and implicates herself into the family’s world, in ways both generous and suspicious. Apart from a fairly ludicrous finale, which undercuts what comes before it, By Accident deftly draws us into its world of seductions and a range of possible deceptions and fuzzy facts.

Another grittier bit of business, with artistic brushstrokes and chilling moral codes attached, is the Spanish film The Fury of a Patient Man, which literally, bracingly opens with a bank robbery gone bloody. From there, the plot in Raúl Arévalo’s stylishly made film, thickens and fans out into a thriller with some surprising turns, of character, plot and dastardly scheming. Along with this year’s SBIFF film from Norway, Revenge, Patient Man (and, say, Fargo and Irreversible and countless other films throughout history), represents the time-honored tradition of cinema fueled by the stealthy machinery of vengeance, as plot energizer and structural guidepost. Plus: nasty fun, when done well.

Crime takes a more political and ominous dimension in the Austrian film Codename: Holec, Franz Novotny’s delightfully quirky yarn about strained (and sometimes bawdy) relations between Vienna and Prague in the late ’60s, building up to the infamous Russian invasion of Prague in 1968. It’s communist Czech vs. capitalist Austria, and art film standards of purity vs. sell-out populist compromise, among other tensions along the semi-comic path. Somehow mashing up cartoony Cold War chic, Austin Powers-y high jinx, film-about-film themes, and real chills concerning life under totalitarian rule, Codename: Holec defies easy categorization, and delivers a giddy charge despite its not exactly solving all its own artistic problems.

Two years ago, the SBIFF harvest brought us the darkly hilarious (or hilariously dark?) film Wild Tales, easily one of the best films of that year. This year at the festival, comic winds from Argentina return, but now in the subtler form of impressive film about fame, the perils of going home again, and high hopes turned sour, director Andres Duprat’s The Distinguished Citizen, certainly one of most engaging and inventive films at this year’s fest. From the outset, we get a sense of our protagonist Daniel Montovani (Oscar Martinez, in one of the strongest performances of the festival), a world-renowned novelist accepting his Nobel Prize with barely more graciousness than Bob Dylan did last year. His writer’s block and/or lofty artistic ideals are tested when he accepts an invitation to his small town in Argentina that has supplied him with a career full of characters. Recriminations and sexual and social faux pas abound upon his going home, to comic and poignant ends.

Sometimes, one needs a break from the darker and more serious energies of the SBIFF — and not just the obligatory frothy comedy fare. Take, for example, the loopy, literally dreamy Sleepwalk, a cheesy-pulpy number you might expect to find on late-night TCM programming or old school drive-in fare more than a film festival. But wait: Sometimes, overwrought cheesiness can morph into the stuff of cultish art, or a facsimile thereof. In director Elliott Lester’s film, presumably about a woman (who seems to shop at J.C. Penney), whose grief over her husband’s suicide has loosened the shackles of identity and reality, there are dreams within dreams, twists tucked into twists and caution cast to the wind.

It’s really a modern-day wannabe B flick, which is necessary to denigrate the thing. In these self-consciously kitschy circumstances, we lower our expectations, in terms of acting, production values and script logic. Really, though: What’s logic got to do with it.

‘Sleepwalker’: Film Review | Santa Barbara 2017

2:10 AM PST 2/10/2017 by Justin Lowe

Elliott Lester’s fourth feature stars Ahna O’Reilly as a troubled somnambulist enduring a disturbing series of events.

A young woman suffering from a mysterious sleep disorder struggles to maintain her weakening grip on reality in Sleepwalker, an underwhelming approximation of a David Lynch-style psychological drama. After 2015’s well-received Nightingale, director Elliott Lester’s switch to more genre-oriented material comes off as overly obscure, suggesting limited art house appeal.

Following the death of her husband, Sarah Wells (Ahna O’Reilly) decides to return to her university PhD studies, but encounters frequent episodes of sleepwalking that eventually result in the police retrieving her after she wanders out on the nighttime city streets. Sarah decides to check herself into the university sleep clinic, concerned that she may do herself some harm if her nightmares and erratic behavior continue. Under the care of Dr. Scott White (Richard Armitage), Sarah experiences her first restful nights in many weeks and although she’s still troubled by bad dreams, at least she’s not walking in her sleep.

After returning home, she reassures her friend Nicole (Emma Fitzpatrick) that she’s doing much better, but the sleepwalking soon resurfaces, along with unexpected confusion about her own identity, the real intentions of Dr. White and suspicions about almost everyone else that she encounters. Recurring nightmares about a mysterious woman who repeatedly accuses Sarah of trying to attack her drive Sarah to question her own competence at the same time that Dr. White seems to be taking an unusual level of interest in her case. As she begins to lose the ability to distinguish real events from her own imagination, Sarah realizes that a radical realignment of her mental state may be required to regain a sense of balance and self-control.

In conceiving the self-consciously elaborate script, writer Jack Olsen (When the Bough Breaks) appears more intent on keeping the audience guessing than constructing a cogent narrative. Obscure characters, indeterminate locations and disorienting flashbacks scramble the timeline before it eventually reaches an uninspired conclusion.

Lester’s approach doesn’t do much to clarify the film’s convoluted events, which often transpire in dimly lit rooms or on darkened streets. While the intention of all this obfuscation seems to be an attempt to illuminate the uncertain mental state of a seriously troubled woman, the willfully vague plot gradually unravels as inexorably as the protagonist’s perception of reality.

As Sarah, O’Reilly gets stuck with conveying the turmoil of an implausibly disoriented character and although she makes a good go of appearing helpless, the role is too reactive to really be sympathetic. Playing her white knight, Armitage demonstrates remarkably little rapport with his mysterious patient, despite a poorly developed romantic subplot. Haley Joel Osment, wearing a scruffy beard, is practically unrecognizable as a creepy stalker, whose function as a real or imagined threat isn’t quite clear.

Distributor: MarVista Entertainment

Production company: Night and Day Pictures

Cast: Ahna O’Reilly, Richard Armitage, Izabella Scorupco, Kevin Zegers, Haley Joel Osment, Emma Fitzpatrick, Aberta Mayne, Mark Ivanir, Rachel Melvin

Director: Elliott Lester

Screenwriter: Jack Olsen

Producers: Michael Roiff, Jennifer Glynn, Sharon Bordas, Hannah Pillemer

Executive producers: Fernando Szew, Noah C. Haeussner, Michael Raimondi, Jack Olsen

Director of photography: Peter Vermeer

Editor: Nicholas Wayman-Harris

Music: Mark D. Todd

Venue: Santa Barbara International Film Festival



Not rated, 88 minutes

Manche spleenigen Filme mutieren zu Geheimtipps (so wie Donnie Darko etc.)

Ja, ich frage mich manchmal auch, wer eigentlich entscheidet, was kitschig und was kultig ist - am Ende das Werbebudget der Produktionsfirma oder des Verleihers ...?

Ich sehe das ganz sportlich. Die Kritiker sind doch auch nur Menschen, die ihre persönlichen Eindrücke zum Besten geben. Es gibt so einiges, was total gerissen wurde und mir trotzdem gefällt und umgekehrt verstehe so manche Lobeshymne nicht im geringsten. Egal. Ich leiste mir da den berühmten Luxus einer eigenen Meinung

Also, liebe Verleiher: Bringt den Film endlich raus! Ich hab noch reichlich Senf im Kühlschrank zum dazugeben

Sleepwalker (Elliott Lester ,2017) USA

Reviewed by Martha Castaneda at Santa Barbara Film Festival 2017

Wake up! This is what you want to yell in Elliot Lester’s film “Sleepwalker”. This film is an excellent suspence-thriller that keeps you at the edge of your seat. The story is of a young women named Sarah (Ahna O’Reilly) who suffers from a sleeping disorder that creates bizarre circumstances. After the death of her husband, Sarah begins sleepwalking while having horrible nightmares. Her nightmares/sleepwalks repeatedly reenact that terrible day of her husbands death. In her nightmares, in addition to that horrible reenactment a strange man is chasing her. She has frequent episodes of sleepwalking and the nightmare becomes routine. She decides to be admitted into a clinic that studies sleeping patterns. She is under a watchful eye throughout the night, but alas she is still able to escape. The writer Jack Olsen holds your interest by creating a story that is both mysterious and suspenseful. You ask yourself, is she for real and is this really happening? During the day she has two different identities, with unique personalities and friends. But in her sleep, her patterns stay the same, consisting of nightmares and sleepwalking. The film has a surprising ending with an awesome, unpredictable twist.

The acting, photography, sound and editing were all well done. This film keeps the audience engaged and keeps making one ask, can this be true? The ending alone makes “Sleepwalker” a worthy film, but factor in the acting and suspense and it is a must-see!





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You’re currently reading “Sleepwalker (Elliott Lester ,2017) USA,” an entry on Student Film Reviews
Published: 02.19.17 / 12pm
Category: Films, Santa Barbara Film Festival 2017

*Sehen will!" So wie Urban, Brain on Fire und Pilgrimage

*Sehen will!" So wie Urban, Brain on Fire und Pilgrimage

Diese Filme dem breiten Publikum zu verwehren, würde eine unnötige Verschwendung von Ressourcen darstellen. Ich möchte nicht in der Haut von Produktion/Regie/Darstellern stecken, die vergeblich jede Menge Fleiß ins Endprodukt gesteckt haben.
Es ist so unfair, ständig werden uns die immer gleichen langweiligen Fortsetzungen der Fortsetzungen der Fortsetzungen von Comicverfilmungen etc. um die Ohren gehauen, aber kleine Lichter am Filmhimmel sehen keinen Stich.

Sleepwalker Review

By David Duprey On Oct 12, 2017

Sleepwalker is a 2017 thriller about a young woman troubled by bouts of sleepwalking who goes to her university sleep research center for help.

What goes on while we are asleep has practically become a sub-genre all its own in movies, from horror to thrillers, the ethereal lucidity casting all kinds of possibilities for filmmakers to build some clever and often horrifying stories. There’s been a rash of sleep paralysis films recently and of course, some good, some not so much, and dreams have been the playground for monsters since time immemorial. Now comes Elliott Lester‘s dark and moody Sleepwalker, a chilling, clever mystery that not so much explores the dreams of its haunted main character, but the impact they have, not just on her, but others all around her.

University graduate student Sarah Foster (Ahna O’Reilly) is battling a troubling bout of sleepwalking, one time even being found in the streets in the middle of the night by cops. She is dealing with a sudden and tragic loss and so comes to get help at a prestigious sleep clinic at her university, where she meets Dr. Scott White (Richard Armitage), the program’s director. He promises to take good care of her, and after her first night being monitored, she wakes feeling very refreshed, claiming she had no dreams and no walking episodes, something the staff seems to confirm. However, as she begins her day, small things seem out of place, and when one of her professors calls her Sarah Wells, she is confused, soon learning that this new last name is now her real identity. And it only gets stranger from there when she begins getting cryptic phone calls and is stalked by a figure (Haley Joel Osment) in the dark.

I’ve always been drawn to movies that can keep me legitimately asking whether what I’m seeing is real or fantasy, especially if that means I have to try and keep up with a smart brain twister. Sleepwalkers has plenty of tricks up it’s sleeve to keep anyone guessing, and it becomes a constant game of which is the truth and which is not, and even when you think you might have it all figured out, you most definitely do not. That Lester is able to sustain that curiosity as long as he does is one thing, that it remains compelling throughout with all sorts of bends in the road is really what makes this as good as it is. It might not have the action momentum perhaps some expect from the genre, but that doesn’t leave this with any less impact.

O’Reilly’s really the thing here, keeping Sarah always the most important part of a story that constantly challenges us to consider what we’re being told. Using repetitive imagery, often as alternatives of each other, such as she walking in a flowing white negligee along a darkened street, we are slowly drawn down a path of possibly solutions, and yet the film still finds ways to surprise. It holds together very well, even as some moments don’t quite strike as heavy as they might. There are questions that are meant to be kept up in the air, and it all leads to an unexpected ending that isn’t so much a twist as a sense of relief. This is smart stuff and I’m a sucker for it, convinced and sold on the premise and outcome from the start, simply because it never let me down as I was so sure it would. Who are we when we sleep and what do our dreams say about us? Sleepwalkers pokes at some possibilities while tripping us up with every step we take.


Movie description: Sleepwalker is a 2017 thriller about a young woman troubled by bouts of sleepwalking who goes to her university sleep research center for help.
Director(s): Elliott Lester
Actor(s): Richard Armitage, Jake Broder, Matthew Del Negro
Genre: Thriller
Our Score ****

User Rating 0 (0 votes)

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