Film Review:
My film review:
Shot on a Sony PD150 in and around the charming village of Kings Langley, Jenna Pridgeon , the director of the film, works alongside her cinematography colleague Rachael Davis, and her cast of aspiring actors to be, to create the latest short film debut ‘Bruises’.
‘Grace’, played by 17 year old Zoe Fletcher, is an innocent, frightened adolescent, desperate for her bruises to be noticed. Her unidentifiable father, Martin Pridgeon (Pridgeon’s real life father), gives Grace an unexpected present of make-up, to cover up the distressing evidence. Or not.
Pridgeon creates an unpredictable twist to the story. The audience is left questioning whether Grace is being abused by her father or if she is inflicting the bruises on herself, with help from her make-up set, and clever shots suggesting drug use.
As Pridgeon’s film is a short, we are propelled into the mind of Grace at the quickest of paces, darting between fear-happiness-love-depression and her extended creativity. But where other shorts typically fail in keeping the audience conversant with the rapid changes, Pridgeon successfully balances each mood and feeling, with help from blue gels, forcing a cold emotion in Grace’s home, creating the oddest of comforts in the distressing situation that is Grace’s life. With its dark implications, distinctive camera shots and musical interludes, ‘Bruises’ feels much indebted to a Mike Leigh masterpiece.
However, due to such quick paced action, and time limit’s, there are noticeable continuity problems that are evident in the film, including Grace holding a make-up brush in her right hand in one shot, and the brush laying on the bed in the next. Not only this, due to low-budgets and limited editing software such as Adobe Premiere Pro, the scene where Grace immerses into a world of her own, the obvious slow motion effect can seem on the verge of ‘cheesy’. However, with the resources Davis and Pridgeon had, they prevent this scene from being an unmitigated disaster, with clever acting directions, snapping Grace back into reality.
Unique camerawork and lighting from Rachael Davis, such as low tracking shots and the intimidating shadows of the father on Grace’s painfully bare walls, dangerously immerses you into a terrifying reality. Nevertheless, it is the denouement which really shows Pridgeon’s and Davis’ collaborative efforts.
It is consequently up to the audience to make the inevitable decision they are left with in the end. This use of narrative closure forces the audience to question
This in itself is a unique style that Pridgeon has adopted from some of her most admirable influences of ‘Donnie Darko’ and ‘The Blair Witch Project’.
Exceptional as a first time short film-maker Pridgeon may appear, ‘Bruises’ borders on the cliché, with our main character being fully engaged in the arts, expressing her clearly immaculate creative skills, in colouring a grape. Pridgeon’s suggestion of art acting as a form of escapism for Grace isn’t explored nearly as much as it should have been. However, Pridgeon allows the audience to digress with the ending, exploring Grace’s attachment to her art and make-up sets in the fatal conclusion.
A great start for a promising new director, ‘Bruises’ is worth a watch.
At first I thought 'Bruises' would be a certificate 12, as there wasn't a lot of physical abuse or graphic images. However, after reading the certificate policies online, I realised that our film was infact a certificate 15 due to the swearing and the violence.
Here is the online website to the policies of a certificate 15:
http://www.screenonline.org.uk/film/id/592478/
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