Back in 2020 I watched the indie thriller The Last Request, I can't say it left too much of a memory unfortunately as I struggled to recall it until I re-read my original review. Live One is by the same director, Dallas Ryan, who not only directs but also wrote and starred in the movie. Comparing the plot, it has many similarities to that other film, yet I thought this one was a lot better, only really losing points for being a bit over-long.
David (Ryan) wakes up one day to discover his teenage daughter, Sophia has vanished. He is soon contacted by a man on the phone who informs David that he has kidnapped his daughter, and that if he wants to see her alive again he will need to perform three tasks for the stranger. This is just the tip of the iceberg with later revelations bringing the possibility of time travel, evil clones, black holes and world ending events into the mix!
At one hour fifty minutes, Live One is a film that kind of outstays its welcome. That isn't to say this was boring to sit through, it wasn't, but a large chunk of the first hour I feel could have been left on the cutting room floor and not much would have been lost. The movie is near entirely set in David's apartment, and for nearly the whole run time it is David on his own, mostly having a phone conversation with the stranger. It is credit to Ryan that his performance is able to carry the film for so long. The plot switches genres a few times throughout, with it initially coming across slightly like a comedy. Due to the arthouse style experimental aspects it never quite loses that vibe, but the first act is the most ridiculous, with David's three tasks all designed to humiliate him. The bait and switch that occurs leads into act two where the film really begins to take form. I loved the amount of twists the plot had, and the mean playfulness the stranger has with David, constantly getting him to believe ridiculous lies. I can't get into the later twists, but it leads to some genuinely creepy moments, such as the evidence the stranger sends David to prove that he does indeed have his daughter. By the time it gets to the epilogue I was fearful for what become of the protagonist, not able to relax until the end credits rolled. The Last Request was about two men trapped in a house, forced to do a series of tasks for an unseen stranger who had kidnapped one of the men's daughters, so with that knowledge it is obvious that this is the same sort of idea. This one felt better developed though, especially with the stranger having a voice, where in that other film it was a series of notes that was moving the story forward.
The experimental nature leads to long scenes of not much happening. There are several montages of David doing things around the house, each with bizarre musical choices to accompany them. My favourite of these was when David is desperately searching for an envelope hidden within his book collection, with the music playing being some sort of wild techno. There is heavy use of repeating imagery and scenes, David talking about dreams he had of a backwards singing man and a dancing hobo are shown on screen, with these weird segments being shown again and again. I don't get the purpose of these at all, but they did look surreal in a great way. There are also frequent still images and repeating bits of footage that appear, usually when David and the stranger are talking about certain characters or events, that was also pretty neat. Much of the time the camera is focussed on David's face, seeming sometimes to freeze on him rather than be actual footage, while the film occasionally turns black for several seconds at a time for no obvious reason.
Though I didn't think the whole first act was really needed (though had some highlights), things really improved a lot, and this was mainly via the phone conversation David and the stranger were having. This had a similar idea to Phone Booth, but I would say this one worked a lot better. The constant twists and revelations, fake or not, were very interesting, with me glued to the screen wanting to find out exactly what was going on. Being a slow burn, and with so much film time with just the one character this won't be for everyone, but if you want something that tells a legitimately interesting story while never taking itself completely seriously then I would suggest giving the very indie Live One a chance.
SCORE:
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