Sunday 24 August 2014

The Double (2013 Richard Ayoade & co-scr)

Inhabits the same dystopian nightmare world as Brazil - and for that reason is initially rather hard to swallow. Kafkaesque story (Dostoyevsky, in fact) has two great performances from Jesse Eisenberg; features Mia Wasikowska, Wallace Shawn, Yasmin Paige, Noah Taylor and Craig Roberts (all three in Submarine ), James Fox, Cathy Moriarty, Phyllis Somerville (Little Children ); with fleeting appearances by Chris O'Dowd, Paddy Considine, Sally Hawkins and (most amusingly) Chris Morris.

Very dark; quite funny in places; somewhat puzzling. Extremely stylishly made. Great music by Andrew Hewitt, photography by Erik Wilson  and editing in the noticeable style of Chris Dickens and Nick Fenton (all also from Submarine ). Has a truly bizarre soundtrack featuring ?Chinese pop songs, and a nasty seventies synthesizer in faux TV show moments.

Apparently filmed in a disused bit of Wokingham Business Park. Like Bladerunner, a film that makes you yearn for sunshine. Interesting detail that Adoyade couldn't see if the double Jesse scenes had worked until they'd come back from compositing.

Script originator Avi Korine based it on his own feelings of invisibility in New York. "I am a ghost."

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