Surveillance

Released by: Magnolia Films
Released on: 9/9/2009
Director: Jennifer Lynch
Cast: Bill Pullman, Julia Ormond, Pell James, Mac Miller, Charlie Newmark
Year: 2008
Purchase From Amazon
The Movie:

Produced by David Lynch, who is credited in letters the same size as the film's director, his daughter Jennifer Lynch, Surveillance is her first picture since 1993's Boxing Helena, a picture that gets unfairly trashed more often than it really deserves to be (can a picture with so much naked Sherilyn Fenn really be that bad? I think not!). It might have taken Ms. Lynch a decade and a half to make her second feature, but those years weren't for naught, as this second step behind the camera shows considerably more skill and maturity than her sophomore effort did (guilty pleasure or not).

Surveillance follows a pair of FBI agents named Sam Hallaway (Bill Pullman) and Elizabeth Anderson (Julia Ormond) who arrive in a small town to investigate a string of increasingly nasty murders that have taken place in recent times. They show up with hopes of solving the crime, but those hopes are soon dashed when they find out that there are three different witnesses to the murders, each with their own strikingly different take on the events.

With the cooperation of Captain Billings (Michael Ironside), Agent Hallaway interrogates the three witnesses: young Stephanie (Ryan Simpkins) who saw her family slaughtered, a junkie named Bobbi (Pell James) who saw her boyfriend killed, and a cop named Jack Bennett (Kent Harper) who witnessed the death of his partner Jim Conrad (French Stewart). Each interviewee is put in his/her own room, equipped with a surveillance camera, and the stories are told…

Cynical and violent almost to a fault, Surveillance might easily be labeled as a 'cool for the sake of cool' indy film, the likes of which have been flooding the market since Reservoir Dogs opened the gates a long time ago. That criticism isn't half off the mark, there's definitely some posturing and some unnecessary violence here that seems to have little reason aside from shock value, but underneath the overly slick veneer and the ever-so-clever twist ending, Surveillance tells a fairly interesting story made all the more watchable thanks to the excellent efforts of Pullman and Ormond.

There isn't much of a reveal here and as a murder mystery Surveillance falls pretty flat on its face but even if you'll probably see the ending coming, at least getting there is an enjoyable trip. Equate it to walking to work through a nice park. Getting there might not be 'all that' but hey, at least you're walking through the park and it's a nice day outside, might as well enjoy it, right? Surveillance has that sort of passably enjoyable quality to it. This might make it sound all too mediocre and it's not, it's better than that, in fact it's very slick and well shot and polished and dare I say it 'hip' - but you get an impending sense of familiarity with it. Almost as if her film takes place in a world her father created (you can't help but think Twin Peaks at times), Jennifer Lynch's picture never quite lifts off, and you get the impression that she's aping daddy's style a little too much for her own good (something that, despite Fenn's presence, you didn't really get with Boxing Helena). As such, Surveillance will appeal more to Lynch Sr. devotees than to those hoping to find a new director trying to find her own voice. So yeah, it's not bad. Not bad at all. It's pretty good, actually. But would this have been made had David Lynch not produced it?

Video/Audio/Extras:

The anamorphic 2.35.1 widescreen transfer on this DVD is very nice indeed, doing justice to the film's odd cinematography and replicating the color scheme. Skin tones look good and while some scenes that have more natural light in them look a little soft and a few more look fairly grainy (intentional?), detail stays strong for the most part. The transfer does a good job of bringing the film's unsettling atmosphere to your home theater set up and there's not much to complain about here in terms of the visuals.

Surveillance is presented in an English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound with optional subtitles provided in Spanish only. This is about what you'd expect from a modestly budgeted modern feature. The rears are used during a few of the more intense scenes but seem to be more concerned with the score than anything else. Bass response is alright, though it could have been stronger but the dialogue, a very important part of what makes this picture work, is always clean, clear and audible.

First up, as far as the extras go, is a very disjointed commentary track from director/co-writer Jennifer Lynch who is joined by actors Mac Miller and Charlie Newmark. Lynch rattles off facts at a mile a minute though the other two don't have too much trouble getting a few words in edge wise. This is a very matter of fact commentary that hits at a ridiculously fast pace and tends to go off topic now and again, but the enthusiasm here is nothing if not fun.

From there we move on to the featurettes starting with Surveillance: The Watched Are Watching (15:11), that for some reason spends a lot of time making fun of Regina, Saskatchewan where the film was shot rather than telling us all that much about the movie. There are the standard talking head/sound bite clips and some behind the scenes bits here but not much of substance, though it's entertaining enough and definitely gives you the impression that all involved enjoyed their work on the movie. HDNet: A Look At Surveillance (4:42) is a brief promo spot that ran on the HDNet channel to generate hype for the movie and it plays out as little more than an advertisement.

Rounding out the extras are twelve minutes worth of deleted scenes (including an interesting alternate ending) that are available with an optional commentary from Lynch, some trailers for other Magnolia releases, animated menus and chapter selection options.

The Final Word:

An unsettling and twisted thriller, Surveillance is pretty intense stuff made all the better by some strong direction, great performances. That said, it's also a predictable picture that fails to carve out its own niche. You do have to admire the all around strong DVD release from Magnet, however, which presents the picture in great shape with some very strong complimentary supplements.