Shot by Shot Reviews of Film and TV

When I set aside the time to sit down to a film I do not wish to waste that time with a freshman effort: one where the filmmaker’s insecurity shows itself in every choice. A sure fire tell these days is the slow digital zoom-ins on static shots to try and cover up a lack of pacing. Another is the awkward use of lenses. Another, the stiff staging of the actors within the scene.

Unfortunately, Osgood Perkins’ Longlegs displays every one of these tells within its first few minutes, which caused me to shift my viewing in order to accommodate its shortcomings. This is because, when I pay to see a film I expect professionally finished work, just as I would from a house painter or a plumber. A student film is a waste of my time. But I moved past that initial disappointment and braced myself for a bumpy ride.

The film’s biggest handicap is the director’s lack of understanding of “suspense.” The script rolls out like a patchwork quilt; an early draft showing the seams of scenes and ideas. I’m not trying to be cruel but simply highlighting a feature that many films coming out these days seem to share. So many so-called “main-stream” movies nowadays are amateurish (the kindest word I could find). And this will only lower the standard of films in general. The proof is the generally positive word of mouth this film could boast.

I initially avoided it because a) I thought it was a horror film and b) I thought it featured spiders. I avoid both. But when I heard it had Nicholas cage I swooped on it like a fly on sugar. Cage has always been a draw to go see a film, bringing something unique to the table with this talents. Unfortunately, this fly was then snared.

Longlegs begins as a teenage film-maker’s version of The Silence of the Lambs, following a young female FBI agent with insights into the psyche of serial killers tracking the eponymous Longlegs.

The Silence of the Lambs is a giant in film history. It is a rare example of a “B-movie” breaking free of its limitations and soaring skyward. Longlegs is a “C-movie” with “A-movie” aspirations, buoyed by digital tools as it tries desperately to make itself in the former’s image. There is no other reason why it would be set at the same time period. It is not as though that time period is known to have had any more serial killers. In fact the book by Thomas Harris was written in the eighties, so they were definitely going for the film version as a prototype and not its literary source.

The trend of filmmakers imitating styles of films from past decades is getting tiresome, and worse still, boring. If they are so bored with the modern format then perhaps they should move on to a field that might interest them and spare us the likes of this self-conscious drivel. 2019’s The Lighthouse is another such self indulgent exercise that is unfortunately much discussed among young film-makers, and no one else. There was a time when Young Frankenstein, Schindler’s List or The Aviator were the rare exception and they did it for the sake of the telling, not on a whim. When I watched and loved 2014’s Inherent Vice or The Grand Budapest Hotel, I did not think they would spawn a trend to this extreme. They were two films by filmmaker’s at the height of their powers, PT Anderson and Wes Anderson (no relation, or at least I don’t think they are…). It wasn’t used to cloak inadequacies behind stolen style.

A somewhat recent example of a successful use of long off-kilter shots that works effectively is the first episode of the Apple show The Servant directed by M Night Shyamalan. If only the rest of the show had lived up to the promise of that first episode it would have become a tv classic. Regardless, that standout episode succeeds in setting up the atmosphere, the characters, the setting, while Longlegs achieves none of this all through its run-time.

Other than the brief instances with Nicholas Cage delivering a genuinely unsettling performance, this film misses the mark that it had traced out from other better films. It will serve you better to watch the original masterwork instead. The Silence of the Lambs. And from this point I am going to be silent on Longlegs.