Back in the olden days, everything took twice as long to do. Apparently, telling a story was no different. Redland is the tale of a Great Depression family trying to survive without food or money until the males of the brood can make it across the river and return with meat to eat and pelts to sell. It’s a potentially compelling story whose poignancy is lost amid superfluous scenes and significant spans of silence. Redland becomes a test of will to see how much monotony the audience can endure. In most cases, it’s not much.
CineVegas 2009
- Redland
- Bernadette Murray, Kathan Fors, Lucy Adden.
- Directed by Asiel Norton
- IMDb: Redland
- More CineVegas
- Complete coverage of CineVegas 2009
- Film reviews
Even worse than the tediously uneventful story is the mind-boggling cinematography and lighting. Low-contrast images and dim lighting prevent viewers from seeing what’s happening onscreen. And in a visual medium, that’s a big problem. Much of the 30-minutes-too-long running time is spent in futile attempts to decipher the obscured images being presented. Redland’s shortage of visibility prevents the audience from getting invested in the characters and their story. If you can’t see the people, it’s difficult to care about what happens to them.
Fortunately, Redland’s lack of any redeeming qualities will prevent it from ever coming to a theater near you. Lucky you.
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