MEMORY LANE

MEMORY LANE

Nick (Michael Guy Allen) is a former soldier who still carries the mental scars of having fought in Afghanistan. He's not doing so well since retiring from the US armed forces until he takes a drive one evening and spies Kayla (Meg Barrick) about to launch herself over a local bridge.

He saves her from herself and the pair quickly become an item. To say their relationship is unconventional is something of an understatement. The sex seems straightforward enough, but their other activities (her casually stealing his car, and him even more casually forgiving her, for instance) not so.

Regardless, Kayla is clearly just the tonic the troubled Nick needs. So much so that he surprises both her and his slacker pals by suddenly buying a dilapidated property for the pair to move into. His mates pop round to help renovate it, hardly thinking to question his rash decision-making or the fact that his new girlfriend appears to be constantly on edge.

Alas, the fun comes to an end just as briskly when Nick discovers Kayla dead in their new house's bathtub a short while later. It looks as though she finally ended her own life. But, upon being saved from a similar suicide attempt by his buddies, Nick reveals that his near-death experience afforded him a glimpse into an alternate reality where he could decode previous events more clearly: this leaves him with the belief that Kayla may not have been suicidal at all, and that she may have been murdered.

It's a measure of his friends, then, that they agree to set up a bathtub-cum-suicide/resuscitation chamber in his garage which enables them to oversee Nick's subsequent bids to briefly 'die' over and over in a quest to discover the facts surrounding his whirlwind romance's demise.

But what good can come of such actions...?

MEMORY LANE is gathering steam on the word-of-mouth circuit as a film that was made for the measly sum of $300. While it's clearly shot on digital format and does suffer from occasional bleaching and blown-out visuals, it's realistic to say this is a prime example of what can be achieved stylistically with hardly any resources whatsoever.

It looks very good for a lot of the time. This is largely thanks to sharp editing and keen photography. For a sci-fi film, the DX and locations are wisely never overly ambitious: the film focuses instead on characters and relationships. The interesting premise - an amalgamation of MEMENTO, FLATLINERS and SOURCE CODE - works within such confines, while the performances (from a non-professional cast) are all pretty decent.

Bolstered by an agreeably short 68-minute running time, writer-director Shawn Holmes' MEMORY LANE is never a chore to sit through. But there are drawbacks: the central is too barmy to be convincing; Nick's obsession is hard to get a handle on as a result. So, emotional investment doesn't register highly on this particular radar.

The grungy, slacker opening scenes may alienate some too. But stick with it because MEMORY LANE starts quietly and then gathers momentum right up until its satisfying albeit predictably offbeat climax.

Monster Pictures have released MEMORY LANE onto UK DVD in a very nice 2-disc package.

Disc one contains the film, uncut, in a 16x9 transfer of its intended 2.35:1 aspect ratio. Shot on digital. There’s an unavoidable lo-fi rawness to the visual quality but at the same time it holds up well in terms of offering strong blacks and vibrant colours. Flesh tones seem accurate while detail is fairly defined for the most part. There is some noise in darker scenes and the presentation is hardly what you'd describe as being 'polished' but things look better than you'd probably expect from such a low budgeted affair.

English 2.0 audio is as well represented as it can be. Admittedly, some dialogue suffers from a muffled delivery. This most likely reflects the manner in which the audio was recorded on shooting location.

A static main menu page leads into an animated scene-selection menu which allows access to MEMORY LANE via 8 chapters.

Holmes provides an informative, interesting commentary track. This is a worthwhile undertaking for anyone interested in making movies. There's a refreshing candour to Holmes' patter and he's not precious about sharing some simple tricks of the trade.

Over on disc two, we're greeted with another static main menu page. This one is host to a fine selection of bonus material.

The fun begins with both teaser and theatrical trailers for the film.

5 minutes of "Dailies" contain interesting interviews with cast and crew members which originally appeared online.

A 55-second promotional video aimed at securing funding through Kickstarter follows. The scheme was, as you've probably guessed from the final budget, unsuccessful...

There's a 4-minute featurette entitled "The Grenade Launcher" which looks at an effect which was set up for the last day of the shoot; a minute or so of behind-the-scenes footage seems like it could've been engaging stuff, had there been more of it; ditto 3 minutes of deleted scenes.

Holmes is interviewed on a Comcast cable channel in the following 5-minute featurette. The picture quality here is typical staccato Internet style, but it makes for a worthwhile watch anyhow.

Screen tests and footage from Allen's audition are warmly received.

Even better are two early, semi-experimental short films from Holmes entitled 'Rockabye' and 'Lamp Post'. Weird, but highly watchable.

Finally, if you stick disc two into your computer it also contains the film's screenplay as a PDF document. Nice.

MEMORY LANE is an interesting little project. Perhaps its greatest point of interest is, admittedly, that it cost so little to make. For me, it marks Holmes out as someone who could undoubtedly go on to make films of note with more resources at his disposal. Don't get me wrong, it's no FOLLOWING or PI - but where there's a spark, there's always potential for fire.

By Stuart Willis


 
Released by Monster Pictures
Region 2
Rated 18
Extras :
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