Review by Eric Hillis
Directed by: Zeshaan Younus
Starring: Renee Gagner, Rosie McDonald, John R. Smith Jnr, Sydney McCarthy, Nick Samson
A protagonist making a reluctant return to her hometown might be the most overused premise in American indie cinema, fuelling multiple entries at every film festival. If it's a comedy the protagonist will inevitably reconnect with the town they left, usually rekindling some old high school romance and patching things up with their estranged family. If it's a thriller the return home is usually sparked by the death of a friend or family member, with the protagonist embarking on an investigation to uncover the truth. Writer/director Zeshaan Younus' I've Seen All I Need to See belongs to the latter camp.
Having left her desert town, Parker (Renee Gagner) is attempting to make it as an actress in Los Angeles, attending a series of auditions and acting classes. She has left behind her troubled sister Indiana (Rosie McDonald), who has gotten herself involved with the local drug trade. We see Indiana leave a voicemail for Parker in which she advises her not to come looking for her. The following morning Indiana heads off to a drug deal that leaves her dead.
This is the spark for Parker to return home and begin snooping around. She connects with Indiana's former lover June (Sydney McCarthy) and hangs out at a dive bar where she unwittingly has an encounter with the man (John R. Smith Jnr) Indiana met on that faithful morning.
And...that's pretty much your lot. I've Seen All I Need to See is almost devoid of a narrative, certainly a satisfying one. There is nothing compelling about either Parker or her investigation. The latter has none of the breadcrumb following and quirky characters we might expect form such a setup, and Parker exists in such an existential funk that she barely registers.
Most of what we learn about Parker comes courtesy of a voiceover narration that is weighed down with laughably pretentious lines. At one point we discover that some of Parker's narration emanates from a letter composed by June, but it's written in the exact same flowery language as the thoughts in Parker's head. It's hard enough to accept that one character thinks/writes like this, but two is really stretching things.
The film school-esque pretensions also bleed over into the shot compositions and patience testing editing rhythms. Multiple scenes force us to stare at the back of a character's head as they play out, and there are static, underlit shots that last so long without motion that at one point I had to check if my screener had frozen. When the camera actually takes in its protagonist's face we watch her stare pensively into the middle distance as though she were in one of her character's acting classes.
Younus' film falls in a no man's land between thriller and experimental arthouse work. It certainly doesn't engage as a thriller, as there is little in the way of suspense or tension here. As an experiment it isn't doing anything original, and it's too visually uninteresting to sate the arthouse crowd.
I've Seen All I Need to See takes its title from a line every jobbing actor will have heard at an audition, usually followed by "we'll be in touch if we're interested." It's unfortunately a line that may well go through the average viewer's mind long before the film reaches its conclusion, as this is a slow burn thriller that fails to ignite.
I've Seen All I Need to See is in UK cinemas from May 1st.
