Michael Fairbanks
One may look at the pirates and sentient crabs in the promo images for Noah Stratton-Twine and Jake Kuhn’s The Peril at Pincer Point and expect a cartoonish black and white farce. Perhaps something along the lines of the microbudget revelation Hundreds of Beavers in terms of absurdity. Not quite. The Peril at Pincer Point is certainly surreal, lampooning the insane lengths struggling artists will go for a shred of attention but it doesn’t contain much in the way of set pieces. It is confined and delirious. Imagine if David Lynch made a stop in a all human version of Bikini Bottom instead of Twin Peaks.
We follow ne’er do weller sound designer Jim (Jack Redmayne) as he faces a potential firing from the film he’s working on. It is directed by big shot auteur P.W. Griffin (Os Leanse) who is not satisfied with the stock sound effects Jim incorporated into the first cut of his odd pirate film. Even so, Jim manages to finesse his way into the opportunity to make up for his poor work. Griffin tasks him with journeying to the remote island of Pincer Point where his movie was filmed to capture sound effects authentic enough to transport the audience there. He hopes that Jim will be able to reunite with his local star Freya McFleagle (Alyth Ross) to record new dialogue. Upon arrival, Jim quickly finds himself lost, especially once the island’s residents let him know that Freya has gone missing and is possibly in the clutches of a folk legend pirate.
The Peril at Pincer Point’s vibrant black and white (bordering on sepia) aesthetic is gorgeous. It gives a film that clearly was made with very little money a tremendous sense of atmosphere. We’re uneasy from the moment a hand drawn map shows us just how far this island is from any semblance of society. Any time Jim is exploring his surroundings, awkward sound equipment in tow, the camera voyeuristically stalks him from afar. There is something uneasy in his midst, watching and taunting him. We cannot help but feel paranoia once villagers notice a pinch on Jim’s hand from a crab he finds in his apartment early on. He is marked and therefore cursed and the film plays out as such.
Jack Redmayne’s Jim is an engaging jerk. He is never at any point even slightly likable. He starts the story completely lazy and entitled but even when he starts to become more driven, he has very poor social skills. Even so, Redmayne has solid comedic delivery and timing that makes it all work. His is a painfully accurate struggling entertainment industry bro and there is something mildly inspiring about his determination to navigate this confusing journey until something washes up. The ensemble he comes across on the island are also mostly solid, launching into lengthy monologues of folklore that make the island all the more foreboding. Most of them only have a scene or two to interact with Jim, so none of them build any particularly meaningful relationship with him, but they all make the most of their scenes.
The Peril at Pincer Point feels heavily constricted by budget. Noah Stratton-Twine and Jake Kuhn clearly have vision for this delirious story but it just never finds its’ scale. It plays out more like a point and click adventure game. Jim wanders from setting to setting, finding minor clues and engaging in lengthy dialogue with whoever is standing there, only to move on with slightly more knowledge than he had before. The third act kicks the surrealism up a notch but that is mostly due to a beautifully delivered frightening monologue from Alyth Ross once Jim finally finds Freya. Afterwards, there is a point where the film feels like it is finally going to become the pirate movie it has been teasing, only to end moments later.
Even though The Peril at Pincer Point ultimately doesn’t hit any major highs, I am intrigued to see what these filmmakers do next. They are clearly ambitious and original thinkers with a painterly visual style that will serve them very well with more resources. They, like Jim, are willing to venture all the way out there in order to put anything on screen. Hopefully the right people at South By Southwest see this film and give them the opportunity to play in a bigger sandbox.
