Love (Shock)

Angels & Airwaves stumped up the cash to make this oblique film on human connectivity. Written and directed by William Eubank, the film was produced on a modest budget of $500, 000USD. A strange, intriguing, picture, the plot starts during an 1864 battle during the American Civil War and Captain Lee Briggs (Bradley Horne) is dispatched on a mission to investigate a mysterious object reported to Union forces.

Fast-forward 175 years and its 2039. US astronaut Lee Miller (Gunner Wright) is sent to a space station on a one-man mission to determine if it is safe for use and to perform necessary modifications after it had been abandoned two decades earlier.

Miller loses contact with Earth and somehow finds Briggs’ journal. Alone in space, the film intrigues then gradually begins to meander. Just as the viewer starts to drift, something clicks and the film looks like delivering an ending that’ll kick it into cult classic status. For half of the film, Love is almost on par with Duncan Jones’ Moon. But, the ending is unsatisfactory. There’s no resolve and it took a twenty-minute hunt around the web looking for theories before the closing scenes gelled.

Plaudits to Angels & Airwaves for funding this piece of art. The mood will stay with you for days. The resolve it needed to really work wasn’t forthcoming. Still, we’re looking forward to seeing what Eubank does next.

[Extras: Angels & Airwaves clips, commentaries]

[rating 2.5/5]

Mitchell Peters