Coherence - The Most Underrated Sci-Fi Film

Описание: Check out our analysis of the little known and vastly underrated 'Coherence'. Find out why you should check out this sci-fi gem, how it took some innovative creative risks and why it perhaps didn't perform as well as it should've.

#Coherence #FilmTheory #SciFi
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Hey will you look at that – a ‘Movies That Deserve More Love’ about a movie that most people genuinely haven’t seen! I have to work to convince you! Who needs SEO? Now that I think about it, this series is a terrible idea right now – if it’s well-known my take is either gonna be met with controversy or ‘duh’, and if it’s not well-known, then no one’s gonna see the video. Anyway, here’s a video very few people will see about a movie very few people have seen. The abyss gazes back. Coherence!
Coherence is a fantastic little movie that went mostly under the radar, I think partially because of its timing. To give you a quick overview of the plot, a group of old friends have gathered for a dinner party on the night that a large comet is due to pass over. It causes all the power to go out, and then spooky things happen involving parallel universes and chaos theory. By the time of its audience release in 2014, we'd been blessed with four Paranormal Activity movies and its countless knockoffs, so the spooky haunted-house subgenre was at a pretty low point. Even still, the year before, gems like The Conjuring had kicked up a storm thanks to big name actors and studio backing, and The Evil Dead remake pushed through mainly on brand recognition. It may be a bit unfair of me to compare these films, given The Conjuring and Evil Dead are out-and-out horrors, while Coherence is better described as a sci-fi thriller. But I want to establish the kind of environment the film emerged in.
Were you to see a trailer for the film which, given it's a trailer, can't go in-depth on the twists and weighty concepts that make up the film, you might assume that it was just another low-budget Paranormal Activity knockoff. And as for word of mouth, it's a hard sell outside of certain circles. You can't go too far into describing it without stepping into spoiler territory, because this film's appeal relies a lot on its many ingenious twists. I’m going to spoil a couple of things in this video because it’s literally impossible to sell it to you on abstracts alone. These things probably contributed to its less than earth-shattering release at the time, but it doesn't do anything to change the quality of the film itself.
A big factor in my appreciation for this film comes down to how it was made. That’s not to say that the movie doesn’t stand up on its own – it absolutely does – more that knowing a bit of the behind the scenes enhances your enjoyment. I think it's fascinating to learn how certain things in movies were made, especially to hear the passion creators have for their work. It's possible I've spent more hours watching the Appendices of The Lord of the Rings than I have the actual films. Rather than dispelling the illusion, peeking behind the curtain can often make you appreciate the craft and ingenuity even more.
To say that writer and director James Ward Byrkit took a stripped-down approach to Coherence is an obscene understatement. The movie is filmed at his own house, mostly handheld, and I believe the actors are all long-time friends of his. There’s no special effects, or even many practical effects to speak of. But here’s the good bit – the actors weren’t given a script. Instead, they went in blind, and each person was given a kind of cue card with a list of things that their character had to do or reveal in that scene, and it was up to actors to organically weave it in. They had no clue what anyone else had on their cards and had to react to it in real time. Byrkit and his co-writer meticulously plotted the film for the better part of a year, nudged the actors into their places, and let them do their thing.
Not a lot of people would have the balls to even attempt it, but it’s not just something to tickle pretentious artsy-fartsy pricks like me – it really worked. The dialogue feels so natural, overlapping in places, rising and lowering in volume, cutting to allow one person to hold the spotlight for a moment. It’s so good it reminds me of the transcripts I used to make and analyse when I studied English Language. It’s a real testament to the ability of the actors that they were able to roll with it so well and maintain character scene to scene...