Isn’t the whole notion of cinematic spectatorship in danger if we’re not able to experience them in the dark theatre? As there has been vast academic research on the topic, I would like to leave you, dear readers, with this open question before I move on to reviewing the excellent Calibre. Obviously, it is unavoidable and inescapable, however frightening. The expansion of the film market by Netflix became more aggressive, with the platform not only producing their original series (normally associated with television) but also releasing an increasing amount of feature films. On the bright side, as Palmer admitted at the Q&A, it opens the film for a much broader audience and it’s beneficial for merchandising and promoting the film. The naturalistic wide shots of the breathtaking dark green and brown landscape of the Scottish Highlands are designed to be enjoyed in theatre. Being a fortunate viewer who watched Calibre in the cinema, I must express my regret that the film now can only be admired in a domestic environment. It was also the last chance for audiences to experience it on the big screen for another 10 years as the film is being released on Netflix. Calibre is currently streaming on Netflix.Matt Palmer turned out to be the dark horse of the Edinburgh Film Festival as his debut feature film Calibre (2018) became this year’s winner of the Michael Powell Award for Best British Feature. It sinks you into a grey area before stalking you into a corner. Calibre is a film with teeth and muscle but also a heart that bleeds for everyone. This is helped in no small part by Chris Wyatt’s carefully chosen cuts ensuring we see everything without ever seeing more than we should. Márk Györi’s camerawork seamlessly transitions from haunted Romanticism to a queasy but beautifully lit backwoods survivalism. The finale of the film is a slashed to the bone, teeth grinding half hour. Especially as Calibre speeds up towards its unthinkable and yet inevitable conclusion. Viewers wishing to pick a side will end up caught in a vice-like grip as neither side are truly right in their actions. Yet, the accidental tragedy of the film will have many indecisive about whether right and wrong even exist in this world. The locals’ disdain for the two men is easily understood. McCann and Lowden play their characters like fish trying to fit into a pond that’s already full up and half drained. A slow build with lots of carefully chosen words and set design mark this as the moment where there is no turning back. Yet it’s to his and the actors’ credit that the scene is as detailed as it is. Palmer could easily have filmed a hokey foreshadowing montage of the dinner. A night time burial is preceded by a bloody venison dinner in a blood-red room. Make no mistake though Calibre is as horrific as they come. Many films are wrongly mislabelled as thrillers when nothing supernatural or monstrous rears its head. A tirade by Logan’s brother Brian (Ian Pirie) feels passionate rather than heavy-handed but Palmer continually refers to the economic depression suffered by the Highlands in subtler ways. He does it with a sensitivity that working-class cinema hero Ken Loach would be proud of. However, where in John Boorman’s film the locals come across as rape-obsessed hicks, Palmer makes them figures of sympathy in Calibre. He balances this tautness on his knife edge plot.Ĭomparisons have already been drawn to Deliverance. From the moment Vaughn is harassed by a local in the pub Palmer makes the tension of the film felt. It is a grim film with little levity beyond the lads’ initial bluster. From there things spiral.Ĭalibre feels both inevitable and unbearable. However, at the last second the animal raises its head and Vaughn shoots a child hiker dead. Upon spotting a deer Vaughn lines up his shot. The next morning – much the worse for wear – the two pals set off to do some stalking. Upon arrival the timid Vaughn and coke fiend Marcus hit the pub where the locals are everything but hospitable barring successful farmer Logan (Tony Curran) and flirty local women. Old friends Vaughn (Jack Lowden, Dunkirk) and Marcus (Martin McCann, The Survivalist) are off to the Scottish Highlands for one last hurrah before Vaughn gets married to his newly pregnant fiancé. In Matt Palmer’s lean and mean debut feature Calibre stalking takes on a horrifying new meaning. Most will agree it is the stalking of the kill rather than the killing itself that is the best part of hunting. Ask any hunter from Ernest Hemingway to infamous sniper Carlos Hathcock. Hunting is often referred to as “stalking” by those with a knowledge of the controversial sport.
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