Available on physical media August 19th, 2025
A couple with issues on top of issues ends up scheme to murder their landlords.
Written and directed by Grzegorz Królikiewicz, Through and Through is highly regarded by some and will completely bore the life out of others. Unfortunately, the latter was the case here. While the film seems decently written and directed, something feels like it’s missing, and it becomes something that makes this viewer lose attention quickly. The story here could easily have been a short film and have been a powerful one, but the way it develops, it ends up feeling like it’s extra-long and extra slow. While this can work with some films, here, it doesn’t so much work as it becomes a challenge to watch the entire film and not fall asleep.
The cast here is actually quite decent and definitely helps the viewer stick with the film until the end. Their performances are so peculiar that the add some level of interest to the story even when scenes don’t seem to make sense or to belong within the film. The two leads here are played by Franciszek Trzeciak and Anna Nieborowska and they do rather well, showing that they can embody the characters and work with the story. The rest of the cast does decently well too, giving the viewer something more to connect with when the story fails them.
The film’s look is interesting with black and white cinematography by Bogdan Dziworski which is likely not so much an artistic choice but a budget one here, but it works. The images are pretty, the darks are really dark, and the light comes piercing through, giving the viewer a resulting stark black and white world where the characters live mostly in despair. There is something here that makes these images charming and sometimes a little jarring, giving the film a lot of visual interest.
For most people Through and Through will be a film they’ll want to steer clear from as the story is exactly on point and it leads to a watch that is more tedious than entertaining. The film is done well enough, and the cinematography is likely the main thing to retain from this, how the film was lit, framed, and shot. The cast also does well, but these things added together with the performances just do not make for a truly entertaining or interesting film.
This new release from Radiance Films showcases a new 2K restoration that looks really good considering age and budget of the film originally. The sound is in mono PCM, so keep that in mind when checking it out. The extras here have the holy grail of extras for this reviewer: short films! These are decently presented and of uneven quality, but there is something to them that makes them quite interesting. Also included is a new interview with Oleszczyk, and a limited-edition booklet with new writing by Ela Bittencourt as well as new artwork by Time Tomorrow. A decent package for the film at hand.