{"id":25830,"date":"2017-07-26T02:48:45","date_gmt":"2017-07-26T06:48:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/?p=25830"},"modified":"2020-07-29T11:10:35","modified_gmt":"2020-07-29T15:10:35","slug":"sequence-break-2017-fantasia-international-film-festival-2017","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/2017\/07\/26\/sequence-break-2017-fantasia-international-film-festival-2017\/","title":{"rendered":"Sequence Break (2017) [Fantasia International Film Festival 2017]"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>A retro-tech fan working as an arcade game technician meets a beautiful girl as a game pulls him in deeper and deeper into a world where multiple possibilities collide.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Graham Skipper creates a story here that is dipped in 80s nostalgia but not one of those insanely-80s ones.\u00a0 As the writer and director of the film, he builds an environment and atmosphere that feels like some of the science-fiction films that were loved in the time period without mimicking them or over-doing the decade with fake-feeling imagery and ideas.\u00a0 Here he takes some ideas from then and molds them to his story and his settings.\u00a0 His lead character is deep into the arcade game culture and definitely an anti-current-technology guy but the film itself does not try to reproduce the period he is obsessed with.\u00a0 It has definite influences that it wears on its sleeve from War Games to Videodrome; Skipper takes all of these influences and melds them into his own world with his own characters.\u00a0 Yes, it\u2019s nostalgic and has synthwave music, but his story transcends that and becomes something that makes sense with the current settings.\u00a0 Describing the story and characters without giving away too much is something that is almost impossible as this film is better seen without a clue what it\u2019s about and where it\u2019s going.<\/p>\n

The lead actor Skipper chose for this project is Chase Williamson, who played his brother in Beyond the Gates, and their relationship outside of the movies seems to have given them a closeness that allows them to work in tandem beautifully.\u00a0 Williamson gives an odd but talented performance as Oz, a young man who doesn\u2019t fully plan for anything or know where he is going but does have goals and some crazy talent.\u00a0 His gives an awkward as should be performance.\u00a0 Playing his love interest, the beautiful Tess is Fabianne Therese whose spunky attitude and fun-loving ways counter-balance Williamson\u2019s Oz perfectly.\u00a0 Her performance brings a brightness, almost a lightness in places, something that is greatly needed or the film would have become one dark story.<\/p>\n

These characters are supported by a score by Van Hughes who adds to the mood of the film with perfectly placed synthwave notes, something of a throwback to 80s sci-fi films that just works.\u00a0 The score takes the film deeper into a sort of almost trance with the lead and creates an odd connection with the viewer and their nostalgia in a way that adds to the film without yanking the viewer out of the story with too much 80s sound.\u00a0 Most of the nostalgia comes from the score here and from the occasional image or quick shot of things as well as from the central video game itself which is better left a mystery until the movie is seen.<\/p>\n

Sequence Break has multiple themes and influences all layering in a way that creates an interesting story that digs deep into the psyche of its lead and doesn\u2019t give everything away or explain everything.\u00a0 It\u2019s one of those movies that leave some things to the imagination, something too few sci-fi films of late have done.\u00a0 It\u2019s intelligent science-fiction with unobtrusive nostalgia that works.\u00a0 It\u2019s layered and complex, giving the viewer a lot of look at and to think about as they watch.<\/p>\n

Fantasia International Film Festival runs from July 13th to August 2nd.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A retro-tech fan working as an arcade game technician meets a beautiful girl as a game pulls him in deeper and deeper into a world where multiple possibilities collide.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2497,1284,12],"tags":[477,874,906,1156],"class_list":["post-25830","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fantasia-fest","category-festivalsevents","category-movie-reviews","tag-horror","tag-romance","tag-science-fiction","tag-video-games"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25830","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25830"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25830\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25832,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25830\/revisions\/25832"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25830"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25830"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25830"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}