 |
 |
|
|
 |
 |
CONCEALMENT
Written, Produced, Directed, Edited, and Filmed by David StewartPia/China - Melissa Desper
Brad - David Stewart
Francis - David HarscheidI always root for the home team, no matter what, and I'm not sure where it comes from. It's some deep-seeded sense of local pride I've carried with me since a child growing up in Landover, Md, right in the shadow of the Washington Redskins and RFK Stadium. Over 15 years, and 5 big moves later, I find myself in Virginia rooting for the Va Tech Hookies, the local minor league sports teams, The Dave Matthews Band, and my neighbor who faithfully plays the Pick 6 week in and week out.
When Charlottesville, Va, filmmaker David Stewart sent me his film CONCEALMENT for review, I received it with open arms. Going hand-in-hand with civic pride, I'm a sucker for that whole "local boy makes good" deal, and what better than a local boy who makes good with the filmmaking?
Now that I've explained myself, you'll understand it when I say that I've been trying to keep from having this review morph into a love letter to David Stewart. He doesn't just "make good with the filmmaking", he "makes with the good filmmaking", and that has me ready to gush all kinds of heaping praise.
Like so many first time filmmakers, David Stewart wears many hats. From start to finish, it's his baby. From conception to completion, he did it all. What outside help he received came in the form of actors and camera operators. CONCEALMENT is his story, but Stewart doesn't appear egomaniacal about it. As an actor, he's on screen just long enough to share his point of view. As a filmmaker, he never lingers on himself. As a craftsman, he doesn't give himself more than one title card.
The movie opens in media res. Two would-be thieves are trying to cover up their robbery by pinning the rap on China, a lonely neighbor girl who made off with their loot. What they didn't plan on is Francis, one of the truly great b-movie villains. Brought to life by actor David Harscheid, who looks to have gone to the Anthony Hopkins School of Making Acting Look Easy, Francis is that kind of villain who is always calm and relaxed, even when jamming a pencil in your throat or cutting off your toes.
After she disappears into obscurity, China makes her way to Charlottesville, Va, a college town with not much in the way outside of Virginia Commonwealth University. There she meets Brad, a tree cutter, that kind real world job nobody in movies ever seems to have. He's blue collar through and through, but not factory drone material. It doesn't take long for China to soon fall for him, for she too is a product of the real world.
Stewart is taking his cues from Hitchcock on this one. His everyday, ordinary Joes are thrust into extraordinary circumstances. That grounded-in-reality framework is what allows CONCEALMENT to work as well as it does. There's a tangibility between the audience and the characters that allows for sympathy, pathos, and ultimately true suspense.
The ending to this sort of thriller is predetermined; there's bound to be a showdown between heroes and villain. Stewart takes a STRAW DOGS approach that I found fascinating. Coming from the lower middle class myself, I've seen a different side of the moral ambiguity surrounding one's will to survive. Only by being as vicious and remorseless as your attackers, are you able to get through and win the day.
While the ending might be pre-plotted, it's the trip that makes CONCEALMENT worthwhile. Stewart takes plot detours and slows the action to a crawl so we can concentrate on China and Brad. This is what makes the difference. Stewart knows that the audience needs to care about the characters before any of us, or them, can be put through the emotional wringer. This is a movie about the people, and not about some stolen money. The movie would have even worked better if the money were treated as a true Hitchcock MacGuffin and never mentioned.
CONCEALMENT is the kind of amateur production where I hate to use the word "amateur." It's a word that should be reserved for hobbyists, and not people who are making worthwhile efforts to tell well-executed, interesting stories. Writers write, why can't filmmakers film?
There's a stigmata surrounding video productions that if a movie isn't on film, it isn't truly a movie. These people are also the ones who consider it a cardinal sin to call a video production a "film."* CONCEALMENT is a movie that happens to also be a shot on video production told with intelligence, wit, and style. If the term "shot on video" turns you off, come back after your Episode II conversion and give this one a shot.
*listen up purist boneheads, there's a "film" on the videotape that holds the information. That should be enough to shut your asses up. "Film" is in the equation somewhere, so give it a rest!
Dave Stewart Productions
Concealment