DANCE FILM REVIEW: Tom - Sadler's Wells, London.

I am not entirely certain what it was exactly that I watched, but I do know that it was something quite unique. 'Tom' is the brainchild and creation of Wilkie Branson, who is a choreogrpaher, filmmaker and also a Sadler's Wells New Wave Associate. It's the 'new wave' bit that gives you a clue. Tom is not your ordinary dance presentation, nor is it an ordinary film. Branson has spent a lot of his time trying to create something special, a kind of bridge between various media pushing the boundaries of filmmaking as much as possible. Perhaps it should be called a "filmed theatrical dance installion".

The entire film, which lasts just shy of 60 minutes, employs only two performers (Wilkie Branson himself and Eben Haywood), and yet the screen is it at times awash with hundreds of different people. Other times the locstions are desolate, deserted, fragmented. The film starts with a man searching for something, in an abandoned and isolated log cabin he finds it. He travels by several trains to a big city, he still feels alone, despite the crowds and the atmosphere, his brain is in pieces, and this is mirrored by the juxtaposition of narrative reality and fantasy. He travels back 'home' to the peace and quiet only to find the ground, quite literally, break apart from under him.

The film shows us Tom's "dark and affecting journey of self-discovery, touching upon issues of loneliness, isolation, mental health, and the perseverence of the human spirit." It is "one man's journey to rediscover who he really is".

The film is dark, dystopian, bleak, and offers no respite despite some, at times quite upbeat and uplifting music (Benji Bower). It's also quite repetitive, but maybe that's the whole point. It's never boring, and is intelligently put together with obvious love and skill.

It's very clever and very innovative, that much is clear, but it is also very strange. There are some techniques used throughout this film which I had never heard of before, so I looked them up; and even after reading what they were and the process necessary to create them, I was still somewhat baffled. The film uses animation, photogrammetry, chrome-key capture and projection mapping to great effect, whilst the minimal amount of dancing that is perofrmed in the film is based on breakdancing (or b-boying as it seems to be known these days).

Reviewer - Matthew Dougall
on - 23/5/20