The issues of loneliness and isolation have come to the fore in recent months with the COVID-19 pandemic crisis, which is affecting everyone across the globe – and a brand-new psychological drama focusing on a lone man’s determination and struggle to survive when he is seemingly the only person left in existence attempts to dramatise the experience.
GO/DON’T GO, written, co-produced, directed by and starring Alex Knapp, which plays at the Greenpoint Film Festival, is the tale of Adam (Knapp), a shy but emotional man who seems to be the only human in existence in a rural community.
The film opens with him in a bar, where his friend Kyle (Nore Davis) points out a girl, K (Olivia Luccardi) and as is often the case on first dates the struggle to get things out is apparent, but this is simply the backdrop to a world of reflection as Adam is locked in a downward spiral of desperation as he travels across this rural community to find his bearings.
He’s understandably paranoid about things, setting leg level wire booby traps, but he seems to have all the attributes to survive. All the amenities are in place, a gas station for fuel, a supermarket for food and even a bowling alley, but it’s clear that Adam desires a girl like K in his life again, but the struggles and objective of eventually to ‘get to the mountain’ are more and more important as he goes on his odyssey to find balance again….
GO/DON’T GO is a well shot and, on a technical level, well made movie (the cinematography is first rate), but it is the human aspect and conflicts of this particular story where the film falls a little short.
The big thing is that everybody seems to have the same idea about what story to tell and we have seen this thing recently in the blockbuster horror A QUIET PLACE which stimulated the genre with a clever and simple idea. Comments in the industry sense that people will want more escapist entertainment than lockdown-themed films as and when we emerge from lockdown and things are bit more normal in the future.
Even genre and horror fans will sense where this is going – and a movie that spends about half its’ running time with a man going round his world without at least a couple of key moments of conflict will the audience wanting more.
Knapp should not be begrudged for what he has done here, as it is a visual treat and this is what GO/DON’T GO is worth checking out for. It’s a shame that we didn’t have more moments of intensified drama and suspense within the structure.
