Eye For Film >> Movies >> Cold Light Of Day (2003) Film Review
They said that Trainspotting was unfilmable. They say that voice-over narrative is a literary device, not a cinematic one. People can be wrong, you know.
Zam Salim breaks the rules with such bare-fisted confidence that you start wondering whether the rules were right in the first place. This is a short film of dazzling ingenuity, with a simple premise and an hilarious running gag.
The premise: it's the girlfriend's birthday and I haven't bought her anything and I don't know what she wants and I'm bound to get it wrong, whatever it is, because I haven't a clue, and I'm late. The running gag: panic stations.
Salim's voice-over thought chatter captures the feeling of blind terror, when you don't know what you're doing, but know you have to do it anyway. The visuals frame the commentary with a frenetic collage, as the script imitates a mind losing its hold on fundamentals to the point where fear of failure implodes. The humour is pitched at that point beyond logic where recognition kicks in and nostalgia for the perfect gauche moment is a thing of beauty.
Who hasn't been here, flapping like a duck in a bucket? When expectation outreaches probability, you're in trouble. Salim has mastered the medium. He tells a story from desperate beginnings to desperate end without appearing to burn down the house. It is painfully funny.
COLD LIGHT OF DAY from zam salim on Vimeo.
Reviewed on: 23 Apr 2003
