EIFF 2016: Brakes & The Library Suicides

Two very different world premieres at Edinburgh International Film Festival: improvised breakup comedy Brakes and The Library Suicides, a bloody revenge thriller set within a Welsh library 

Brakes (★★)

An ultra low budget improvised comedy with a focus on dysfunctional relationships, Brakes is most successful when dealing in the drab and mundane. Its opening sketch, for example, is a heavily pixilated, stuttering Skype conversation between a long distance couple, the production values of which are barely less than those of the film itself. We believe Steve Oram as a slovenly, emotionally stunted office worker inhabiting a world of microwave dinners and cheap lager, and so the production momentarily achieves the dark pathos to which it aspires. Elsewhere, low-res footage of London conveys a sense of loneliness and isolation among the city's iconic landscapes.

Too often, however, ponderous dialogue and blurry visuals result in a muddled lack of clarity. It's true director Mercedes Grower has contrived this to some extent, taking a nonlinear approach to storytelling whereby we're shown the dissolution of her characters' romances before we glimpse each pair in happier times. While this narrative device ensures a formulaic second half, what really causes problems for the viewer is Gower's inclination toward a naturalistic cinema verite approach ill-suited to increasingly surreal scenarios.

Brakes screens Filmhouse, 19 Jun, 6.10pm

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More coverage of EIFF:

 Edinburgh Film Festival 2016: 11 films to see

 Finnish films breaking out internationally

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The Library Suicides (★★★)

By contrast, The Library Suicides is perhaps too assured and economical for its own good. The Welsh language thriller is helmed by Euros Lyn, a veteran of critically acclaimed television ranging from Doctor Who to Daredevil, and has its sights set firmly on the world stage. Its dour aesthetics call to mind those of internationally popular Scandinavian fare, while eccentric characters convey a certain drab exoticism. A narrative involving identical twins, their mother's alleged suicide, her biographer and an oddball security guard on parole is taut and claustrophobic, but would be more gripping if allowed room to breathe. As it stands, we feel little for the characters and are given no room to speculate on their circumstances or back stories. Lyn's offering is stylish and satisfying, but sadly lacking in psychological substance.