Starring Guy Birtwhistle, Brant Rotnem and Abigail Kate Thomas

Directed by Joshua Sowden

Percival Whitby (Guy Birtwhistle) is a retrieval specialist. One part thief, one part explorer, one part tomb raider and one part dealer, he specialises in downed UFO technology. He’s plausible, quick-witted and painfully aware of how bad a father and husband he’s been. But there’s one more score…

This is the sort of zero budget, tiny cast movie I always admire and there’s a lot to admire here. Percival is a man on a dozen edges, on the line between science and fiction, the sea and the shore, and criminality and industry. The movie is almost entirely locked off on him, never stopping moving, never stopping talking and never quite getting what he wants. Sowden uses tight angles and constant movement to reflect the hunger Percival has that can never quite be sated. He sleeps in his car, he commits multiple (mostly) petty crimes and he’s constantly at risk. But he also loves this job, defines himself by it and the movie never lets us forget that. It also never stops questioning Guy’s terrible life choices and pulls off a very complex double somersault of making him contemptible and likable all at once. A late scene where he’s almost tricked into an interview by a journalist is one of the tensest moments in the movie and it all comes from his terror at being seen.

The movie also makes some smart choices about how to expand out from that focus. Percival’s string of phone calls gives the surprisingly large voice cast a chance to shine and Brant Rotnem is great as the increasingly sinister Doctor Christopher Mercy. In particular, there’s a neatly handled reprise of the opening scene, a distanced conversation between Percival and a friend on a nearby boat that’s really unsettling.  Elsewhere Sowden and Birtwhistle (who also writes) cleverly use VR as both an emotional state shift and a chance to expand the movie’s visual palate. Abigail Kate Thomas as Percival’s daughter shines in these scenes and the film folds some nicely realised surprises about her into the second half.

A film like this lives in the tension between the budget and the ideas and Birtwhistle as writer and actor sits inside that tension. He’s an interesting presence, playing somewhere between Jason Statham and David Thewlis. Always physically competent, always emotionally pained. The second act especially is almost entirely him and the heavy lifting he’s required to do is clearly a strain but one that ultimately pays off.

Verdict: Our Man in L.A. asks the audience to do a lot of the initial work but rewards all of it. It manages to find new things to say in this largely played out sub-genre and it has a surprising amount of heart. A complicated, pleasant, clever surprise. 8/10

Alasdair Stuart

 

Our Man in L.A. is on Amazon Prime now.