Film

Final Cut (1998)

Director: Dominic Anciano, Ray Burdis

Movie review

From Time Out Film Guide

The lines between indie experimentation and aggrandised home movie self-indulgence are getting harder to draw. Digital video is on the verge of democratising cinema. Case in point: this mischievous little jape from actors turned producers, writers and directors, Anciano and Burdis. Shot quickly and cheaply in the fashionable fake documentary style, this has a dozen mates gathering at the wake of late lamented Jude (Law), where they're the first audience to see the film à clef he'd been shooting up to his death: a hidden-camera portrait of his marriage to Sadie (Frost - Law's offscreen wife), and all their friends. What begins as a bit of a prank quickly turns nasty as Jude's camera reveals the extent to which his 'friends' moan about, steal from and cheat on their nearest and dearest. Having stuck themselves with a fixed camera and improvisation for Jude's film within the film (the bulk of the running time), the directors are unusually dependent on their cast to nail the tone. The emotional pitch is often so high, they look stranded before this cold, unflinching gaze. Still, such appalling behaviour exerts a certain fascination. It just about works as an insidious home movie - on video.

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