by Alireza Hatamvand
Worth: $15.00
FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth
Cast:
Blair Allen, Sandra Bradshaw-West, Madeleine Burgess, Tenielle Thompson
Intro:
… deep and distinctive …
Written and directed by Troy Blackman in his first feature-length effort, Vineyard Ablaze tells the story of Minerva (Madeleine Burges) and Vina (Sandra Bradshaw-West). Minerva has decided to take care of Vina, her grandmother who is living with dementia — an idea that even Minerva’s father, for reasons we learn later, isn’t very keen on.
Minerva enters her grandmother’s home with strong personal motivations. Thanks to the film’s striking and compelling opening, the grandmother appears strange and somewhat frightening. Things seem calm early on, but the driving force of this drama lies in the memories of these two characters. As the memories are revealed, they make the viewer, as a witness, increasingly anxious, and we realise that the calm will not last forever.
The gradual, drop-by-drop delivery of information to the audience is handled at the right pace and in the right direction, revealing Blackman to be a writer well-versed in narrative engineering. Still, the unanswered “whys” and the lack of deeper revelations about the characters may leave the audience too thirsty. Of course, all these blanks are undoubtedly intentional, left open so the viewer ends the film with more questions than answers — but was this much lack of resolution truly necessary?
Blackman’s directing approach is shaped by the needs of the story, influenced by the cinema of classical modern European filmmakers, and, of course, a limited budget. The performances have been drawn out, and a distancing effect is noticeable throughout the film. There is no musical score; only the raw, naked environmental sounds are heard. It has also been decided that the entire film should be in black and white — something that, while successful in creating the film’s bleak and mysterious atmosphere and fitting well with the story and its other elements, does not always feel visually striking or even sufficient. The editing also has its ups and downs. Sometimes, it traverses long stretches of time with a beautiful cut in a single frame, and sometimes, within one scene and one location, it loses its softness and fluidity.
Yet Vineyard Ablaze ultimately shines for its rarely-discussed subject matter. Elderly life is an issue many treat with simplistic or superficial answers, and films like Michael Haneke’s Amour — works that depict it with cruelty and sharpness — are few. Troy Blackman approaches this important subject with a psychological and somewhat deterministic lens. The result is a film, in thought and theme, that transcends its nature as a first film; it reveals even more about Blackman’s worldview than his cinematic style.
In any future, higher-budget films, certain aspects of Blackman’s directing may change, but his philosophy and way of looking at life will likely remain just as deep and distinctive.
