2007

Love it or hate it, there's no denying writer/director Adam Rifkin's "Look" is unlike everything else. I happened to love it.

It's a multi-narrative exercise told entirely through footage captured via security cameras "? in the mall, at the ATM, even via police cars and bomb-squad robots. That'd be a mere gimmick if the emperor had no clothes, but Rifkin's script is skillfully structured, good-humored and far more clever than one would expect.

At first, the film sees jagged, but soon, pieces from one story begin to intersect and overlap with another. A store manager philanders his way through a bevy of sales clerks. A high school student tries to seduce her teacher. An office drone is subjected to cruel pranks. Two serial killers are on the loose. And so on, building with tension to sad turns of violence and at least one life destroyed.

It's not a "happy" film, but it's wholly engaging and entertaining, not to mention highly relevant. Who cares if most security cameras don't actually capture audio? The fact remains, "Look" is an unqualified gem, and Lord knows those don't come around too often.

Watch the 30-minute documentary afterward for an inside look at how Rifkin and company pulled it off in a mere two weeks, plus access a bevy of deleted scenes that's enough to fill another half a movie.

Don't overlook this one.

"?Rod Lott

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