University is a crucial stage in a young person’s life. Alongside the education system, there’s the possibility of traveling to a new city for the first time, meeting new people, self-sustaining, and most importantly, getting into debt. While this transition can be exciting, it can be arduous, and this is what Oscar Wenman Hyde’s new film deals with.
Cycles, a short hour-long film made for a scant £1000, is a story of two brothers, who travel to an unnamed city in order to settle in for the first semester of university. The older brother (Henry Wilson) the younger brother (Henry Fisk) with his tasks. Initially, the plan was for the two of them to have lunch together after dropping the younger brother’s luggage off in the dorm. However, that plan quickly changes, as the two brothers go into an hour long, heated debate about their lives and argue in depth about university, and mother’s expectations.
The movie only shows one scene so it might fascinate a few but for the others it might not be appealing, that says everything about this film. So comfortably strange and mesmerizing, it is shocking how comforted and overwhelmed you feel at the same time. Unlike ordinary movie watchers, I feel like like a seasoned traveler. Always looking for strange yet oddly fascinating places. If I had to give this movie a review, it is definitely a 10/10. It is utterly incredible how they have chosen this abstract topic. Firstly, bless the writer and director for even thinking of mental health as a subject to cover. And secondly, for bringing the situation into focus and not the background. I wish more people appreciated art in this forma. Like why do we have to treat life with so much seriousness? Instead, just relax and enjoy art in this manner.
The Cycles, which I do not comprehend, had a certain effectiveness that eludes me at the moment. The Younger Brother has a number of grievances. For example, he feels the Older Brother has more control over his life than him. He even wonders whether his life aspirations are even realistic. Although these matters seem comprehensive, there never appears to be a resolution at the end of the Younger Brother’s narrative, as his Older Brother spends most of his time in the movie ordering him around or, to a degree, expressing sympathy towards him. These two are able to switch moods instantly. One moment they could be standing by one another and shouting, while in the next they’re laughing, being caring, and then storming out of the room and raging afterwards.
I sometimes felt somewhat out of place trying to follow the changing conversation, and some of the directions were not helpful. These are characters which, from the original design, are meant to be eighteen and twenty-three, yet they never at any point sounded of their ages. I am not privy to the ages of the writers for the film, but if I had to make an educated guess I would say that they are older, or at least appear older because they have had the luxury of contemplating in advance the words that were meant to be scripted instead of being preoccupied with the proceedings. The langue did not feel natural more often than not, and it appeared to me that an attempt was being made to pen a witty sounding script instead of a credible one.
This also served to point out some of the flaws in the acting, for the two performers in the lead seemed to be reading the lines instead of experiencing the emotion in context. And Henry Wilson and Henry Fisk do not for a moment appear to be terrible actors and there are instances in the film where they appear to be overly fit for the parts; but there are quite a number of places where they seem forced, too much so.
The last criticism I would give is somewhat of a spoiler, but it is heavily suggested that the Younger Brother is gay, and that he is struggling with that part of himself. The Older Brother seems to understand that his sibling is queer, but instead of being nurturing about it, he comes across as wanting his brother to come out, which I do not like. Younger’s older brother at one point tries to scream the character of his brother out of him, and that sounds repulsive, bordering on abusive.
Cycles appeared to have something to prove so much so that they attempted to make a case around a rather simple interaction or conversation being the basis for a short flick and wanted to show the acting and writing done without any additional drama. Unfortunately, the movie feels very poor on both these accounts and hence I could not find much to appreciate about this film. Maybe if you are looking for some upcoming new talents in the world of low budget and short length films, it is worth the rental fee, but set your expectations to low, or else you may be disappointed.
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