Always Good Movies

Direction: Mark Jenkin
Country: UK

From Mark Jenkin, the British director who positively puzzled us with the non-linear narratives of Bait (2019) and Enys Man (2022), Rose of Nevada takes us to a devastated fishing village where a rusty local boat reappears mysteriously in the harbor after has been given as lost at sea for 30 years. Its old crew has vanished, but the new one: local Nick (George MacKay) and newcomer Liam (Callum Turner) are ready to join a seasoned old skipper (Francis Magee). When they return ashore, they realize that a shift in time has occurred. Curiously and unfathomably, Nick loses his family while Liam gains a new one.

The imagery, in conjoint with the editing, is at once deeply unsettling and visually hypnotic. The frames are constantly infused with textures, patterns, and geometries, evoking a strange connection between past and present as well as between ghostly dreams and a harsh reality. If you’re looking for humor, you won’t find it here. Actually, Jenkin opts for the square format to amplify the story’s sense of suffocation and disorientation, plunging viewers into an oppressive and anxiety-inducing atmosphere from which they will not emerge unscathed.

Distinctively unnerving, Rose of Nevada is pure ritualistic spectacle, a mental exercise with a truly beautiful effect. It’s a psychological, highly atmospheric ghostly tale that, never becoming macabre, is as enigmatic and surprising as it is engrossing, confirming its author as one of the best things that happened to recent British cinema.

Direction: Mark Jenkin
Country: UK

It’s only half-way into the story of Enys Men that things start to click. A non-linear structure intertwines flashbacks from other times and tricks of the mind, disorienting apparitions, strong symbology, unexplainable physical mutations, and a panoply of selected eerie sounds - all these aspects work toward emotional resonance in this heart-stopping folk horror film set in 1973.

A volunteer scientific researcher (Mary Woodvine) observes a rare flower and lichen on a desert island off the coast of Cornwall in South West England. She takes daily notes of her meticulous observations. Strangely, the more her mind tries to focus, the more it sinks into a ghostly nightmare that reveals tragic past occurrences.

This is the sophomore feature and first foray into the horror genre by arthouse filmmaker Mark Jenkin (Bait, 2019), who wrote the script, photographed, edited, and composed the original score for the film. Shot in 16mm and presented in 4:3 aspect ratio, the grainy colored film feels somewhat minimalistic in the process but it’s never boring, scoring points against other similar folklore-inspired fictions.

Let me remind you that Enys Men, which means stone island in Cornish, is more about sustained creepiness than actual big scares. There’s this indelible sense of isolation, uncanniness and mystery enveloping a skimpy but relentlessly chilly mystery that ingrains the mind after it grabs the senses. Jenkin demonstrates remarkable artistry in the manner he handles the material, and will leave you guessing until the end.