Europa Report

Scott Hardie: “It ruled.”

The "found footage" storytelling technique, once a novelty and a gimmick, has now become so ordinary that it barely registers when a movie is staged that way. Europa Report's foremost triumph occurred in the editing room, where the footage, captured from many tiny cameras embedded in the set and costumes, was spliced together in and out of sequence and across various screen-splitting grids. The resulting effect is to rearrange time like a Pinterest board, an effect that the director uses to manipulate the audience's emotions. The movie, slow-going at first, gradually introduces dread and turns that into tension and finally into terror, as the characters' mission becomes more and more hazardous. These are the familiar rhythms of a horror movie, but made with the sleek art design and cold detachment of a science fiction film. Released in the same summer as Gravity, which had ten times the budget and filmmaking skill, Europa Report suffers by comparison, and its plot elements are ultimately too familiar from other sci-fi films. But it gets a lot of bang for its limited buck, and fans of this kind of white-knuckle space ride will find much to appreciate about it.

− December 14, 2013 • more by Scott • log in or create an account to reply