SFIndiefest 2010: A+D

Amber Sealey's verite-style relationship drama A+D is exactly the sort of rough diamond you hope to see at a festival of independent films and it makes all the dreary shoegazing 'quirky' slacker fare you might have to trudge through to find it worth the effort. This film is fresh, intimate, real, brilliantly written and conceived - but it would have fallen on its face for all that had not the casting of Anton Saunders as Dan and Sealey herself as Alice been so inspired. These two are just fascinating to watch. And - at last! - we have dialogue worthy of real human beings, intelligent but unflashy, nuanced, playful, natural, sliding into darker registers of sarcasm and frustration as matters begin to head south. Alice is an artist who documents their relationship's every bend on her hand-held camera, so the verite edge established right away is extended and then magnified again with short webcam sequences. But the actors are so astonishing that when they drop the camera (and the verite motif it signifies) we are already under their spell - the sense is that we are indeed watching actual footage of Sealey's relationship with Saunders, so hypnotically real is every aspect of this scenario, including the grandstanding and cruelty which finally curdle the mix, scenes which grow organically from conditions we recognize as sheer bewildered inexperience inside a bit of a cultural impasse (Dan is British, Alice American: he questions her stagey confusion and need for 'space', she suffers from his sarcasm and unromantic corners; it doesn't help matters that they are squeezed 24/7 into a small London flat).

So who is Amber Sealey? I can't dig up too much about her online, except that she is based in LA and studied at Central and RADA in London. This is her directorial debut; she also wrote and produced the film as well as starred in it. For a film that never puts a foot wrong in any category that is quite an achievement. Even the ending, with its left-pointing arrow on the road and its shot of Alice in the rearview mirror is an understated touch of mastery.

Anton Saunders is something of a revelation as well. His Dan is by turns sweet, blunt, sexy, sarcastic, provocative, funny, and obstinate, a perfect foil for the moody but fascinating Alice - the two crackle and weave about one another in what is I think the most flawless dual performance I have seen in ages. Maybe ever. See this film. Here's the trailer: