The films of Dan Schneidkraut are exhilarating, uncomfortable and intoxicating. His latest feature is a claustrophobic piece of high concept lo-fi that I still can’t shake, 3 or so days after watching it.

There is so much going on in this documentary-esque saga as we watch a man, actually physically transform his body and subsequently his life on a 90 day Invincible Force programme. Like the lead character Drew, you have to commit to the programme, Schneidkraut’s brutal programme and see it through.

The film is shot on a variety of dated and obsolete video formats and feels like a commentary on dated and obsolete mainstream views of masculinity and is constructed through a repetition of still frames and the subtlest of movements. It’s in the repetition of the frames that the drama, tension and impact lies. No-one frames like Schneidkraut, his eye is masterful and no millimetre of a frame is wasted, even if it doesn’t feel like that at the start, by the end, the design plays itself out. There are some sly comments on isolation and the inevitable insanity it brings, the naivete of a life learned through DVD and the dangers of extraditing ourselves from society and human contact. All delivered with a hypnotic sense of composition and pace. 

However, it only works because of the performance of Ailes who commits not only to the extreme physical demands of the role but crucially, to the role of a man seeking to improve his situation but ending up condemned and trapped inside his body, cut off from the world. 

A unique cinematic experience that pulls no punches and grips and doesn’t let go. I’ve talked here of the genius of Dan S, and this merely confirms it. Wow.

http://invincibleforce.blogspot.com/