Film Review: David Baker’s “Mission X” now available on DVD.
David and I swapped DVD’s over the holiday. I sent him a homespun copy of Broken Hearts Club and he sent me his professionally designed DVD copy of Mission X. I’d seen trailers of Mission X on Twitter and on David’s official website for the film — http://www.missionx.co.uk/ — and I’ve been interested in the film for a long time.
The film did not disappoint.
Mission X plays like a carefully crafted docudrama with elements of a reality series, things that bode well for the film. In short, it feels real, like the viewer is participating in the action as it happens.
In Mission X, Grant, a naive film school student lands the perfect assignment: he’s allowed to interview mercenary cum patriotic terrorist, Ryan (David Baker). Any film school student would kill for a chance for such a scoop, but Grant soon learns that Ryan is in the midst of gearing up for a full blown attack — a possible suicide mission for all involved.
The film is perfectly cast from top to bottom, with the characters Grant, Ryan, Mad Dog and John leading the way. The crew Ryan assembles is scary. Real world scary, not like the cardboard cutouts we see in most studio films. They are edgy, unpredictable and when armed — scarily capable of doing tremendous damage. More than once I said to myself, I’d hate to meet these folks in real life.
Mission X is a low budget (or no budget) film, but it embraces that with pride, giving us gritty images and manhandling traditional documentary styles for the sake of drama and dynamic cinematography. However, David manages a to provide the viewer with a balanced mix of shaky cam and standard close, medium and establishing shots. This mix works because when the camera moves it creates tension — anxiety — and the build-up to the climax is satisfying.
Shot on location will enough stolen exterior shots to make a guerrilla indie filmmaker cry with jealousy, Mission X also has a fair amount of art direction. One scene in particular, the blue room, was cinematically gorgeous and haunting. I stopped the film more than once trying to figure out how I could emulate the outdoor AK-47 gun battles without getting stopped by the local police here in Los Angeles.
Most imporantly, Mission X works because of the performances. David Baker’s Ryan is engaging, intense, unpredictable and charming. He mesmerizes Grant with dizzying platitudes about life, justice and honor — while assembling a devastating mini army. Like Grant, the viewer almost forgets that we are watching a deadly mission unfold. David is a force on screen, and as a filmmaker myself it’s nice to see him balance a strong performance with solid film direction.
One of the last tweets I received from David when I mentioned that I received his DVD was, “Cool! I hope you understand the accents man. Cheers.” To that point it took me 9 minutes to fully assimilate the strong Scottish accents, to the point when I no longer had to rewind to catch a phrase I didn’t understand. I thought it was particularly humorous that I understood most of the other characters more than I did David — and he and I tweet back and forth all the time. But as with similar films like, Scratch and Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, once you’re drawn into the film the comprehension comes. To me it’s part of the joy of watching a foreign film, per se.
Mission X also serves notice: This is what you can do with less money if you plan carefully and use smart strategy to get what you need. I enjoyed the scenes in the Hummer because they are essentially exterior shots reaping the benefits of dynamic backgrounds and you don’t need a city film permit. Mission X is definitely a how to movie that many indie filmmakers can learn from.
Well done.
