TIFF is full of surprises this year, including surprise film screenings.
Mel Eslyn’s Biosphere was added to the Special Presentations category pretty close to the festival, armed with a one-liner description: the last two men on earth (played by the wonderful duo of Sterling K. Brown and Mark Duplass) who must adapt and evolve to save humanity.
Sterling K. Brown, check. Mark Duplass, check. Mel Eslyn in the director chair, check. Story with a sci-fi futuro vibe, check. I was hooked.
This piece is going to be as spoiler-free as I can possibly make it, as I think you need to enjoy the ride for yourself and allow the surprises impact you as you watch the film. However, what I will address are the various elements and why I think they worked the way that they did.
Complex and riveting story
With a cast of two stuck in a box trying to figure out what their future looks like, having a strong story was vital to moving the characters forward and carrying the audience.
Full of surprises would be an understatement. At each and every turn, you wonder how this story will progress, and something new gets pulled out of the cinematic hat. There is a level of mystery, a dash of wonder, and a few absurd circumstances, all of which come together to deliver an engaging film.
Even with the odd twists the story makes, it fosters a space for deep emotional and intellectual discussion. The story quite magnificently defines the ecosystem of our world, and where humanity fits into it. It tackles individual identity and the individual factors that we as people levitate towards to help define ourselves. By the same token, it tackles the stereotypes of individual roles and reverses many aspects of what humans have defined as “normal”, to tackle and answer the age old question of “what if?”.
Best of all, all this deep thinking is actually delivered through great comedic and engaging dialogue, keeping audiences squarely focused around the world that Eslyn is trying to create and present.
Personally, I felt the creative team got together to have fun rather than make a commercial film. That enthusiasm translates clearly through all facets of the film.
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Sophisticated direction and creativity
This film is a solid feature film debut for Eslyn. Biosphere gets your mind thinking about many things, bringing together some of the sophisticated creative elements that help build this film.
I found the use of a defined, singular space brilliant. While other films have multiple set locations, this film has one location with many micro-settings, each helping define the tone and atmosphere for the various character interactions. A clever way to maximize the potential from one singular space, without creating so much repetition in each of the shots. I will give kudos to Megan Fenton and anyone else who assisted in the set design for creating a minimalist set with just enough details in each place to have the essence of each character spill into and be represented in the space they occupy. Eslyn then uses a multitude of different angles and perspectives to creatively moderate character interactions and transition between scenes, while still ensuring diversity in the shots taken from the same space.
I’d love to get into the specifics of the film, but I don’t want to ruin the experience for you. There are some neat applications that Eslyn uses to amplify certain pivotal scenes, and the combination of story development and her filmmaking just makes everything work.
The cinematography by Nathan Miller is on-point. The colours of the shots are intriguing, and the various tones used pair perfectly to the scenarios presented. I also think the films score elevates both the comedic and dramatic elements of the film, pairing beautifully with the cinematography and direction of the various scenes. Kudos to Saunder Jurriaans and Danny Bensi on that.
Performances that deserve applause
Brown and Duplass give applause-worthy performances in this film. You don’t often get films with very limited cast members, but these types of films give us more air time with characters and really allow us to focus on their journey. That journey is even more awesome to follow when they are portrayed by gifted talents.
Both Brown and Duplass give performances that you can’t ignore. Duplass exuberates a funny, curious, and spur-of-the-moment kind of character that is the perfect yin to Brown’s yang, a more intellectual and calculating character that has a great sense of humour that gets highlighted in parallel to his sensible nature.
The banter between these two is natural, grounded and strong. This balance is captured from the get-go, a vital setup to allow for the relationships to be tested as the film’s story progresses.
I for one think these performances are some of the finest we have seen at TIFF.
Biosphere may have been a shocking last-minute addition to the festival, but I am glad that the film screened here. Hope you get a chance to see it at TIFF, or wherever the film goes next. I hope it releases in theatres very soon (or on a streaming platform), so audiences globally get to enjoy the rollercoaster ride that this film is.
Biosphere plays as part of the Special Presentations programme at the 47th Toronto International Film Festival. Visit TIFF’s website HERE for all the details on screenings.
Cover Photo: Still from Biosphere | Courtesy of TIFF 2022
