When doing my pre-festival coverage, Youssef Delara and Victor Teran’s film SNAP probably got the most coverage. I was very intrigued by the idea of a psychological thriller rooted in dubstep as EDM music is experiencing a revolution right now and, as I’m part of that, I wondered what kind of path the film would take based on the official synopsis that I read.
Jim (Jake Hoffman) is a socially awkward loner who fixes computers by day and fulfills his passion of making dubstep music at night under the alias Braintree2020. When he meets a kind social worker named Wendy (Nikki Reed) and things go wrong at the end of a great date, it sparks a stalker-like obsession once she dismisses his romantic advances. Fearing for her safety but having the desire to help Jim, Wendy seeks the advice of her mentor Kevin (Scott Bakula) before Jim gives into his inner demons and snaps (I totally went there) and lashes out violently.
This isn’t a spoiler as you learn early on that Jim is schizophrenic and his mean personality, who he tries to control, doesn’t seem to want to leave him alone. Making music helps him get the sounds out of his head but when Wendy enters his life and he fails to perform sexually in front of her, he’s embarrassed and that allows his other personality to slowly take over, making him angry and unstable, a terrible combination for a quiet guy with social issues who almost scored with a girl for the first time. This transforms him into a violent stalker who eventually wants to get revenge for something Wendy didn’t actually make a big deal of (though his other personality was right in calling her a liar).
One of the cooler parts that I appreciated about the film was the way it was edited. It was cut like music video, with lots of fast, quick glitch looking edits almost as if you were watching points of LAG in a video game. The neat thing is, minus a movie like Gamer, this is the only film that could pull something like this off because of the dubstep score mashed with the schizophrenic personality of our lead. In fact, I don’t know where the idea came from but the combination of those two elements to tell a story is brilliant.
Excluding Jake Hoffman, I didn’t think the acting was particularly strong and thought that it took away some of the suspense from the film. Nikki Reed started off ok but I just never bought into her once she became a main player in the film. Her character was really interesting but the delivery felt off much of the time.
There are one or two plot twists that add a layer of cleverness to the film as is standard with a psychological thriller but one of them didn’t work out so well because of some of the aforementioned acting, particularly in the final act. Though they were going for shock value, you’re not actually shocked by the twist, you just kind of accept it because it made sense even if the odds seemed slim.
If you like electronic dance music then you’ll love the score. In fact, the score is what makes the movie as it highlights all the key moments of the film and, when the beat drops that’s also when things go bad. The music evolves and gets darker as the film progresses, always matching the mood of our lead, progressively getting more aggressive and crazed as he does.
Overall, SNAP is an interesting film and is at its best when it explores the crazed mind and trauma of our lead Jim. It’s fascinating to watch him start off stable and, like the music, slowly break down into this violent being until he snaps like the beat and goes wild. Though there are some annoying moments throughout the film, the acting is the picture’s weakest link and, though not necessarily predictable, the film’s ending isn’t the most satisfying for one that has such a crazy cool premise backing it up. If you enjoy psychological thrillers or want to know how dubstep tracks should be utilized in a film then SNAP is one worth checking out as it makes its festival rounds.
Rating: With a really cool concept and score, like dubstep itself you’ll love some of the film and really hate other parts (6/10)
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