I have to admit that I have a certain weakness – what English speakers call a “soft spot” – for the work of the controversial Max Landis. It is a real pleasure to effortlessly devour the scripts that were translated into feature films like ‘Chronicle’, ‘Mr. Right ‘ or ‘American Ultra’ or even ‘ Victor Frankenstein ‘ or ‘Bright’; two titles with which I managed to connect without problems —the last one blew me away— despite almost completely distorting their base material.
Among his also very interesting non-produced work, there are scripts such as ‘Deeper’, ‘Higer’ or ‘Trust the Police’ – which can be accessed without much effort after a Google search, and which I highly recommend reading -; a group of stories set in a single location that Landis calls “The Measures”, and whose writing process he has analyzed in a video on his YouTube channel that has no waste whatsoever.
Within this collection of house, brand bottled stories is ‘Shadow in the Cloud’; an electrifying trip of just under an hour and a half aboard a World War II B-17 bomber in which war movies, the most disheveled girl power and a horror-key premise that ruthlessly shoots one of the chapters most famous of ‘The Twilight Zone’ embrace under the direction of Roseanne Liang in a cocktail as explosive as it is absurdly funny.
How good the surprises feel…
In a world full of superheroic epic fans that far exceed the two-hour barrier and in which, as a general rule, freshness is conspicuous by its absence, a film like ‘Shadow in the Cloud’ seems like little less than a gift from heaven. And it is that Liang and his team only need 80 brief minutes to fully introduce you to their peculiar pulp universe and leave you ecstatic and with a wide smile on your lips once the show ends.
Within the apparently simple mechanisms that move his narrative, an unusual precision hides both as dramatic beats occur and drastic changes – perhaps too much – of course with an implacable and almost exhausting rhythm – in the good sense of the word –, as when suppressing the viewer’s disbelief while impossible set pieces occur that defy not only all logic but the laws of physics, to translate it into applause and complicit laughter.
Amid all the orgy of explosions, death and destruction at the stroke of the synthesizer – the soundtrack of Matt Jantzen is tremendous – the New Zealand director manages to incorporate an unexpected warmth into the mix that reinforces the frontal – and not at all intrusive – feminist readings of the film, channeled by a spotless Chloë Grace Moretz both in her role as a relentless action heroine and in exposing her character’s most human and vulnerable side.
If there is something that invites me to recommend ‘Shadow in the Cloud’ with special fervor, that is its capacity to surprise; something that is increasingly difficult to obtain from blockbusters precooked in large studios, and that in this little and deranged story of aeronautical survival is the order of the day. If you decide to indulge in its many worldly pleasures, don’t forget to buckle up, because the journey is extremely bumpy… and you may end up wanting to repeat despite the dizziness caused by so much sudden turbulence.