Kissing Candice is the debut feature from Northern Irish writer/director Aoife McArdle, whose career thus far has been primarily in music videos and commercials. When a music video director moves onto features, problems can arise, and Kissing Candice features many of them; the whole thing plays like a two-hour Lorde video, all deep primary colours (especially red) with no discernible diegetic source; self-congratulatory and often belaboured visual symbolism; oblique narrative justification for many of the scenes; an achronological structure with unannounced flashbacks (think Joseph Conrad's The Secret Agent (1907), except not nearly as well handled), and portentous staring into the middle-distance as the actors emote at one another instead of talking. The film is especially weak in terms of narrative - the entire plot takes up no more than a half hour at most, with the rest all mood and tone.
For my complete review, please visit: https://boxd.it/tsGYJ
Shout by Stephen CampbellBlockedParent2022-01-25T17:14:58Z
Flawed but has merit
Kissing Candice is the debut feature from Northern Irish writer/director Aoife McArdle, whose career thus far has been primarily in music videos and commercials. When a music video director moves onto features, problems can arise, and Kissing Candice features many of them; the whole thing plays like a two-hour Lorde video, all deep primary colours (especially red) with no discernible diegetic source; self-congratulatory and often belaboured visual symbolism; oblique narrative justification for many of the scenes; an achronological structure with unannounced flashbacks (think Joseph Conrad's The Secret Agent (1907), except not nearly as well handled), and portentous staring into the middle-distance as the actors emote at one another instead of talking. The film is especially weak in terms of narrative - the entire plot takes up no more than a half hour at most, with the rest all mood and tone.
For my complete review, please visit: https://boxd.it/tsGYJ