To describe a film that is different from anything you've seen is difficult. Its style is seriously, consummately neo-noir, the subject matter seems to be that of the hard-boiled detective genre, but as the plot unfolds we realize that we are seeing speculative science fiction. The heroine, Hoyle, seems to be a private detective, a female incarnation of Philip Marlowe perhaps, and she is searching for both a man, who turns out to be her ex-boyfriend, and for a notebook containing metaphysical research by Nazi-era German scientists. Throughout her investigations she repeatedly encounters a haunting, doppelganger-like woman who first appears as a sultry nightclub singer, but turns out to be much more. To add to her confusion, Hoyle seems to be experiencing her life in disjointed pieces that are out of sequence and someone, perhaps herself, is trying to contact her from another time.
Definitely not for the popular audience (if the first ten minutes don't grab you, this one isn't for you), Yesterday Was A Lie will appeal to those who are drawn to the off-beat, experimental auteur film, Gothic science fiction and/or neo-noir film making. The digital black-and-white does not really replicate the lush style of the 1940's, but instead creates it own atmosphere, its own intriguing and stylish world of fog-enshrouded half light. Every segment of the film is crafted with great care and photographed with great artistry; the writer-director James Kerwin has really created something quite wonderful. The stars, Kipleigh Brown as Hoye and Chase Masterson, who produced the film, bring it compellingly to life. (They are also two alluring gals.) Redolent of the original Outer Limits, the darkest of '40's film noirs, Humphrey Bogart, and a bit of Sapphire and Steel, it nevertheless stakes out its own unique territory. If you're not turned off by references to Jungian psychology, Dali surrealism, the poetry of T.S. Eliot, and speculations on alternative realities and the nature of time, let this film lead you into its dream world, but be warned, you will need to, and want to see this film several times.
Definitely not for the popular audience (if the first ten minutes don't grab you, this one isn't for you), Yesterday Was A Lie will appeal to those who are drawn to the off-beat, experimental auteur film, Gothic science fiction and/or neo-noir film making. The digital black-and-white does not really replicate the lush style of the 1940's, but instead creates it own atmosphere, its own intriguing and stylish world of fog-enshrouded half light. Every segment of the film is crafted with great care and photographed with great artistry; the writer-director James Kerwin has really created something quite wonderful. The stars, Kipleigh Brown as Hoye and Chase Masterson, who produced the film, bring it compellingly to life. (They are also two alluring gals.) Redolent of the original Outer Limits, the darkest of '40's film noirs, Humphrey Bogart, and a bit of Sapphire and Steel, it nevertheless stakes out its own unique territory. If you're not turned off by references to Jungian psychology, Dali surrealism, the poetry of T.S. Eliot, and speculations on alternative realities and the nature of time, let this film lead you into its dream world, but be warned, you will need to, and want to see this film several times.