Written and directed by Edward Whelan, a once-promising movie star’s phone is stolen, triggering a hunt to find the thief. However, his desperate search reveals the phone wasn’t what he was missing all along. Starring: Jamie Flatters, Chaneil Kular, Mark Cox, Lucas Allermann and Natasha Kamanga.
Edward Whelan makes a strong first impression with FindMy with a strikingly sharp visual, excellent cinematography from Ben Cotgrove and a great use of sound that’s nicely blended with Samuel Read’s score. It’s a captivating blend to really set the tone for what’s to come, especially because it’s delivered with a confidence and clear style, that’s modern and holds a quickly established emotional weight.
As FindMy moves forward it builds a compelling tension, growing in tandem with the evolution of Jamie Flatters’ performance as Milo. Building the intensity as the cracks start to appear in his psyche, following the classic path of spiralling inwards, focusing on his own insecurities and frustrations and forgetting the bigger picture and those around him. It’s a very familiar story but Whelan impressively holds onto a feel of originality.
Flatters delivers a strong performance, nicely exploring Milo’s crumbling sense of self, in need of a reminder of what truly matters. He portrays that classic drop from the heights of fame, having experienced such a high that it only makes the lows even lower. Lucas Allermann as his son Asa is sweet and naïve, trying to figure out his relationship with his father. Flatters’ key scene with Chaneil Kular is unexpected and strongly portrays the message of the film in a blunt yet touching way.
Earlier on, especially with the inclusion of the scenes of him talking with his father (Mark Cox), it feels like FindMy might have a more scandalous or dark tale to tell but that surprisingly doesn’t come to fruition. While those scenes do have a nice tension and depth to add to the film’s tone, they don’t feel as tightly weaved in with the story overall. It’s as if we’re missing that little bit of context of how he came to visit his father or what those visits represent. Although, they are clearly used as a way to demonstrate the contrast between Milo’s relationship with his father and with his son.
FindMy is firing on all cylinders, the striking quality to the visual opens things on strong footing, and is then backed by terrific cinematography, acting, writing and sound work. Edward Whelan’s direction has a great movement to it, blending quieter dramatic moments with a fervent, hungry energy in others. The minimal use of effects to accent the psychology of the story was a great choice and complements the great performance from Jamie Flatters (and if you enjoy him in this, you definitely need to go check out George Jaques’ hugely underrated, very moving Black Dog, which he co-wrote with the director).
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