IS THIS NOW: Bafflingly Bad

As the closing credits began to roll on Is This Now, my mouth was open in astonishment. Then I laughed.

“What was that!?”

Is This Now is such a bafflingly bad film, it’s going to take quite some unpacking. Join me, won’t you, as we wade through some of its many issues.

Is This Now

A childhood of abuse within the care system has left Ingrid (Sabrina Dickens) mentally scarred and terrified of men; a friendly touch on her arm can lead to a drink poured over their nether regions. No one in authority believes her maltreatment except Ms. Murray (Anu Hasan), who launches an investigation into what happened.

Ingrid goes to stay with her bubbly friend Jade (Brigid Shine), an Irish singer who isn’t averse to a bit of shoplifting. Whilst with her, she gets to know Jade’s band, and musical collaborator Johnny (John Altman). Sessions with Johnny reveal that her troubled past has left Ingrid with a gift for songwriting.

Later, Ingrid heads to Nantes to join Jade, who is on tour with Al (Jonathan Burteaux) and Dion (Fabien Ara), musicians in her band. They are staying in a stately home owned by the mysterious Angeline (Ruth Millar). After a little nudge from Angeline, it looks like Dion could be the man to help Ingrid move on from her past.

And then things take a turn for the unexpected…

Smorgasbord Of Awful

Is This Now is an appalling film in so many ways, it’s difficult to know where to start. So I’ll start small – what is it with that title? For one thing, it’s unclear what ‘Is This Now’ actually means. And for another, why no question mark? It doesn’t make any sense. Sure, this is the least of the film’s worries, but when the title is ill-judged and plain confusing, it doesn’t leave a great first impression.

Technically, Is This Now fails in every aspect. The camerawork is shaky, and that’s only occasionally for the purpose of creating tension. For the rest of the time, it’s for no discernible reason. During the scenes set in Nantes, twice within the span of a minute the cameraman reframes the shot mid-shot. Some of the ‘music video’ portions have Ingrid peculiarly small in frame, which appears to be a way of giving the editor a break when it comes to syncing the backing track to her miming.

The acting is variable, but not good. The supporting players have a tendency to nod their head exaggeratedly with everything they say. Scottish actress Ruth Millar is supposed to be playing a French character. Her accent wanders merrily around the continent, and so in a rare canny move, she has some time in Romania written into her backstory. John Altman‘s line delivery is so unnatural it looks like he is reading a script held just off-camera.

So much of the plot, and the dialogue, is simply unbelievable. That Jade and her band would be holed up in a stately home in Nantes with a random woman. That a song that Ingrid wrote would end up on TV in France. That anyone would say the words “I’ve heard that all shop workers are right goers!” or “You want to keep those nice Indian teeth?” Bizarre happenings pile up and leave you shaking your head in befuddlement.

It really is a smorgasbord of awful.

Music To Our Ears?

On writer/director Joe Scott‘s website, it states that he focuses on ‘Music Driven Feature Films’. This is his fourth feature, and in all three of his previous movies, music has indeed played a central role.

In Is This Now, music is certainly the least objectionable aspect. Sabrina Dickens is a much better singer than she is an actress; one of her songs I profess to actually quite enjoying. And the performances by four-piece girl band JoanovArc are fun, if not exactly memorable.

There are two main problems with the music. The first is that there is too much of it. Before the twenty-minute mark there has already been two, full-length songs. If Is This Now was a conventional musical, then this would obviously be fine, but as it isn’t, this just comes across as padding. Many of the songs seem to be there just to get the film over the ninety-minute line.

And secondly, many of the songs don’t have anything much to do with the narrative. Though they are entertaining, we don’t get to know the members of JoanovArc as characters, and so to stop all the action of the movie to listen to them play for three minutes gives the film a distinctly fractured feel.

That Ending?!?!?!

I don’t want to ruin the ending for you, because if you do decide to watch, it is the most bizarrely entertaining moment. However, I can’t let it go without comment.

Is This Now is a film rife with awkward tonal shifts. In the first act we move from an attempt at kitchen-sink drama to an attempt at fairy-tale romance. Every time there’s a musical interlude, we get another awkward shift.

But the ending, that ending is just… weird. We are ripped from the romantic drama and plunged into the sphere of exploitation cinema. It’s just for one scene, the very final one. Given all that has come before, it’s an oddly fitting way to end the movie. Not fitting because there’s been any set-up, or because Ingrid’s actions suit her character. Fitting because nothing in this film makes any sense, so why should the ending?

Is This Now is a film that deals with the horrendously difficult subject of child abuse in the care system. In every scene but the last, we witness Ingrid trying to recover from a traumatic childhood at the hands of various abusers. Whilst the dialogue is often clunky, and many of the plot points are unrealistic, at least there was a through line there. We see Ingrid work to climb out of the remnants of her awful past, and learn to trust people (primarily men) again.

And then we get that ending! If Is This Now had positioned itself as a Tarantino-esque vengeance thriller, then okay, that ending would have worked naturally. As it is, the ending is just one more bad decision in a film that is packed with them.

In Conclusion

Child abuse within the foster care system is an important, delicate issue, and Joe Scott, however good his intentions may be, does not possess the delicacy, or the writing skill to deal with it sensitively. The result is this strange, strange movie – a mix of musical, fairy-tale romance, kitchen-sink drama and exploitation film. As you might expect from something that dabbles in such disparate genres, it’s a tonal mess.

But not just a tonal mess. Is This Now is a bewilderingly terrible movie in every conceivable way. The writing, the camerawork, the acting; on every count, the film is dreadful. If you’re someone who derives entertainment from bad films, then this might be your bag. If not, steer well clear.

Have you seen any films that deal with similar issues to Is This Now in a more sensitive, insightful manner?

The release dates for Is This Now are yet to be announced. For further information, click here.