I'm gonna have to pause it there and share some thoughts, because I am currently 10 minutes in, and so far 80% of this film has been spent endlessly watching Facebook texts appear on screen, while partly watching a girl (nearly) motionlessly sit on her bed typing away. And it is getting increasingly harder and harder to view, as it feels like we're getting nowhere fast.
Mind you, I am following the unfolding information between Ibby and Isaiah just fine. The problem is that the filmmakers here have failed to engage me visually on any level (which is half the point of this medium), which has made it incredibly difficult to stick around and follow how this story develops.
First of all, director Phoebe Cavise has chosen to go with a Facebook message overlay gimmick, which has been around at least since Facebook was in its second year: or since the BBC show Sherlock made it a popular visual. I am referring to the visual gimmick of having the posts appear on screen as they happen for us to read, sometimes floating above phones or laptops as they move about the screen. However, she has included no form of motion graphics in order to make these messages appear and disappear in an interesting way: perhaps with some bounce and energy. Although in spite of that, either she or her vfx editor have also failed to present them in a realistic way: with timing that represents how real people would read, interpret, comprehend, and respond to such posts; thus making the posts impossible to follow in a few cases without pausing the film, lest they disappear before I can finish reading them. Which I'm sure you understand is impossible to do in a theatrical setting.
Furthermore, the posts presented in the opening credits look as if they were simply centered up on screen and then cut between like a series of images, when a much better choice would have been to lay them out vertically as they had done just 5 minutes later, and have them slowly fade-in one by one. This would have given the audience a chance to read them, and actually anticipate the next in line in the sequence: which would have engaged the audience much more readily than having them bamf in every few seconds.
I am also unsure as to why there is no narration in the beginning, yet there is once Ibby is sitting on the bed typing in real-time. Wouldn't it have been acceptable to leave out narration both times, or include it both times? Why do one and then the other?
I can certainly see the benefit of adding narration only later, due to the static nature of that later scene on the bed. The voice-over reading of the texts helps to add an extra bit of emotional delivery where very little exists on its own. But this would be easily alleviated by changing up the camera, and showing us some necessary close-ups of our actress here. I mean, why is this whole scene almost entirely shot from one static angle with Ibby bunched up against the right side of frame? How was this a good shot design choice? Why not pull the camera back some to give us more room? Why not punch in on her face for some genuine facial reaction in the eyes and lips to what Isaiah is saying to her? Why can't we see this from her perspective, OTS style, as she types in a message and gets the next from him? There were plenty of options Ms. Cavice could have gone with here.
But I suppose the most unusual thing of all is that Phoebe chose to do no color grading to this film, despite every single shot being both pale and de-saturated.
Was this exclusion of a grade intentional? Or is the film not entirely finished? Because I think this film would look vastly better were it to have a color grade based on greeting cards or something like that: something with soft pinks, yellow-oranges, baby blues, and other soft colors, but with just enough contrast and saturation that it also doesn't look completely washed out.
I shall continue to watch the film, as I don't wish to judge it completely by this first fifth. But I must stress that we are not off to a good start.