Phase

Jessica Vogt’s debut feature Phase is a claustrophobic, mind-bending and discomforting sci-fi that tells a perishingly human story in a retro-futuristic setting. It will keep viewers on strings throughout and impress with fantastic use of practical effects.

Set in a future where life on Earth has become unviable, pregnant Ursula (Rhiannon Bell) finds herself banished from her space station home of Alexandria and in search of the runaway father of her child Liam (Joe Bolland). In the hostility of deep space, she comes across Noah (Nick Cornwall) – an older fellow exile who explains her antiquated ship means they can operate outside of normally permitted routes. The pair work together to survive, but secrets in Noah’s past begin to threaten both of their futures.

Phase is a stylish sci-fi packed with mystery, brilliantly crafted and coherent characters and a great sense of the message which it wants to convey. The theme of parenthood weaves through the script – powering Ursula’s mission to find Liam, her desperation for survival, the influence of her mother’s death, the callousness of the mega-corp that ejects her from her home, and eventually Noah’s own exile and cause for operating outside of the law. In the paranoid world of the film, the only ones you can truly trust are family, and it not until Ursula and Noah understand this part of one another and begin to build their own familial bond that they are able to truly work in tandem.

The story eschews traditional narrative structures and is ambiguous in both its beginning and ending. Vogt and co-wroter T.A Ransom pick up Ursula’s story after an indeterminate series of life events that have seen her become pregnant whilst at the limit of exile from the Alexandria. Her background is opaque, and her role in the larger story of humanity even more so. Yet this pales in comparison to the background of Noah, whose past we begin to unravel as the story develops. The unsettling darkness Ursula is threatened by is one of the film’s best elements, and audiences will be gripped by the mystery. Impressively, Ransom and Vogt take the story down certain avenues that will undoubtedly misdirect audiences before veering into twists and turns that never come across as gimmicky or done for the sake of catching the viewer out. The vision of the script comfortably keeps the human side of the story at the front and the story on track. Some viewers may feel a little disappointed by the vagueness of the ending, however this is undeniably on point from a tonal perspective.

Rhiannon Bell gives a great leading performance, acting as a conduit to the audience in capturing feelings of isolation. Her quiet survivalist instincts serve her until coming into collision with the faceless bureaucratic layers of the Alexandria who are happy to jettison human life the second it becomes a burden. Her steeliness helps her withstand this, but Bell’s real chance to show her acting chops come when she meets Nick Cornwall’s Noah. The uncertainty of whether he is friend or foe continues past their initially fraught meeting, and the danger of the unknown exile she has invited into the ship in which she dwells makes the tension in the film thrillingly unbearable. Cornwall himself holds his own. His Noah is fatherly and mentorlike – but the pensiveness Cornwall plays him with matches the character’s inconsistent story, making the viewer and Ursula alike wonder whether this tenderness is all for show.

Throw in fantastic practical visuals that brilliantly capture the isolated, vulnerable feel of a lone spacecraft, and an atmospheric soundscape (courtesy of Blacklit Canopy, the original band of Sleep Token frontman Vessel), you come away with an accomplished thriller that makes fantastic use of its sci-fi setting and relatable human story.