Prime Time: The Boat (2018)

Joe Azzopardi is a young man who takes his small boat out to sea and discovers a bigger boat. That’s the start of this low-budget thriller that tries to make the most of the resources available. The bigger boat is empty, adrift, but as Azzopardi explores the whole thing he soon starts to suspect that someone, or something, is toying with him. And he is unable to call for help.

Having also co-written the lean screenplay with director Winston Azzopardi (yes, this is a family affair), Joe Azzopardi certainly tries hard to sell the main idea at the heart of this. Not only do the Azzopardis challenge themselves by setting the film mainly on one boat, they make things even more claustrophobic by having the lone character stuck in a small bathroom for a relatively large portion of the runtime. It’s a brave move, and one that relies on the performance of the actor to carry viewers along. The actor tries, I will give him that.

There are different people in the different roles behind the camera, showing that both Azzopardis were sensible enough to at least attempt to make something that looked and sounded like a proper film (rather than trying to do whatever they could with a boat and a phone camera). That gains them major bonus points from me, as I have sat through too many films made by people who thought they could get something made with their mates, their phones, and whatever change they had in their pockets.

Onscreen for almost the entire runtime, Joe Azzopardi isn’t a terrible lead. He isn’t the best either. Having someone a bit more capable in that important role would have helped, but I don’t want to undermine the many moments that Azzopardi gets right, especially when being placed in peril by bad luck/a potential invisible entity. The boat is the other character, basically, and the cinematography and sound design help to make it almost alive, which is another positive.

I ended up not loving this, there’s just not enough meat on the bone to make it substantial, but I also appreciate what was done here, technically. Shots are often framed nicely, even in confined spaces, and things are really helped by the score from Lachlan Anderson. While this isn’t a success, it also isn’t a failure. Not by a long shot. The things it gets right show that the film-makers have the potential to do something even more enjoyable somewhere further down the line.

5/10

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