Film critic Mark Kermode described this film as not only his favourite of the last year, but of the decade, having read about and seen clips of it, and being a fan of experimental films, I was not going to miss it. Basically, in a picturesque Cornish village, Martin Ward (Edward Rowe) is a cove fisherman, without a boat. He struggles to make ends meet with his old-fashioned fishing technique, using net traps on the beach. Meanwhile, Martin's brother Steven (Giles King) uses their late father's vessel to offer cruise trips to visiting tourists. This re-purposing of the boat as a tourist tripper has caused a rift between the brothers. Also, their childhood home has become turned into a tourist spot for incomers. Martin struggles as he wants to return the family and their harbour home to a traditional place. Tensions soon arise between him and the visiting out-of-town Leigh family, husband/father Tim (Simon Shepherd) and wife/mother Sandra (Mary Woodvine) and their children, currently staying in 'Skipper's Cottage'. Using the home as a seasonal holiday home, they have also turned it into short-term rental business, as a B&B. It ends in tragedy with an accidental death at the heart of the family that changes everything. Also starring Isaac Woodvine as Neil Ward, Georgia Ellery as Katie Leigh, Jowan Jacobs as Hugo Leigh and Chloe Endean as Wenna Kowalski. The cast are all fine, and the deceptively simple story is just about worthwhile, I think to be honest though it is much more about the process that went into making this film. It was filmed using a vintage hand cranked Bolex camera, using 16mm monochrome film hand processed by director Mark Jenkin. This means the film was shot in silent, with natural lighting, and post-synchronised sound, it looks and sounds like a classic film from old cinema, it is a worthwhile drama. It won the BAFTA for Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director, or Producer for Mark Jenkin, Linn Waite and Kate Byers, and it was nominated for Outstanding British Film of the Year. Very good!

Mark Jenkin's 'Bait' is a striking movie, but not a particularly subtle one. A portrait of run-down Cornish village is captured on damaged filmstock; uncommunicative characters spend a lot of time just looking at each other with speaking (but what those looks have to tell us!); the disconnection of people is conveyed through splicing together short sequences with obvious discontinuity. It's arftully done, but in some senses Jenkin has limited himself: we couldn't discover that a fisherman loves Shakespeare, or that the tourist is on the run from the police, or anything else unexpected - the visual language constrains the movie, and also renders it somewhat cold, even as its impressive how much is conveyed through scowls and silences. 'Bait' is ultimately a one-trick pony; but Jenkin's future work would seem something to anticipate eagerly.

'Bait (2019)' looks like a movie from the late twenties/ early thirties, with black-and-white cinematography and overdubbed dialogue. It's an odd decision, since the narrative doesn't demand this treatment in the slightest. The story is like something out of a soap opera, a small-town tale of tourism vs local business. It isn't just its abstract aesthetic that marks it as distinct; its plot is peppered with contextless scenes that could either be flashbacks or flash-forwards. This strange choice makes the movie much more confusing than it ought to be. It sort of comes across as an attempt to arbitrarily 'liven up' the flick's relatively straightforward story. Though it does transform the flick into somewhat of an enigma, it never really feels necessarily. The picture just doesn't quite come together as satisfyingly as it perhaps ought to. Its aesthetic is well-achieved, though, and its narrative is typically rather interesting. It's ultimately a fairly engaging experiment. 6/10