Writer/Director John Rosman’s feature debut, New Life, introduces an emotionally charged thriller that bides its time setting up the personal stakes behind the central cat-and-mouse pursuit. Prolonging answers behind the motives of the chase instills overarching mystery as it focuses on parallel journeys for two women desperately searching for a better hand than they’ve been dealt. It’s not just the complexities of its characters that are compelling, but Rosman’s ability to drop narrative genre bombs that cataclysmically alter the genre and narrative direction.
Jess (Hayley Erin) sports a black eye and a skittish nature as she makes her way by foot toward the Canadian border from the Pacific Northwest. She’s on the run but keeps the circumstances as to why a carefully guarded secret. Jess allows any strangers she meets to draw their own conclusions.
Elsa (Sonya Wagner) is the resourceful agent tasked with tracking Jess down, though she’s also coping with her recent ALS diagnosis and onset symptoms. Their winding path toward confrontation gives way to existential questions, shocking truths, and devastation as the body count rises.
Rosman takes painstaking care in establishing the personal stakes for Jess and Elsa, methodically following their parallel stories once Jess’s bid for Canada is fully underway. New Life is a film where its small moments have the biggest impact, an introspective character-driven film where it’s up to its central performers to do the heavy lifting. Unspoken looks between characters convey profound depth, and seemingly insignificant conversations relay so much about these resolute yet vulnerable women. Wagner’s Elsa sees her time running out and seeks redemption through her high-stakes assignment. Erin plays Jess as an innocent plunged into an unwanted situation, and it’s her tentative, tender attempts at connection that earn sympathy.
Erin and Wagner’s nuanced performances carry viewers through the quiet build as Rosman stretches out the mystery as long as possible. While the character arcs are slow and steady, Rosman approaches the reveals with a shocking ferocity that packs a potent punch. A somber, meditative thriller suddenly wakes up with an unexpected detour straight into violent horror territory. Because of New Life’s narrative structure, the shocking horror turn comes with devastating emotional fallout, recontextualizing interactions that came before.
At its core, New Life is an existential drama centered around two different women at different stages of life, bound by a discomforting desperation to seize what final fleeting freedom they have left. Rosman leaves it up to Erin and Wagner to impart the depth of emotion, then incorporates horror and suspenseful thriller conventions to decimate emotionally. The abrupt shift from quiet drama to jarring horror comes late, by design, creating urgency as it raises relevant questions with no easy answers.
Rosman’s assured debut deftly blends genres, interweaving a meditative character drama with bursts of stark horror and plenty of action thrills. The simplicity of the approach allows genuine humanity to shine through; it’s Elsa and Jess’s heartbreaks, hopes, and fate-sealing choices that carry New Life. While its final coda doesn’t quite land, and the middle section meanders a stretch, Rosman’s genre-blending debut marks him as one to watch.
New Life made its World Premiere at the Fantasia International Film Festival. Release info TBA.
The post ‘New Life’ Fantasia Review – A Genre-Blending Thriller That Emotionally Devastates appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.