![]() Director of photography Christopher Ross lights dark or dingy rooms only with the piercing neon glare of signs or lights. The entire film is framed through neo-noir aesthetics, à la Roger Deakins’ work on Blade Runner 2049 or his work with the Coen brothers. ![]() ![]() The film is saved, however, by Stein’s intelligent use of themes and tropes, which create a better story than the literal story of the film. The weakest part of Terminal is this basic plot, dragged further down by the writing and acting which laces most scenes with an absence of believability, as though a group of young children wrote the film in the simulacra image that children have of tropes like hitmen. The basis of the film is the time-old tale of hitmen undertaking a job, which seems to be a staple of first-time directors and writers. It is a hectic – although sometimes confusing – ride, but Stein laces the film with enough visual and textual symbolism to make the ride worthwhile. The focus of the film is the web of events that ties these characters together, and attempts by characters to untangle them. ![]() Terminal follows a group of strangers in a train terminal, amongst them Margot Robbie as a waitress in a quiet all-night café, Simon Pegg as a teacher with a terminal illness, and Dexter Fletcher as a hitman training his apprentice. Vaughn Stein’s directorial debut is ironically titled Terminal, and although Stein has a long history working on Hollywood films – he’s worked as secondary or tertiary assistant directors for films such as World War Z and Beauty and the Beast – it seems as though this film represents the genesis of a novel style of film-making – or the resurgence of an old one. Terminal weaves visual and textual themes throughout – leaving a dark, knotted web to try and understand. ![]()
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