Movies, Films & Flix

Quick Thoughts

• Director and co-writer Mascha Schilinski has crafted an intimate and haunting film.
• The film is loaded with memorable moments that are beautifully filmed by cinematographer Fabian Gamper.
• It makes me happy knowing that Schilinski created the film’s soundscape by first asking herself “what does a black hole sound like?”
• Sound of Falling is a good title, but I prefer the original title more. The Doctor Says I’ll Be Alright, But I’m Feelin’ Blue, is neat.
• It’s wild that the film was shot in 33 days. There’s an incredible amount of coverage.

Shot in 33 days, in the Altmark region of northern Germany, Sound of Falling is a sensory-blasting experience crafted by director Mascha Schilinski. She and co-writer Louise Peter spent years writing, researching and location scouting to create a “stream of images from all of the people who lived in this same place.” While there is a connected storyline, the nonlinear film relies on snippets of memories that showcase a myriad of memorable moments involving suicide, belly button sweat, and limb loss. 

The film opens with a teenager named Erika (Lea Drinda) using crutches to walk through the hallways of a spacious farmhouse. At first, you think she’s had a leg amputated, but she has it tied up so she can understand the sensation of missing a leg (it’s wild). She unbinds her leg and sneaks into a room occupied by her uncle Fritz (Martin Rother), a bedridden amputee who forcefully had his leg cut off to avoid being drafted into World War 1(we learn this later). It’s hot in the home, and Erika watches drops of sweat make their way to his belly button. In an unexpected twist, Erika sticks her finger into his belly button and tastes the belly button sweat. After tasting the sweat, she runs down to help her brother in the courtyard, who had been yelling her name during her sweat-tasting dalliance. The scene ends with Fritz watching her through his bedroom window as she gets slapped by her annoyed father. 

From there, we follow Erika, Alma (Hanna Hekt), Angelika (Lena Urzendowsky), and Lenka (Laeni Geiseler), whose stories take place in the same farmhouse. The location stays the same, but the characters come and go as the decades roll on (1910s, 1940s, 1980s, 2020s). The house (and its ghosts) observe these women as they deal with trauma, sexual awakenings, painful falls, terrible uncles, suicidal thoughts, blurry photos, and shoeless runs through wheat fields that result in dozens of open wounds. 

The first image that Schilinski had in mind before writing the screenplay was of someone looking into the sun and closing their eyes, and “there’s this orange, wavy flickering thing, a pre-ancestor picture.” It’s admirable that Schilinski crafted a film that sets out to recreate an orange, wavy-flickering thing. The most admirable aspects of Sound of Falling are the little details that make the film feel real and lived in. Whether it’s the way a grandma’s hand skin stays in place when squeezed, or how a mom winks at her children to tell them she loves them. 

The voyeuristic cinematography by Fabian Gamper is outstanding. The 1.37:1 (4:3) aspect ratio was a nice choice as it adds a claustrophobic vibe to the sprawling farmhouse. Gamper used the lightweight ARRI Alexa Mini and Sony FX6 cameras to stay mobile, which allowed the cameras to act like ghosts watching the goings-on of the household. The Sony FX6 is also ideal for low-light situations, this was handy in the dark barns and candlelit rooms. There are some beautiful visuals in The Sound of Falling, and it’s neat knowing that the filmmakers were deeply influenced by photographer Francesca Woodman.

Final thoughts –Sound of Falling is expertly crafted and will linger in your memory.

Quick thoughts:

1. It is brutal, funny, and unpredictable.
2. Erin Kellyman, Ralph Fiennes, and Jack O’Connell are really good.
3. It’s not as propulsive as the other films in the franchise (which isn’t a bad thing).
4. Excellent wide shots that lead to some very funny moments
5. If you are expecting a 28 Weeks Later experience that is loaded with rage-infected chaos, you won’t get it. The Bone Temple is a different beast. 
6. Director Nia DaCosta summed the film up perfectly by describing it as a blend of beauty and brutality.

Directed by Nia DaCosta, 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple is a gift from the movie gods in that it’s audacious, funny, brutal, and confident enough to be different from prior entries. While many may dislike the dearth of “zombie” mayhem, I appreciated that writer Alex Garland and DaCosta scaled back to focus on two unique groups of characters. 

In case you need a reminder, the Danny Boyle directed 28 Years Later (2025), ended with a nice kid named Spike (Alfie Williams), leaving the safety of Dr. Ian Kelson’s (Raple Fiennes) bone sanctuary to drop off a baby (that was birthed by a rage-infected woman) to his home island of Lindisfarne (where he grew up). After leaving the baby at the village gate, he goes off on his own and is “saved” by a gang of acrobatic murderers who kill rage-infected humans for fun. This is where 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple begins. 

The tracksuit-wearing maniacs are led by a Satanist named Sir Jimmy Lord Crystal (Jack O’Connell). Lord Crystal’s gang is made up of Jimmy Ink (Erin Kellyman – perfect), Jimmima (Emma Laird – unhinged), Jimmy Jones (Maura Bird), Jimmy Snake (Ghazi Al Ruffai), and Jimmy Fox (Sam Locke). To get into the elite gang, Spike had to battle one of the gang members, and after a lucky leg stab that hits an artery (and a well-timed pantsing), Spike is inducted into the death squad. Before you can say “free jumping,” the gang infiltrates a compound and introduces the human survivors to an extremely brutal variation of “charity.”

Dr. Ian Kelson (Ralph Fiennes – great) is still doing his bone temple thing, and he starts a unique friendship with Samson (Chi Lewis-Parry – who does a fine job adding depth to his oft-naked character), the local Alpha-infected who has taken a liking to Kelson’s morphine darts. The two sit (and occasionally dance) around Kelson’s skull oasis and admire the picturesque British landscape while they enjoy the effects of Kelson’s dwindling morphine supply. Kelson’s goal is to see if any humanity is left with Samson, who seems to enjoy the peace that comes from catching a drugged dart to the neck. It’s during these scenes that DaCosta and cinematographer Sean Bobbitt (who also shot DaCosta’s film Hedda) work wonders as they employ wide shots that lead to poignant moments that are very funny (there’s something great about watching Kelson and Samson sitting peacefully together). As expected, Fiennes is pitch-perfect, and it’s neat how he found humanity in a man who has created a bone temple. In interviews, he describes Kelson as having “extraordinary psychological stamina,” and I think the term perfectly encapsulates a character with an exceptionally “strong interior.” 

Everything leads to a showdown at Kelson’s bone temple that involves stab wounds, funny moments, and an Iron Maiden song. If you can, avoid spoilers because the finale is best experienced with little knowledge of the results. What I can say is that I love how Garland and DaCosta steered away from marauding rage-infected hoards and turned towards a smaller story that is intimate, daring, and audacious. Like the other films in the franchise, 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple is a brutal affair that features blood-spitting, severed heads, skinned flesh, and stab wounds that ooze pints of dark red blood. 

Ralph Fiennes and Jack O’Connell are pitch-perfect, and I was most pleased with Erin Kellyman’s (Willow, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Solo: A Star Wars Story) performance as Jimmy Ink, a knife-wielding badass who is also deadpan hilarious (is that yelling?). Kellyman put a lot of work into her character, and it shows because Jimmy Ink is a trauma-laden survivor who has stayed alive by glazing over, dissociating and murdering many rage-infected people. Emma Laird’s (The Brutalist) character Jimmina stands out because she’s the most unhinged murderer in a gang of unhinged murderers. Between dancing like a Teletubbie (fun callback to 28 Years Later) or knife-fighting in a barn, Jimmima is scarier than any rage-infected maniac.

I love 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple because it is self-assured, unpredictable and fun. If you’re looking for 28 Weeks Later levels of mayhem, you’ll be disappointed, but I really hope that audiences embrace the chaos. Excellent work Nia DaCosta and Alex Garland.