The moviemaking business has undergone countless evolutions over the years, and one aspect of positive change is the advent of chroma key CG formatting – the cost-friendly process where blue/green screen technology allows limited locations to be transformed into anything that serves the vision of the film’s creators. While special effects have been the Achilles’ heels of B-films and low-budget studios, it’s now opened up an avenue for elaborate creative expression. The Wanting Mare is a transportive feature that utilizes its smaller budget and minor locale to realize aesthetic ambitions and does so with transcendental aplomb.
A Visionary Debut
The Wanting Mare lives somewhere between dystopia, fantasy, and high-concept science fiction, and debut director Nicolas Ashe Bateman manages to touch on all of those elements with a dreamily immersive touch. The story takes us through zones, territories, people’s lives, but most importantly, it takes us through time and the lives of the characters; there’s a key to the labyrinthine imagination that conceived this film. But, did the creator provide us with the means to find it, so we can interact with their creation?
Well, they come close, very close. Writer/director, Nicolas Ashe Bateman‘s film is teeming with eye-catching stylistic bravura and doesn’t feel the need to contain or compromise his debut feature. It feels like The Wanting Mare, as it’s presented here, is an artist executing their vision.
The story might be thin; the film uses the titular mare and the communication of dreams, stories, and how these things have touched the lives of its characters through years of matriarchal generations. It’s all a swooshing whirl of steely blues and sweaty grays as its despondent characters muse about their disparate lives. Their undisclosed time and locale bolster an outlier of crime and dystopic machinations that exist on the fringes of their leaky, beachy world.
Atmosphere and Distance
There’s atmosphere leaking from every scene and a strong visual presence throughout. It’s easy to succumb to the film’s hypnotic charms, the briney shoreside locale, the inclusive aura of cosmic spiritualism. The Wanting Mare plays with the hefty notions you’d cull from the likes of Tarkovsky, with the whispery dissociation of later-era Malick, on its own terms, it’s a flattering visage, but in a larger contextual conversation, it might leave people wanting more.
It’s a matter of interaction. If you accept the art-for-arts-sake train of thought and don’t require exposition and backstories, then Bateman‘s debut feature will be an enjoyable anecdote to the rule-heavy, canon-reliant genre fare that dominates the box office. For its high-concept presentation and heady ruminations, The Wanting Mare is not a very demanding picture but more of an invitation to a unique passion.
Conclusion
While there were narrative junctions that didn’t connect as well as they could have, the cumulative sensory experience was worth it for lack of reference or cohesion.
Seeing as we associate low-budget genre films with the schlocky lore in the likes of Corman’s gallery of b-films, or the pulpy furnishing of William Castle, given the advent of special effects, could b-movies be in the throes of an intellectual renaissance?
Watch The Wanting Mare
Does content like this matter to you?
Become a Member and support film journalism. Unlock access to all of Film Inquiry`s great articles. Join a community of like-minded readers who are passionate about cinema - get access to our private members Network, give back to independent filmmakers, and more.