Movie Review: You’ll Never Find Me

It was a dark and stormy night. Patrick (Brendan Rock) is sitting alone in his mobile home listening to the radio when there is a persistent knock at his door. Used to the trailer park children playing pranks on him, he tries to ignore it but ultimately relents and casts it open, only to see a young woman (Jordan Cowan) standing in the pouring rain, asking for a ride into town. He invites her inside and offers to make her comfortable, but she only wants a lift and finds his demeanor understandably discomfiting. Nevertheless, she continues to reluctantly accept his kindnesses while keeping a wary eye on him. He finds something off about her as well, as it becomes increasingly clear that she is not being entirely truthful about what she was doing at his doorstep at 1am in an unseasonably severe thunderstorm. And is that a familiarity he can sense about her?

The pair pass the time in his living area as the storm rages outside, casually tossing out past recollections and nihilistic diatribes, both seemingly as lost as the viewer as to what is actually going on. The disorientation is incredibly successful at building suspense and both Rock and Cowan nail their roles, tip-toeing the line between kindness and malice with ease. The frequent booms of thunder and rain pelting the metal roof occasionally mixed with an eerie score add to the unease as we build toward a conclusion that audiences will have both predicted and not seen coming.

The debut film by Australian filmmakers Indianna Bell and Josiah Allen, You’ll Never Find Me marks them out as a duo to watch. They prove to be masters of pacing, dropping breadcrumbs for viewers to follow as they lead us towards the answers we crave. There are some highly questionable character choices, though they make some sense in the context of what is actually occurring so they can be overlooked. What this duo has achieved on a limited budget and almost entirely confined within one small space is very impressive, and I can’t wait to see where they might take us from here. ★★★★