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Co-written and directed by John Dierre and Ryan Dutter, Meta Take One isn’t the film you’re expecting it to be as its opening minutes float by with John (EJ Ezeruo) desperate to wrap up his latest indie motion picture in time to get it submitted to a film fest the next day. There’s a key shot that’s missing and John’s determined to snag it no matter the cost. So, when he and his crew hole up inside a local biz for the kind of guerilla filmmaking we’ve all heard about, we expect that John is going to snag his desired shot and all will be well.
Think again.
Meta Take One takes us into a journey where a desperate filmmaker becomes increasingly desperate when things go awry. Suddenly, the frenzied energy is very real and Meta Take One becomes a tale of dark obsession with even darker results.
Meta Take One is winding down its indie fest run that included a world premiere and Audience Award at Atlanta Film Festival along with several other awards throughout its indie fest journey. Recently releasedwith sharp hits of darkly comical undertones will hopefully find the audience it deserves
While EJ Ezeruo’s John is front-and-center here, rest assured that this strong ensemble flick features additional mighty performances including Ernest Emmanuel Peeples’ spot-on portray of lead actor Damon, Aminah Williams’s terrific turn as cinematographer Tess, John Romanski’s precision as Marden, the sound guy, and a sharp John Choi as the editor Rob among others.
The film’s real editor, Werner Van Peebles, does a pretty stunning job here, especially for such a low-budget effort, bringing to life Dierre and Dutter’s spot-on dialogue and strong tone-setting. The original score by Madfi is an exceptional companion to the film’s emotional and action rhythms. The story that unfolds gets dark, the bits of humor piercing the night sky and serving as some sort of reprieve for audiences as we become increasingly bewildered by John’s borderline sociopathic choices and Damon’s increasingly unaware similar behaviors.
Shot for the most part on 16mm, Meta Take One has a grainy and gritty aesthetic that works beautifully in complementing both the unfolding action and the film’s more comical moments. It’s not surprising that the film picked up the John Singleton Award for Best Debut Feature at the American Black Film Festival because, quite simply, this is a strong debut and one can only hope that we get to hear from this duo again.
Meta Take One is one of those late night indie gems you love to discover. You sit there in the dark watching it and asking yourself “How have I never heard about this film?”
Indeed, you should hear about this film.
With a strong ensemble cast and technical precision far beyond its modest budget, Meta Take One is a film to watch for when you get that chance. If you still get a chance to check it out on the big screen, take it. If not, hunker down in the darkness of your own home and prepare yourself to be mighty impressed.
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