Ben Whishaw, Jasmine Jobson, Ellie Haddington
Ben Whishaw gives a deliriously committed performance in BAFTA-nominated British filmmaker Aneil Karia’s (Work) feature debut, a gripping and exhilarating thriller developed from Karia’s 2013 short Beat.
Whishaw plays Joseph, an emotionally unstable airport security officer beset by loneliness, insomnia and unresolved feelings for his co-worker Lily (Jasmine Jobson). After lashing out at work, he goes on a chaotic odyssey through London, experiencing surreal and disturbing encounters with strangers (and more tender ones with Lily and his troubled parents, played by Ellie Haddington and Ian Gelder) as his actions push him closer and closer to breaking point – and/or liberation.
A remarkably effective character study, with Whishaw brilliantly essaying the intensity of Joseph’s distress through frenzied physical tics and an almost palpable vulnerability, Surge is a smart, stylish psychodrama, filled with extraordinary images, and an auspicious calling card for Karia.