A bad title, poster and general mismarketing will likely leave this still middling, unremarkable, indie drama suffering irredeemably from comparisons to flicks like Twister.
At the heart of Supercell - yes, it's a painful title even to write - is a touching story of a child who has grown up having lost his father to storm chasing, finding himself repeatedly drawn back towards the storms themselves, desperate to find some kind of connection from the life-threatening endeavour, no matter how close to the edge it takes him.
It's a decent pitch, immediately different from the defining entry in the genre - Twister - and warranting a more considered approach, revelling instead in character beats and emotion. And, on a shoestring budget, it's forced to take this very approach, navigating the art of storm chasing tangentially, with longer shots of swirling clouds and more forceful impact afforded by claustrophobic moments - gorilla hail hitting a group of storm "tourists" captured from within a van.
... only going to attract the entire wrong crowd with that poster and that title, and get almost instantly dismissed as a result
Admirably structured, and directed - whether or not partly by budgetary restriction - and further supported on the acting front, Supercell (sigh) has most of the ingredients needed to make for a solid indie drama set against an unusual backdrop steeped in latent potential for extreme tension. Yet it only fleetingly taps that potential, and falls down almost fatally in the casting of the lead protagonist, two aspects which leave it the kind of try-hard straight-to-digital flick that's is only going to attract the entire wrong crowd with that poster and that title, and get almost instantly dismissed as a result. And, in defence of that reaction, there's isn't a whole lot here to warrant sticking out the journey.
Midnight Club bit player and general newbie Daniel Diemer is no kind of person you want to entrust the heart and soul of this film to, and - try as he might - he never really manages to draw you into this wounded child, now-grown into a haunted teen. He has moments, but no real innate charisma here, shepherded by a bunch of more familiar faces who can't seem to draw anything particularly noteworthy out of him. Skeet Ulrich and the late Anne Heche - in reportedly her last role - scurry around trying to keep their unpredictable ward grounded, whilst Alec Baldwin plays just about the only multi-faceted character in the whole damn thing, stealing every scene he's in.
... disaster movies can be done on a small budget - but not no budget
With no money to really whip up a storm, so to say, Supercell throws up a modestly effective score - the kind of thing you'd expect to accompany Abrams' Super 8 - but it's papering over the cracks of a feature that simply can't deliver the action its poster alone suggests. Sure, clouds may be forming in the distance, and boxed-in, hailed-upon setpieces work well with minimalism, but it's just not enough to get you through the duration and really, every attempt to craft a credibly threatening storm action sequence feels like budget wheel-spinning, with the emotional core that's infinitely more important simply not developed well enough. At the end of the day, there's nothing much to see here, disaster movies can be done on a small budget (Greenland) - but not no budget, and more character-driven dramas need better leads (Infinite Storm), or at least leads who aren't perpetually standing in the shadow of the storm/disaster movie backdrop that just ain't happening.
Supercell will be available on Digital Download from 12th June
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