Locke

Dir: Steven Knight

2014

****

On paper, Locke sounds like the most boring idea for a thriller/drama I've ever heard of. Lars von Trier proved that you don't need a location, loads of props etc when he made the brilliant Dogville, all you need is a great script and good performances. Steven Knight strips it back even further in some respects and just has the one location; the front seat of a car on a motorway. That's it. To be fair though, Haris Zambarloukos's career best cinematography on Locke makes it much more than that and surprisingly it is a visual treat. The story is also so simple, it's not a crime drama and nothing particularly out of the ordinary happens and yet it is one of the most intense films I've ever seen. I mention von Trier, as to me this seems to be the ultimate Dogma film. It's as natural and real as a scripted film could ever hope to be and a huge, if not a subtle achievement.