15, 98 mins
The Irish/British co-production Freeze Frame was made on a fraction of the budget of the rest of the week’s main releases, but despite this it manages to be easily the most visually distinctive film on offer.
The first-time writer-director John Simpson shows a raw but defiantly ambitious talent with this claustrophobic thriller. A virtually unrecognisable Lee Evans stars, his comic mannerisms filtered through his deeply troubled character until they stop being funny and start being creepily disconcerting.
He plays Sean Veil, a man whose arrest and near prosecution for a multiple homicide tipped him into the realm of paranoia. He now records every waking and sleeping moment with an array of digital cameras, just in case he is ever called upon to account for his time. It’s an intriguing premise and an atmospheric film, but one, it must be said, that falls apart in the final 30 minutes.