Filmmaker Michael Pearce exploded into the feature film world with his superb debut Beast a few years ago. Now, he gets big studio money with future Amazon Prime Video release, Encounter which is led by an impressive Riz Ahmed as a father and decorated marine Malik Kahn who, after learning that swarms of microorganisms have landed on Earth that have started to infect the human race, attempts to rescue his two young sons from their potentially infected mother.
A visually stunning opening sequence sets the scene for this interesting ‘sci-fi drama’ which is best served as cold as possible, but I will endeavour to continue without dropping any major spoilers. Malik, we learn early on, has just been released from prison and heads to California in an attempt to rescue his two young sons, Jay and Bobby – played brilliantly, I will add, by Lucian-River Chauhan and Aditya Geddada. In the middle of the night, Malik wakes them from their sleep and sets out on a trip across state to take them as far away from their mother, who he thinks might have already been infected. After discovering that they have been taken, Malik’s estranged wife, played by Alisha Seaton, alerts the authorities and what follows is an FBI manhunt across the state after they suspect that Malik may be a dangerous ‘family eliminator’.
Along for the ride is Malik’s parole officer Hattie – played expertly from the always reliable Octavia Spencer – who is the only one Malik seems to trust.
On the plus side, Encounter is brilliantly put together visually. There is some stunning cinematography from Benjamin Kracun, who worked with Pearce on Beast in 2017, but who then also went on to shoot the awards-laden Promising Young Woman. The visual style could not be any different from that movie, but Kracun’s imagery of the desolate desert and the ghost-towns of the American west are nothing short of stunning.
The direction is also, very good and a decent sophomore effort from Pearce. The film is well paced, and he has clearly brought out some excellent performances from his cast, particularly the two younger actors in Chauhan and Geddada. Ahmed, meanwhile, continues his belting run of fabulous performances following stellar work in Mogul Mowgli, and that Oscar-nominated performance in Sound Of Metal.
It’s all enjoyable stuff and there are some interesting ideas contained within. What starts out as being, what looks to be, a standard sci-fi invasion film turns into something completely different part way through, and in my eyes, was all the better for it. In fact, it reminded me a lot of Jeff Nichols’ brilliant movie Midnight Son in more ways than one, and the tone is quite similar.
There are other ideas that don’t seem to have been explored as much as they could, and if they were, the film would be all the better for it. It’s difficult to go into in more detail without spoiling the reveal, but as a whole, it is an enjoyable and ambitious film full of some rather good performances from people I like to watch on the screen, and it should find a decent, satisfied audience on the streaming service when it is released in December.
Encounter
Summary
A decent second, visually pleasing film from director and co-scripter Michael Pearce, featuring a superb lead performance by Riz Ahmed and his young co-stars.
