Laugh review - NIGHT BUS by Simon Baker

London, a city on the constant move. What better way to get a proper glimpse at its fast paced and eventful nature than through its public transport. That is exactly what Simon Baker does in his film Night Bus, presented in the Laugh section of the 58th London Film Festival.
 
A group of businessmen going home after a night at a strip club. A couple bickering after a disastrous date. A man frantically trying to get through his ex-wife. Two sisters upset about the health condition of their estranged father. Two streetwise young men high on life and having a good time. A young foreign girl sitting at the back of the bus, realising just how much her move to london is impacting her life. These are just some of the characters whose lives Simon Baker exposes us to. Lives that casually, directly or indirectly criss cross on a night bus, the night bus of a city that doesn't sleep, no matter how hard it tries.
The camera never leaves the bus, and the action is followed more or less in real time. We have little time to get emotionally engaged in each of the lives of the characters, yet the strength of the novelty appeal of the project is strong enough to be gripping and intense the whole way through. Obviously, there are some cinematic liberties taken - it is a cinematic experience after all. But the legitimate and honest performances by the cast, made up largely of unknown, really builds up an atmosphere of genuineness and realism that, as many film writers would argue, is radically different from and much more interesting than reality.
 
Despite the confined space in which the film takes place, a precise and studied planning of shots helps the restricting bus feel alternatively as spaced as an open field and as hauntingly claustrophobic as it gets - much like last year's British production Locke. The difference here lies in the Quality Street variety of each of the individuals that makes the casual magnetism that develops in the casual meetings of the characters all the more entrancing. That is also why the film can shift so easily from laugh out loud comedy, to sheer impactful and tense drama. Yet, nothing ever goes over the top. Everything remains quite level. The sensibility of Night Bus makes the film as much a love letter to London's emotional pot pourri as a denunciation of its sheer madness and tragic unhappiness. The film is most likely to strike a chord among the city's many inhabitants. But it would also certainly sit well with ones who have never been in London and would like to get a taste of this city of endless stark contrasts.