Review: Now You See Me, Now You Don’t
Hungarian director Attila Szasz’s Now You See Me, Now You Don’t is a harrowing, supernaturally-infused short film that grasps you by the mind and never lets you go through its 30 minute runtime. All aspects of the film come together in such a coherent, cohesive, collective package that you almost need to take a step back and realize that this was a low-budget independent film, these types of films aren’t suppose to be this good, are they?
The most notable aspect of the entire product is Szasz’s flair for the cinematic. The cinematography is excellent throughout with an overhead rain scene rivaling the much-ballyhooed kin in The Matrix Revolutions. The camera work is smooth with lots of close up shots, slightly out of focus long shots, and effective use of lighting and blocking to create something so clean. The signature shot is that of silhouettes being used from a long shot.
The story itself features only three characters, a mother (Dora Letay), a father (Erno Fekete), and a son, Alex (Vitez Abraham), and through the running of the film it becomes more and more obvious that there is something else going on behind what the audience has been shown.
While keeping the review as spoiler free as possible, the final heart-wrenching and powerful revelation at the film’s climax will have you close to tears as you reexamine previous scenes for clues. Even relating it to other films will give away the more exciting portions of this revelation, so let’s leave it as a surprise.
Now You See Me, Now You Don’t is a powerful feature film fitted into the shoe of a low budget indie. While the story as a whole isn’t as developed as you would get from a full length project, it does everything right in getting its point across while simultaneously pulling in and pulling at the audience in its gripping finale.