Director Ben Wheatley returns with Bulk, a charmingly eccentric and retro-styled science fiction film that tackles substantial questions of reality and consciousness, all crafted with a distinctive, small-budget aesthetic. Starring real-life married couple Sam Riley and Alexandra Maria Lara, the movie injects a dose of playful paranoia and multiverse theory into a quirky narrative.
A Journey into Dreamlike Unreality
Working with a modest budget, Wheatley creates a world of dreamlike unreality, employing a clever mix of tongue-in-cheek paranoia, comic-book dialogue, and deliberately lo-fi special effects. The film features quirky model work that adds to its unique, handmade charm. This approach, combined with a monochrome palette, Dutch angles, and looming closeups, evokes the styles of filmmakers like John Frankenheimer and Chris Petit, while also nodding to classic TV series such as Space: 1999.
The plot follows Sam Riley as a tough investigative journalist. He is drugged and kidnapped by a snarling subordinate, played by Noah Taylor, and taken to a seemingly ordinary suburban house in Sussex. This location is the childhood home of the reclusive multibillionaire Mark Monero, the subject of Riley's article. The oligarch has invented a revolutionary device called the "Brain Collider"—a machine akin to the Large Hadron Collider but compact enough to fit in a front room, designed to probe the universal mysteries of human consciousness.
Navigating Cosmic Madness and Charismatic Encounters
The house becomes a portal, either to the vast intergalactic beyond or the infinite interior of the mind, through which Riley's character inevitably tumbles. Inside this bizarre reality, he encounters an elegant and charismatic woman, portrayed by Alexandra Maria Lara. Her role is ambiguous: she could be a guide, a friend, or his most dangerous enemy as he navigates the ensuing cosmic 3D madness. Lara's deadpan drollery provides a consistently watchable anchor amidst the film's zany concepts.
While Bulk is openly self-indulgent and occasionally laboured in its pacing, it is frequently funny. Its salvation from these longueurs comes from the compelling and likable performances of its two leads. The film wears its pop-culture influences proudly, with a mountain of references listed in Wheatley's own handwriting during the closing credits.
A Distinctive Addition to British Sci-Fi
Bulk is a testament to creative filmmaking that prioritises ideas and style over big-budget spectacle. It asks the audience to embrace its jaunty, off-kilter tone and forgive its indulgences in exchange for a uniquely British take on sci-fi paranoia and metaphysical inquiry. The film is set to premiere at The Nickel in London on 15 January, followed by a tour to other venues.
