Customer Reviews

Yesterday Was a Lie

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I think the best way to describe some of what this film has to offer came right from Kerwin himself: A film about having quantum mechanics be the basis for showing human heartbreak. As the stars stated several times in the supplements, you will get something out of this film each time you watch it - and I will be watching it again. Describing the story almost does this piece a disservice, but sufficed to say it challenges the viewer and is one of the most intellectual and intriguing independent films to come out in years.

This is a film that could REALLY use a Blu treatment, but the transfer manages to still show the black and white experience in a strong and competent fashion. The music, cinematography, lighting, character physicalities and performances all get mixed together beautifully in this digital film. The 5.1 is utilized most with the singing, jazz and assorted score. The digital picture has a perfect softness for how this B&W result displays, and mixed with how beautiful the lead ladies are you end up actually appreciating the lack of color - the result was mesmerizing.

The supplements have seven segments of interviews and behind the scenes from cast and crew. Kerwin's enthusiasm shows through in each talking head piece, and the level of passion shown by every person involved with this project, makes the whole bit watchable. Two 20-30 shot photo galleries show pics from filming and the resulting production. It was almost a shock to see color in the behind-the-scenes photos - but it gives a great reference for how much better it was to have this be B&W. If you are a fan of either lead lady - there are some save-worthy pics here. A couple of trailers are thrown in also as the last addition. English language with subtitles in same. A graphic novel preview is also included in the packaging. 4.5 for the film and presentation, .5 for the supplements. Hope you get a chance to watch this adult-oriented PG film about an alternative viewpoint of love lost.

Producer Chase Masterson and writer/director James Kerwin have created a wonderful film harkening back to the days of great film noir.

Stunning black and white photography gives this film an incredible look, tone, and mood which big Hollywood studios seemingly have forgotten how to make.

The film is challenging and engaging. The viewer is in the dark initially and on the same ride of discovery as Kipleigh Brown's character. Kudos to James Kerwin for respecting viewers intelligence and ability to figure things out, and more importantly for knowing viewers do want to be challenged this way, and are tired of dumbed down mainstream Hollywood movies.

Fine performances by all, but especially great work from leads Kipleigh Brown and Chase Masterson.

The commentary track with James Kerwin, Chase Masterson, and Kipleigh Brown is far superior to that found on most DVD releases.

The music score and arrangements by Kristopher Carter are perfectly matched to this film. Chase Masterson's performance of "Where Do You Start" over the last scenes is one of, if not the best, performance of this song I've heard.

Yesterday Was a Lie is not to be missed.

Yesterday Was a Lie is a love story for cerebral cineastes. It was a delight to watch after dinner with a philosophy professor friend and three glasses of wine, and it belongs right up there with your volumes of Wittgenstein. Upon more sober viewing, my analytic mind felt challenged. Actually, this reflects the film's purposeful plotting. Being a psychiatrist, let's see what I can offer.

First off, the film exemplifies Godard's maxim that all it takes to make a movie is a girl and a gun. In this case the lead female character(s) are two lovely blondes (Chase Masterson of Deep Space 9 fame and newcomer Kipleigh Brown). Each so cleverly resembles the other that one is reminded of Bunuel's That Discreet Object of Desire, the surrealist flick where two separate actresses played one character.

But adding layers of complexity here, these twin-like actresses are also playing the left and right sides of the brain of the feminine aspect (anima) of one male character. Got that? They all meet at the Pigeon Hole lounge. The first character is the young Hoyle, a feminine Bogart/Sam Spade analytic detective - the left side brain. Like Sam she likes the gin and the story straight. The second is a sultry, un-named singer who has a familiarity with the poetics of T.S. Eliot - the brain's right side. Her music is entrancing, her wit intuitive and non-linear. Together, these two provide the counterpoint of Jung's anima to the male animus of the main character, John Dudas.

Whether Hoyle and her counterpart, The Singer, convince us they are our anima is irrelevant as we so want them to be part of us. These lovelies draw us ever so seductively into imagining the dark recesses of our own beautiful unconscious, despite whatever misgivings. All we're here for is love, we are told. The shape of the universe is a relationship - functional or otherwise - whether the relationship with our inner parts or with our fellow beings. This makes for a strange little Jungian romp in luscious black and white footage ala Bogart and Bacall. This is David Lynch with an underlying premise. Somewhat like the film Pi, this low budget beauty was made at the cost of Pi (made at $60,000) times pi, about two hundred thousand dollars!

So, have you read Jung, had a few mysterious dreams, find yourself in need of some clues? First time director James Kerwin makes for a Jungian fortune teller taking us on a trip to disentangle or re-entangle our male and female halves. Kerwin is an urban shaman who shows us the conventional mind as a "surge suppressor". Our conscious minds filter small broken bits of time in a lame attempt to tell a story. Does it matter whether they "add up"?

Beginning with some obvious allegory, the locks are broken off the allegorical unconscious and our character, curiously named Hoyle bravely walks into a poetic film noir journey to confront the Self. (Hoyle seems named after transcendental astronomer/physicist Fred Hoyle who was deeply intrigued by the "Anthropic Principle" of nature.) We begin with a look at Dali's surrealist masterpiece The Persistence of Memory in a hallway. They meet Schrödinger's cat, the parable of which tells us there are opposite angles on everything and only by choosing do we arrives at any definitive perspective. Free Will is discussed. The film reveals a Jungian Fenestra Aeternitatus, a window to the eternal, that our characters need to navigate.

A variety of other cutting edge consciousness theories are peppered throughout the film to spice the intellectual interest of the knowledgeable viewer, including pondering Planck's constant, a number describing the fundamental vibration at the Ground of Being. For those less informed, the film literally goes back to the psychiatrist to explain itself. Jung, we are told, said a man needs to project his animus onto the feminine anima in order to unlock the secrets of the universe. This is a film for men who are in need of seeing themselves and for women who want a deeper look into those men. What does a man see in himself as a woman?

Hoyle goes into a dream within a dream (hasn't everyone had at least one of these?) to contact her animus, Dudas, who has a notebook of important thoughts or ideas. Meanwhile we are constantly asked, what if our theories, concepts of self, and common sense don't add up? And what does that tell us about our relationships? And what is the nature and consequence of the loss of "relationship"? The right-sided feminine asks the questions. Left-sided Hoyle tries to read the tea leaves, the pattern in the chaos. Hoyle and her doppelganger meet another aspect of their animus, a scientist who explains the nature of time and who feels these two sexy blondes are "better" and "better". They are also the choices that interface with reality. They will help us overcome our own guilt about our very existence and the broken promises to ourselves and to others.

A deep understanding of time is seen in this film's Feynman diagram writ large in cinema. Physicist Feynman showed everything else might be one mind/particle bouncing backwards and forwards in time, appearing as each and all of us trying to make contact with every part of experience over eternity, the very fabric of time. This reach for the eternal is countered by the Shadow, the dark side, who delivers a bit of lead poisoning in the form of bullets. Death's shadow is a terrifying/exhilarating lockdown on the many-sided reality of now, it haunts our Selves. It occurs when we bring our stories to a halt. We need to let go of our life-text and grab onto our fuller selves, leaving our memories to be what they are and move on to script ourselves anew.

This film is an ultimate romance with "The Other", a mix of the cosmos and the chaos, the order and the disorder, the male and the female. In this cocktail lounge of our emotions, letting go of our primordial selfishness lets our unconscious sing its own songs, reconciling the Self to itself. And pay attention to that terrific music in here. Chase Masterson sings beautifully the lounge songs of our longing.

As T.S. Eliot is quoted:
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time
Through the unknown, unremembered gate.

Happy filmgoing!

Private Detective Hoyle hot on the trail of an elusive man and a missing notebook. Holye's only help along the way are her partner and a mysterious lounge singer. But Hoyle's progress is hindered as reality and time seems to be shifting around her.

In a unique blend of noir and science fiction, Yesterday Was a Lie is in a category all its own. Shot completely in black and white, the stunning visuals and accompanying jazz music adds to the noir feel - and in my opinion, takes the film to a whole new level. Actresses Kipleigh Brown (Hoyle) and Chase Masterson (Lounge Singer) are wonderful choices for their roles, and skillfully pull the audience into the story.


Ambiance aside, this is like no other noir or science fiction film ever made. At its heart, this is a story of love and heartbreak. But this is not some frivolous, light-hearted flick. Viewers have to pay attention and be able to handle a lot of metaphysical and scientific jargon throughout. Scenes often jump around in time, yet we follow Hoyle as she uncovers the ultimate and surprising mystery. It's smart, gutsy, and glamorous - and completely unexpected. This thoroughly enjoyable film should be a treat for science fiction fans.

DVD Details:
Yesterday Was a Lie is rated PG, 89 minutes long, and contains loads of featurettes and behind-the-scenes clips.

I had the pleasure of seeing this movie during its NY CITY premier last year.
I enjoyed first time director JAMES KERWIN's movie very much especially like the way he combined film noir and sci fi into an interesting and thought provoking combination
Kipleigh Brown was wonderful in the lead role.
I can't say enough about the talented Chase Masterson

In an era when movie companies repeat same ol' / same ol' because testing the frontier is too scary for them, the folks that put Yesterday Was A Lie together pushed the envelop and created something very new and quite bold, something that tests your mind, challenges your thoughts and makes you wonder why others don't try creating new art.

Film noir styled with a complicated plot rooted in metaphysical science fiction, Yesterday Was A Lie is probably the most wondrous film produced in the last year or two. The film itself is stunning to view, its stylistic production pulling your eyes toward the screen at every corner. And, while your visual senses are snuggled in the long suspenseful shadows and metaphysical fogs of silk so thick you can feel them in the theatre, in period styles so long forgotten that it would require science fiction itself to ressurect them, the twisting journey of the complex tale tests your mind to new boundries and thus provides you with a challenge worthy of your time.

Yesterday Was A Lie is a stupendous event film that breathes life into movie making.

It's refreshing to see a film so original and thought provoking that would never have been made in the traditional studio system. It doesn't fit the Hollywood formula, (thankfully), but it completely delivers on so many fronts. Amazing performances, cinematography, direction, score...the list goes on. If you're looking for something a little different and not your typical movie faire, check out this movie.

Metaphysical mystery told in the film noir style. Brilliant. I can watch it again and again finding new treasures each time. Loved it.

I was recommended to see this film, didn't think i would like it. I was very surprised. It was way better than i expected. It had a thought provoking plot, looked amazing and the score was unbelievable. I highly recommend this film!

I saw the film and really liked it. Chase Masterson is great, and the film is gripping.