Mark Reviews Movies: TAPE (2020)

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Review by Mark Dujsik | March 26, 2020

The man has many flowery words and phrases, and he uses them to frame an argument for why this woman, an actress to whom he has promised a successful and artistically rewarding career, should have sex with him on camera. That scene, the lengthy and unsettling centerpiece of writer/director Deborah Kampmeier's Tape, is chilling.

The man knows exactly what to say and how to say it. He argues that this is normal in the business, and when that fails, he uses ideas like empowerment and owning one's body to lull the woman into a sense of comfort and solidarity. He has a counterpoint for every argument that may be made by Pearl (Isabelle Fuhrman), the actress he essentially has trapped in a makeshift studio. When those come up short, he just stops talking, supposedly giving her the power. He has all the power in this situation, though.

Kampmeier's movie is part thriller, since it also has another actress named Rosa (Annarosa Mudd) trying to catch this man in the act with assorted hidden cameras, and part dissection of how a sexual predator like Lux (Tarek Bishara), the man with all of the hollow words and empty promises, operates. The movie is a statement as much as it is a story, and for the most part, it's frightening as both.

The plot itself follows Rosa, equipped with cameras in a fake button and a pair of sunglasses, as she follows Pearl through the casting process for a commercial. Lux is in charge of hiring, and even though Pearl doesn't get the gig, he tells her that he sees promise her in talents.

Lux will make Pearl one of his clients for his management agency, and all she has to do is record a screen test. The whole thing progresses with a heightened but mostly believable sense of inevitable dread from its opening moments, with Rosa's obvious trauma serving as an unnerving juxtaposition and foreshadowing to Pearl's seemingly ordinary life as an aspiring actress.

Tape is effective enough that its unfortunate last-act stumbles are all the more apparent. Kampmeier provides a final confrontation that quickly and unconvincingly raises the stakes of this scenario. There are no easy answers or simple resolutions to this tale, and while it's clear that the filmmaker realizes this, the final rush to make a definitive statement at gunpoint certainly feels too easy and simple.

Note: Originally scheduled for a theatrical release, Tape will be available online for daily screenings at 7:00 pm EST from Thursday, March 26 to Thursday, April 9. Interactive panel conversations will follow each showing. For more information and to purchase access, visit www.thetapemovie.com/screenings.

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