It seems like every year has its supremely intelligent and totally confusing indie sci-fi film, the brilliance of which people don't realise until a couple of years after its release. Well, get in early on the Coherence bandwagon, which is sure to join the likes of cult hits like "realistic" time travel film Primer. James Ward Byrkit's directorial debut somehow manages to wrangle not only a watchable film that involves a wacky premise and a mostly improvised script, but a film that is rich, engaging, singularly strange and more than worth multiple viewings. Which it almost certainly needs in order for you to get around what the heck just happened. It begins fairly normally, with a group of friends gathered at a house for a dinner party. Things are slightly tense for one couple, Emily and Kevin, because Kevin's ex-girlfriend Laurie is there. Just before it looks to be settling into Abigail's Party mode a cosmic anomaly occurs, with a comet passing overhead and the power in the house shutting off. After discovering theirs was the only house on the street affected, the group investigate further, and stumble across...well, that would be telling. Needless to say it involves some multidimensional weirdness, alternative timelines and the many worlds theory. It's like the quantum mechanics of Interstellar applied to a small indie drama.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
