Thomasina (Thom) and Martha (Mars) Hanbury (played by Emma Appleton and Stefanie Martini respectively) are brilliant adult orphans who live in rural isolation in a grande ol’ manse… a location where Thom has come up with a real humdinger of an invention by the name of Lola; a television that can receive signals from any date in the future the device is set to. Also a horse seemingly lives in their home… which normally would be odd enough, but alas one trumps the other…
Anyway, the year being 1941, and the setting England the girls get up the gumption to begin delivering messages warning of Nazi attacks before they happen, saving countless lives. Their success leads to the attention of the British Military, thanks to the prying eyes of Lt. Sebastian Holloway of the Royal Corps of Signals (Rory Fleck Byrne) who soon allies with the sisters to literally change the course of World War II.
As you can imagine, meddling with time es no bueno, and before long things take darker and darker turns for our heroines… but can they stay one step ahead of the game and prevent the Nazi occupation of Britain?
I don’t even know where to begin with just how flat-out fucking awesome Lola is!
Coming from Director Andrew Legge (in his feature film debut… which he also co-wrote with Angeli Macfarlane), Lola is an amazing piece of sci-fi/time travel cinema that manages to grab a hold of you from the get-F’n-go and it never releases that big ol’ bear hug on your consciousness until those finale credits roll.
And it does all of the above with a minimum use of special effects, but a maximum of clever storytelling and really solid acting from the three leads mentioned up yonder (though everyone is terrific across the board)… and in an unexpected twist, it’s one of the best found footage films I’ve ever seen.
You see, along with Lola, Thom has also invented a new black and white camera with which their entire journey is documented (along with newsreels, actual period footage, and short films) and we follow along through twists and turns that rapidly get out of control to breathtakingly intense and emotional effect!
To bring it all together is a fantastic use of soundtrack, and a strong (and never intrusive) score (and some truly incredible original songs!) courtesy of Neil Hannon.
Honestly, this Severin release is worth the price of admission just for the strength of the feature presentation… but, there are special features present here as well to enhance your viewing pleasure!
First of we take a journey through the thought process and techniques it took to bring the production to life… and more (!) courtesy of Legge and producer (some of which is echoed in the brief behind-the-scenes doc that is also included).
Additionally, we also get an outtake from one of the film’s musical numbers, and two short films also created by Legge; 2005’s The Unusual Inventions of Henry Cavendish, which concerns a Victorian creative (somewhat mad and completely love struck) genius and his wondrous inventions presented as a faux-silent film era period piece, and 2012’s The Girl With the Mechanical Maiden, a completely off-the-charts cool Victorian era-set tale of sweet family melodrama and robots with production values that would make a Hammer film say “Damn, girl!”… just incredible, inventive stuff).
Unique, fascinating, emotional, and thought provoking; Lola is a sci-fi masterpiece that you simply must see!
