Set in an undisclosed time period, Tin Can sees the world in the stranglehold of a deadly pandemic caused by a fungal disease called Coral. At the same time, a front-line parasitologist, Fret (Anna Hopkins – VHS 94 and The Expanse), is imprisoned in a life-suspension chamber. With Fret being humanity’s best shot at survival, she must escape or die trying. Although dealing with a global pandemic, Tin Can was actually conceptualised and shot back in 2019 before our own real world fell victim to Covid-19. It’s one of several films that appears to have eerily sensed the way that things were going, and despite being made ahead of the real world drama, it’s hard to not view it in context of our own experiences.
Single situation films are always a tough prospect for filmmakers and viewers alike. Spending so much time in a confined location limits the potential for action and it can be hard to hold the viewer’s attention. Some like Buried keep the audience on the edge of their seats, pumping in wave after wave of tension. Others find themselves stuck in a never ending loop of tedium as the lead character gets trapped doing the same thing over and over. Tin Can falls somewhere between the two scenarios. There are moments of great tension and intrigue, but there are also instances of fatigue as the enclosed environment loses its appeal. At just over one hundred minutes, there are several times that Tin Can starts to meander and feel a tad long, and there’s a strong sense that, were it to shave off just a few minutes, the pace would feel smoother.
One of the strengths of Tin Can is that it looks beautiful. Director Seth A. Smith opts to present two contrasting settings for the story: the stark white and clinical background of Fret’s past, glimpsed in flashbacks, and dim, dark, and almost medieval in style. The best way to describe the aesthetic would be to compare it to Vincenzo Natali’s Cube; although Fret’s container is more hexagonal in shape, it looks stunning. Another positive is the work of Anna Hopkins who really holds the film together with her performance. The flow between present and flashbacks generates a disjointed, almost dreamlike sensation that plays into the narrative beautifully.
Visually intriguing and strangely intuitive, Tin Can is a great new addition to the single situation sci-fi thriller. Overall there is plenty within Tin Can to enjoy, it just suffers from being the latest iteration of the main character locked in a box strand of storytelling. Sitting somewhere between Oxygen, White Chamber, and Buried, Tin Can has just enough to stand itself apart from its peers, but not quite enough to rise above them.
Tin Can
Summary
If you like your science-fiction kept to confined spaces then Tin Can is exactly the film for you.
Tin Can was reviewed at Celluloid Screams.
