“New Year’s Day” is an indy movie so obscure that its creators and stars have little else to show in the way of credits or accolades in the 17 years since its release. Title aside, the film is anything other than the expected fun and partying one may associate from its moniker. Rather, “New Year’s Day” is a dark drama with phenomenal performances by the two stars, driven by a deep and disturbing plot.
The story opens with a present-day found footage type format as a group of high school students embark on a ski trip to the mountains. We watch through the lens of an archaic palmcorder as the classmates discuss their future plans, prospective love interests, and the excitement of the forthcoming trip.
An avalanche claims the lives of the entire group, save for friends Jake and Steven, who make it out with minor injuries but the major emotional destruction the horrific event has caused.
A few weeks later on New Year’s Day, Jake and Steven make a grisly blood pact; they will live life to the fullest for the next twelve months, checking off obscure and dangerous acts from a makeshift bucket list, and culminating with their joint suicide the following January 1st.
“We’re stealing a year!” Jake screams as the boys concoct the plan on the edges of a beautiful cliff which will serve as their final jumping place in 365 days, or 31,536,000 seconds as Steven advises, to which Jake comically and quickly retorts “You would know that.”
Unlike other teen centered dramas, “New Year’s Day” is incredibly dark and morose in its themes, the picture tone employed by Director Suri Krishnamma gives the viewer a feeling of malaise as the story progresses. This blends well with writer Ralph Brown’s somber script as we see the first accomplishment from Jake and Steven’s list setting the tone for the mayhem and self destruction that is going to ensue. “Everyone dies” Steven lectures Jake at one point. “We just know when and how its going to happen.”
While the story itself is like swallowing a bitter pill, the performance of Andrew Lee Potts as Jake and Bobby Barry as Steven is something to admire. Set in the gloomy English countryside, the boys look like the front-men for a 90s era grunge rock band and are astonishing in the roles.
Both coming from very different backgrounds, Jake is the eldest of three and has the responsibilities of being the man of the house to his siblings who look up to him, while also taking care of his drug using mother (Jacqueline Bisset).
Steven is an only child from a privileged home, though hugs and love flow like mud from his razor straight parents. The boys have a unique bond of friendship, and one that only intensifies after the duo survive the avalanche. The friendship between the two is so genuine you will actually forget at times its a movie as you watch the pair interact with one another.
While Andrew Lee Potts, who has done a handful of unknown British TV programs, is great in the performance, I loved Bobby Barry in the role of Steven. Barry has an indescribably charm and charisma that brings the character to the forefront of the movie; internal pain at the boiling point of his seemingly hardened exterior.
I was shocked when I did a quick search on the actor to find he has dome virtually no other stage or screen performances in his life, his success coming as a B-list musician and guitarist for an English band called ‘The Pipettes.’
The script itself deals with the tragedy of the avalanche, captured perfectly in a single fleeting moment on the initial camcorder recording, and its highly charged and emotional aftermath. As the sole survivors, Jake and Steven are counseled at their school, and both are given considerable leeway for their initial list of “pranks.”
The movie progresses with each boys memory still vividly bringing the events of the catastrophe and seeing the last images and words of their friends, recorded forever in their minds and on the camera. Its a truly touching story as we see the final moments of life, with death interrupting high school students that possess so much promise and outlook ahead of them.
“New Year’s Day” is a very good film, one that can be tough to digest at the onset but filled with a uniqueness unto its own. It has top quality from a movie making standpoint and worth viewing for the creation and acting of its virtually unknown cast.
by – Matt Christopher
