Survival Skills

If nothing else, you can’t fault Survival Skills for a lack of originality. Shot to look like a 4:3 VHS tape, the film takes the form of an ’80s training video for police officers in a small American town; things start to spiral out of control for the cop at the centre of the video when he becomes obsessed with a domestic abuse case. The film is as dark and strange as you’d expect, and (mostly) manages to strike a decent balance between serving its oddball premise and actually telling a story and giving its characters some heft. But even at a relatively brief 88 minutes, the film drags; it’s adapted from a short, and it’s hard not to wonder if there’s enough here to justify its expansion to feature length.

**1/2 out of ****