Skyman Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		3.5
Audio		3.0
Extras		0.5
Overall		2.5

Skyman Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Martin Liebman July 30, 2020

Skyman was written and directed by Daniel Myrick who also co-wrote and co-directed the cultural phenomenon The Blair Witch Project, a "found footage" film which is in many ways structural and stylistic brethren to Skyman. Myrick's 2020 low budget film plays as if a real documentary following a man obsessed with making alien contact, but it's actually a fictional film that hides its truth quite well, especially through the first two-thirds. The illusion unravels as the story becomes a bit more unlikely and begins to play to the audience rather than to its lead character's relentlessly focused and frail psyche, but it's nevertheless a good little picture that doesn't take itself too seriously while building a believable illusion of obsession and family within the prism of alien contact.

Carl Merryweather's (Michael Selle) obsession with aliens and extraterrestrial contact dates back to a time when he was 10 years old and encountered a being from another world in the California desert. Now, he's on the brink of 40 and he's spent the past three decades consuming alien information, from books to first-hand accounts in search of a broader truth within his own experience's narrow confines. He's convinced that, for his 40th birthday, the aliens will return to meet him once again at the same spot where they made contact years ago. And he's not leaving anything to chance. With the somewhat reluctant help of his friend Marcus (Faleolo Alailima) and his sister Gina (Nicolette Sweeney), he's purchased a powerful magnet meant to attract the beings and installed a number of cameras around the family's desert compound in hopes of, this time, capturing the truth for all to witness. As the day and time draw ever closer, his obsession only builds towards a make-or-break point for his life's pursuit.

Carl is portrayed as a little bit off-kilter by other characters -- even his sister -- but the film maintains a balance about itself, never really directly commenting on his mental state or fitness. In fact, the film seems to emphasize his intelligence while also playing up his obsessive focuses, demonstrated, for example, in his love of crossword puzzles, which seems to reinforce the meticulousness which is necessary to ground his behavior through the years and, now, as he pursues his vision for reconnecting with the alien that visited him three decades ago. The film builds the character to the point that the audience can believe he's not a madman. He's a man on a mission, yes, a man with a narrow worldview that's focused on a single moment in time, and a man determined to prove his experience as credible, as much to himself, it seems, as to the skeptics in his life, and certainly well beyond his sphere. His experience was not the wild imaginings of a prepubescent boy -- though it is said that the more one tells a lie to oneself the more likely it is to become truth, at least to the mind -- but rather a real, tangible experience that he hopes that this time will not define his life but rather validate it.

The film does a fine job of building to Carl’s planned encounter. Much of that is on Selle’s work as Carl which blends an underlying youthful exuberance with a focused determination married with a bit of stage fright and social awkwardness. Common sense says his plan is going to be a bust -- it seems like he’s banking on far too many coincidences, theories, and baseless hopes for the alien to arrive -- but there’s this underlying hope that he does actually make contact to validate his life and obsession and, of course, for some juicy material so the film might end on a bang rather than on a whimper. It ends on something of a whimper anyway, failing to offer a thoroughly satisfying resolution. It’s rather predictable, but the build-up is alone worth the price of admission.

Skyman Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Skyman lands on Blu-ray via a burned 25 GB BD-R disc. The film was shot documentary style with lower grade cameras that often introduce a number of artifacts inherent to the source. Watch the sky! Banding exists in the film's first shot above the campus, as it does later on in some of the footage with visible sky out in the desert. Watch the ground! A good bit of aliasing is visible in an early overhead shot. The image also displays a fair bit of noise inside the HGH ("High Ground House") in chapter two. There are also some static speckles on the frame (most dominantly seen during a shopping trip in chapter four) which appear to be dirt and debris on the camera's sensor. A bit of macroblocking is evident too, which only adds to the authentic "experience." Colors are not particularly robust. There's a lack of high end depth and contrast but, again, given the inherent technical constraints there's little room for complaint. The same may be said of the image's textural qualities. There's enough detail to satisfy basic HD demands but viewers should be prepared for a rather flat picture that cannot by its nature show the sort of intimate clarity found in higher grade film and digital sources. It's fine as it is but hardly reaches reference level.

Skyman Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Skyman sonically visits Blu-ray via a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 lossless soundtrack. There's not much in terms of notable sonic invovelement in the movie. The sound design is rather crude by its nature, with most of the audio seemingly recorded on the fly without much care or concern for quality or balance or, indeed, a significant add in post, but there are some good moments that help define the movie's essentials in support of the larger narrative. Little examples of ambient effects, like tools whirring at a shop where Carl used to work and, later, insects buzzing and wind blowing through the desert during a key scene in chapter six, help to set the scene, albeit crudely. Such do offer pleasant immersion and placement, enough to give a basic sonic footprint when necessary. Music eerily moves around the stage at a few key points, offering a simple but effective presentation that underscores a few of the film's more dramatic moments. Music hauntingly expands once or twice for effect but it's generally not a major player in the movie's basic sonic cadence. The low end response ramps up during the film's final minutes to good, balanced effect. Dialogue is generally clear and center positioned though it is sometimes a bit lost and drowned out by either distance from the microphone or natural inferences, like wind blowing into the mic at the 72 minute mark. In short, there's nothing much of interest here, but the track is fully effective within the movie's natural sound design restrictions.

Skyman Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This Skyman Blu-ray release contains but a single supplement, the film's Trailer (1080p, 1:33). No DVD or digital copies are included with purchase. This release does not ship with a slipcover. It does ship in a double-wide case; why a MOD BD-R release that is obviously cutting corners includes a case that uses twice the material as a normal one is a mystery, but so it is.

Skyman Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Skyman is surprisingly effective at hiding its fictional roots through much of the film. It begins to fall apart as it closes in on its disappointing finale but it is, overall, an interesting, if not superficial, journey though a make-believe psyche built on alien visitation obsession. Gravitas Ventures' Blu-ray is featureless beyond a trailer but the video and audio presentations are fine within the movie's structural context. Recommended.