Fun
Frisky
Nostalgic
Intense
Adventurous
Choked Up
Curious
Romantic
Weird
Premiering today on Seeso, The Darkest Universe is frankly a quite indescribable film. It’s mere presence on Seeso might lead you to believe it’s funny, and yes, there are moments of that. But there’s so much more to it. In fact, I hope you haven’t used up your full allotment of tears on This Is Us because you might find a few more trickling out during a viewing of this film. It’s touching and relatable and mysterious and even frustrating at times before circling back to heart-warming and inspiring with a dash of totally weird.
Co-written, co-directed, and starring Will Sharpe, fans of this multi-hyphenate will feel traces of his signature dark comedy style as previously experienced in the 2011 film Black Pond and last year’s equally hilarious and devastating series Flowers. In fact, let’s pause here for a moment while I plead with you to watch Flowers. The six episode, half-hour series is also available on Seeso and if a British dark comedy series at all speaks to you, this is one worth watching and feeling, which you will inevitably do in a big way.
The Darkest Universe finds Zac (Sharpe) pivoting between two points in his life: one where he’s bickering with his slacker of a sister, Alice (played by Tiani Ghosh who also co-wrote the film) and one where he spends his days searching for Alice, who went missing with her boyfriend Toby (Joe Thomas). This is displayed via much low-budget iPhone footage, intersected with weird, dreamy visuals and wistful, hazy suburban London settings.
The film tackles the rough waters of family dynamics, as Zac and Alice’s relationship bobs from frustrated to sweet and back, while her relationship with Toby is steadily charming throughout. Zac must also approach the even more stressful world of making people on the internet care about things other than viral animal videos, such as helping to find a missing sibling, for instance.
If you let yourself get swept up in this unique story, and you really, really should, you’ll find the ending particularly poignant and inspiring at the same time. It’s one of those films that requires your heart to do some readjusting and processing, leaving you with a heavy feeling in your chest long after you’re done watching it, in the best possible way. Let that feeling serve as a reminder that sometimes the most important person you have to find is yourself.
