Canopy

The strength of Canopy is its filmmaking. With this haunting work, Mr. Wilson, joined by the talented cinematographer Stefan Duscio and the sound designers Rodney Lowe and Nic Buchanan, has made a promising debut.

The aural landscape here is key, as Wilson’s strategy is to create a visual theater of the mind in which the majority of the action is heard and not seen.

The film is remarkably visceral. You can feel the stickiness of the tropics, the drench of perspiration, and the ever-present fear.

Canopy most convincingly creates the illusion of war when it narrows its eyes on the two men trying to endure it, and the urgency on their underlit faces is more transportive than the canned sounds of mortar fire.

Chittenden and Tzu-yi are expressive actors, but, like the film itself, are hamstrung by the project's self-imposed confines.

Despite Wilson’s early control and aesthetic confidence, there isn’t a single scripted idea of weight or emotionality that pays off.