“You’re good at databases, right…All that shite?”, a voice cuts through Thomas’s (Ciaran Fagan) pulsing headphones as he sits at his laptop alone in his college library. That’s the lead-up to the threat that earns the title of Kyle Ohlendieck’s short film, Blackmail, as Thomas’ classmate, Nicole (Aoife Ní Fhaoláin) intimidates him into finishing off her final year project, jeopardising his own first class position. Or else…she’ll reveal iPhone footage of him in a compromising position at a party to his future employers, Z-tech.
It’s a relatively simple premise, and the story unravels minimally and predictably as Thomas begins to panic and succumb to Nicole’s sneering extortion—a well-executed montage sequence overlays his face with his laptop coding in the library, day in and day out, depicting his genuine, tiresome attempts at delivering on her request. More interesting, however, is the glimpse into Nicole’s own struggles that lead her to put on such a menacing demeanour: a scene on the phone intimately reveals what (or who) she needs to support and why she’s been driven to the brink of desperation to pass her course.
Ohlendieck impressively juggles the roles of writer, director, co-cinematographer (shared with Eamonn MacMahon), editing, music and sound design. He puts together a professionally and technically polished film with sophisticated screen message graphics, and emotionally resonant transition sequences that compellingly propel his story along.
The climax of the film, though, takes an unexpected turn that feels slightly jarring against the more drawn-out pacing of the preceding scenes—where a final confrontation between Nicole and Thomas escalates into sudden violence. In an attempt to boldly interrogate male violence and privilege at this peak moment, the script also reverts to painting Nicole as a simplistic, unsympathetic character, and the limited running time prevents the film from fleshing out the complex (and perhaps realistic) consequences of Thomas’ actions.
Otherwise, Blackmail is a well-assembled film from its Trinity student production team. While it could benefit with more time dedicated to exploring the skewering social criticisms pointed towards Thomas’ predicament, it’s nevertheless a conceptually promising film with interesting, ambitious ideas that are worth being further pulled apart.
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