Film Review: SILVER HAZE: Vicky Knight Excels in a Character Study That Feels a Bit Too Ordinary at Times [Tribeca 2023]

Silver Haze Review

Silver Haze (2023) Film Review from the 22nd Annual Tribeca Film Festival, a movie written and directed by Sacha Polak and starring Vicky Knight, Esme Creed-Miles, Charlotte Knight, Archie Brigden, Angela Bruce, Brandon Bendell, Nicola Bland and Carrie Bunyan.

Silver Haze, directed by Sacha Polak, is a well-made story about family and the people we meet who can become our family. It is an intentionally messy story of passionate love and the way people’s emotions can run deep even if sometimes those we choose to love are not exactly the right fit for us in the end.

This film is full of solid performances with two standout turns by the movie’s leading actresses. Vicky Knight stars as a young woman named Franky who is a burn victim survivor from an event that happened over a decade ago. She now works as a nurse in a hospital and finds temporary solace in a relationship with an unpredictable woman who has survived a suicide attempt, Florence (Esme Creed-Miles). Don’t think you know where this story is headed, though, because you probably don’t. This picture plays as real as life itself and there are no cookie cutter answers to the difficult questions that it poses throughout.

Knight and Creed-Miles take this movie to uncharted territory through intense performances that will reel the viewer into the film’s vivid and realistic world. As the romance begins to blossom between Franky and Florence, audiences might be able to predict that this is not a perfect romantic match. But, that’s it. What happens next is fascinating to behold. Franky has had a relationship with a man and is now exploring her ambitions with someone who seems to understand her but this new lover, Florence, is wild and erratic at times which makes their relationship a bit volatile and ends up creating some energy that isn’t always focused the right way.

Angela Bruce plays Florence’s grandmother Alice who befriends Franky in one of the more superior aspects of this dramatic picture. Alice has cancer and this makes her interaction with Franky feel like it has an urgent nature which drives the scenes Bruce and Knight play together in the picture. Bruce delivers a standout turn with raw authenticity found in her work in this picture. Also in the movie is Florence’s autistic brother Jack (Archie Brigden) who also has struggles that also make the story feel realistic in terms of the relationships and themes that it chooses to present. Of course, the movie juxtaposes Franky and Florence’s family with some subtle and powerful results all around. This, like life itself, is not a simple story. The complexity Polak brings to the table here makes the movie one to watch.

While Vicky Knight is superb in her role, the most surprising aspect of her performance is that it’s not meant to be the most showy one in the film yet it somehow stands out slightly above the work from Creed-Miles who is still very good too in what would initially seem to be the meatier part. Creed-Miles’s Florence is not the most likable character, though, and this is what drives Franky away from her in certain scenes. Creed-Miles takes a role which could have been simple and develops it through an intense series of scenes that will ring true to the viewer. Vicky Knight’s sister Charlotte Knight is also in the movie as Leah who has an interesting bond with Franky throughout the film.

Silver Haze takes its story to certain places that it probably shouldn’t and that’s why it’s a brave movie. Franky’s dissatisfaction with her past and present led her into a destructive relationship with Florence but meeting Florence’s family will ultimately change the way Franky sees her life and her future.

This picture certainly tackles a lot of difficult subjects but is a bit ordinary as a character study. It is a tale of rage, forgiveness, family and relationships. However, nothing dramatically devastating happens per se during the course of the picture. Franky and Florence grow together and apart as characters in ways that will make audiences question what, exactly, their relationship is supposed to symbolize. That being said, Polak’s direction rarely hits a false note. Knight and Creed-Miles do make their characters vulnerable and because of the quality of the acting, Silver Haze is a strong movie that will appeal to those who like stories of torn and broken characters trying to rebuild their lives and finding complicated challenges along the way instead.

Rating: 7/10

Leave your thoughts on this Silver Haze review and the film below in the comments section. Readers seeking to support this type of content can visit our Patreon Page and become one of FilmBook’s patrons. Readers seeking more Tribeca Film Festival news can visit our Tribeca Film Festival Page, our Film Festival Page, and our Film Festival Facebook Page. 

Readers seeking more film reviews can visit our Movie Review Page, our Movie Review Twitter Page, and our Movie Review Facebook Page. 

Want up-to-the-minute notifications? FilmBook staff members publish articles by Email, Feedly, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Tumblr, Pinterest, Reddit, Telegram, Mastodon, and Flipboard.