Lola UK and Ireland Cinema Release Review

4 star innovative and captivating sci-fi film.

Lola is a 2022 found footage sci-fi film, shot in Ireland during lockdown with a screenplay by Angeli Macfarlane (I Am Slave) and Andrew Legge, who also makes his very impressive feature directorial debut with this imaginative story.

It is showing exclusively in UK and Irish cinemas from 7th April 2023, courtesy of Signature Entertainment.

“Thom. Papa used to say not to be blinded by your own brilliance. And you are. More brilliant than even you know and more dangerous.”

It’s 2021 and a cache of film reels has just been discovered in the cellar of a house in Sussex, England. They appear to show a compilation of recordings broadcast in 1941. This film tells their story.

It’s 1938 and sisters Thomasina (Emma Appleton – The Witcher) a.k.a. Thom and Martha (Stefanie Martini – Make Up, Crooked House) a.k.a. Mars have come up with an amazing invention. They have created a machine that allows them to see into the future by intercepting television broadcasts, which they have named LOLA after their mother.

This is a fantastic innovation and with it, the girls begin to enjoy the music of the sixties and seventies, David Bowie, Bob Dylan and many others. With the war in full swing however, they soon realise that there could be even more important applications to knowing the future.

With this in mind and under the name of “The Angel of Portabello”, they begin broadcasts warning residents to evacuate when an attack is imminent. In this way many lives are saved, but it soon comes to the attention of the authorities who are keen to know where this intel is coming from.

They are eventully tracked down by Leiutenant Sebastian Holloway (Rory Fleck Byrne – Pixie) who pusrsuades both them and his superior Cobcroft (Aaron Monaghan – The Banshees of Inisherin) that this could be a valuable tool in defeating Nazi Germany. But what are the real consequences of messing with the time line?

“Thanks to the Angel of Portabello, my family’s alright, but our house got clobbered.”

LOLA is a very enjoyable film with a great and well executed storyline. It is imaginatively filmed, using 16 and 25mm photography for an authentic feel and captures the adventurous spirit of these two young women brilliantly.

The acting is superb, very believable and the film also features a soundtrack with original songs from Neil Hannon of The Divine Comedy, who wrote them specifically to relate to the future in which they find themselves.

While very amusing in places, it also has a serious side, looking at the potentially disastrous consequences of randomly altering the outcomes of situations and offering a valuable cautionary tale to anyone who may invent such a thing. Well worth a trip to the cinema.

“These loathesome creatures will be found and hanged for treason…”