Escape from Pretoria (2020)
Escape from Pretoria is a 2020 film directed by Francis Annan detailing the breakout of three political prisoners in 1979 apartheid South Africa. It’s a fun, tense film with no glaring missteps, so I do find it a little difficult to speak about. The pacing is well-done, and the performances consistently no worse than decent. Daniel Radcliffe put in a strong performance, as I expected, but Daniel Webber didn’t stand out or have much to do in his supporting role.
The most stand-out component of the film was the camerawork: Geoffrey Hall did an excellent job of injecting some artistry into what could have otherwise been a straight-forward thriller. One of my favourite recurring shots was a (probably CGI) depiction of the view from inside the locks that Radcliffe’s character was picking. For such a fundamental and recurring shot, it was a good move to inject some artistic perspective into it.
The film is well worth a watch, especially if you’ve got an empty queue.