David Mackenzieis full of deceit.
His movies, not him.
Treachery of a different kind is afoot in his latest filmRelay, which had its world premiere Sunday atTIFF.
‘Relay’ Director David Mackenzie, left, on the with Riz Ahmed and Lily JamesBlack Bear
The chicanery is there.
Theres no sex, but theres seduction.
The audience is being seduced too; were being lulled.
Sam Worthington and David Mackenzie at Deadline’s TIFF Studio on September 8
And what delectable games they play.
Beige is the color of conformity.
James is first seen wearing a suit in that tone because she doesnt want to stand out.
Shes a scientist working in biotechnology and was part of a team that developed a strain of insect-resistant wheat.
Its being flogged to countries in Africa, and the feeling is they dont matter.
Ash (Ahmed) is her man.
Hes a cautious man; lets go up a notch and call him paranoid.
Tom uses a phone service to relay messages between his clients.
The service acts as a sort of safety buffer as well.
Its Hitchcock mixed with, well, pure Mackenzie cinematic deceit.
The filmmaker caught sight of Justin Piaseckis script pre-Covid, and it stuck with him.
He spent three years fiddling with it a lot, he says.
Once he had his cast, Mackenzie spent time working with them.
Hes living life on the edge and choosing a kind of lonely espionage-like existence, he explains.
Mackenzie says he was thrilled to work with James too.
Shes got a quality where shes becoming much more womanly and interesting.
I ask what he means by saying that James is much more womanly.
And I think theres something really interesting; shes playing out a slightly more mature character, he adds.
Shes being watched for more reasons than one.
Yes, dont give anything away.
Keep the secrets, Mackenzie pleads.
He really likes the cat-and-mouse-bang out genre.
Im always trying to get some authenticity into the vibe, he says.
In the case of Tom, Rizs character, theres a lot of sadness.
Hes very isolated, hasnt got any friends and lives a sort of monk-like existence.
And James is pitch-perfect as a whistleblower.
That beige suit is perfect camouflage.
Some people remain anonymous, Mackenzie explains.
They have to be honest about it.
And, he notes, its a very murky world.
And some corporations are very scary.
Thats the game were trying to play.
But its hopefully quite a fun, intense sort of thriller.
I tell Mackenzie that Ive always loved his ability to dip in and out of genres.
It knocked me for six.
And I want to explore new things and explore new possibilities.
I definitely dont want to do the same thing twice, he says.
Mackenzies just finished shooting his latest movie calledFuze, on locations in and around London.
And theyre joined by Theo James, Gugu Mbatha-Raw and Honor Swinton Byrne.
But is the bomb a ruse to cover up a heist?
Mackenzie shakes his head.
Youre getting too close, he warns.
However, to help put my mind at rest, he allows that Mbatha-Raw plays a police superintendent.
This news doesnt quite do the trick in calming my restless mind.
Mackenzies playing with me.
I have, after all, seen his scorching cat-and-mouse thrillerRelay.
And its a masterpiece of misdirection.
