LOLA (2023)

LOLA is the kind of small miracle that reminds you cinema can still feel newly invented: a wartime sci-fi drama told through eerily convincing “found” images, crackling radio textures, and period-perfect filmmaking craft that makes its impossible premise feel like a secret history you somehow missed. Andrew Legge turns a clever hook into something richer and more human, letting the bond between two ingenious sisters carry the story even as the world tilts under the weight of their discovery. The vibe is equal parts playful and ominous—like listening to a forbidden broadcast late at night—buoyed by a soundtrack that feels both familiar and unsettling in the best way. It isn’t for viewers who need clean, crowd-pleasing comfort (it grows bleaker as it goes, and includes some sex/nudity, language, and wartime intensity), but if you like ambitious ideas delivered with style and real feeling, it’s absolutely worth the trip.

LOLA is clearly aiming for an inventive, faux-archival twist on the “what if we could see the future?” war story, and the concept is genuinely intriguing. The problem is the film often feels more impressed with its own experiment than invested in making the narrative or characters fully land, so you may find it emotionally chilly, thinly sketched, or occasionally confusing as it escalates. If you want a clean, plot-driven time-travel thriller with clear rules and big payoffs, this might test your patience. But if you’re up for a moody, lo-fi alternate-history curio that prioritizes atmosphere, ideas, and craft over conventional storytelling, there’s enough originality here to make it worth a look.