By John Corrado

The 2024 Toronto International Film Festival runs from September 5th to 15th, more information on tickets and showtimes can be found right here.

Do I Know You From Somewhere?, the debut feature from New Brunswick filmmaker Arianna Martinez, aims to capture that slippery, elusive feeling that you are pulling away from someone. And the fact that the film pulls it off is one of the most notable things about this impressive low-budget first feature.

Olive (Caroline Bell) and Benny (Ian Ottis Goff) are a couple spending time together at their beach house, when strange things begin to happen. A mysterious plush rabbit appears in Benny’s workshop, magnets are suddenly on their fridge that weren’t there before. As things start to appear and disappear, it’s like they are forgetting aspects of their life together that are right in front of them.

Martinez, who co-wrote the script with Gordon Mihan, plays around with memory and time to craft a high concept breakup movie that keeps us intrigued and invested. The film keeps taking us back to the night when they first met at a wedding; her a sad, drunk single lady, and him a server who she pulls off the job to drink with her. Martinez uses this heightened narrative approach to explore universal ideas about the end of relationships and things that might have been.

It’s an ambitious debut that makes the most of a limited budget, packing a lot of themes and ideas into just 79 minutes. It’s an equally impressive feat that the film manages to feel breezy but not too short despite juggling so many heady concepts. On a technical level, Martinez’s direction feels confident, utilizing some theatrical techniques to pull off something that manages to feel cerebral without relying on really any visual effects. Lance Kenneth Blakney’s wonderful cinematography heightens the film with its rich use of colour.

Bell does an excellent job of carrying Do I Know You From Somewhere?, taking us through Olive’s confusion and recognition of what is happening around her, while Goff does sensitive work portraying Benny’s own realization process. It’s an often striking and very promising feature debut form Martinez.

Film Rating: ★★★½ (out of 4)

Public Screenings: Friday, September 6th, 2:50 PM at Scotiabank Theatre; Saturday, September 7th, 8:50 PM at Scotiabank Theatre; Friday, September 13th, 6:45 PM at Scotiabank Theatre