Incognito: Review

9th September 2021

The year is 1996 or maybe 1995 and Isabel Courtney (Autumn Harrison) has been picked up by the police. She claims that although she knows what year it is, that she’s from 1952 and doesn’t know how she got there. She’s sent to Dr. Vogel (Tom Wade) for psychological evaluation and of course he doesn’t believe her time travelling story at all.

He’s investigated into her claims regardless of how ridiculous they sound, but there’s just no record of her at that time. Then Dr. Vogel finds evidence of a woman named Dorothy Laurent (Sarah Carson) and after Isabel disappears, he thinks she may be able to help him to tidy up Isabel’s story.

Incognito is a short film about time-travel co-written and directed by Jacky Song, which takes an unexpected turn. Beautifully shot with a great production value, Song takes her audience right back to the 1950’s and gives them a glimpse of a time gone by with all the glitz and glamour an audience may expect.

Then transporting Isabel into her future, the story is laid out and although is a premise that has perhaps been seen time and time again, it’s still interesting to watch as the audience would have no idea where the story is going.

However, it seems that Song’s short film takes its time to get to the most interesting part of the story. Also, when it gets there there’s so little time left to tell the rest of the story that it feels like it could have been focussed on a bit more.

In fact, although the set up for Incognito is certainly intriguing, it almost feels like it’s inconsequential to the real story that Song wants to tell. This may be so that such a high concept premise could bring in a wider audience, only to surprise them later on down the line. However, the story that caps off Incognito could stand on its own.

With a wider narrative and a more expanded story, Incognito could be a great feature film which could combine science fiction with romance and not short change any part of its story. A great short film that leaves its audience wanting more, but perhaps one that could be more courageous with its narrative.

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