One of the year's most delightfully romantic British films takes artistic cues from one of Britain's most brilliantly awkward shows.
Rye Lane, the debut feature from director Raine Allen Miller, is a fun, fresh, and genuine love letter to South London, weaving through various locations in Peckham and Brixton over the course of a brilliant day. After a cry-in-the-bathroom meet-cute, Yas and Dom (Vivian Oparah and David Jonsson) can't seem to stop hanging out, wandering around all day together while unpacking their big bad ex stories — which leads to frankly the greatest scene of re-meeting an ex in movie history.
Allen Miller, through cinematographer Olan Collardy, gets right up in Yas and Dom's faces for the majority of the film through point of view shots, meaning Oparah and Jonsson often deliver their lines almost straight down the director's favored fisheye lens. But their gaze is slightly above the camera, and it's this technique that sees Allen Miller borrow from the show that made it famous: Peep Show.
"Peep Show is probably one of the greatest shows of all time in my opinion," Allen Miller tells Mashable. "And it's so funny because it's not a show that anyone would ever talk about, well maybe they would, but I don't think it's really been rated for the craft before."
Succession creator Jesse Armstrong and Sam Bain's lauded sitcom about dysfunctional, twenty-something Croydon flatmates Mark and Jez (David Mitchell and Robert Webb) wielded point of view shots through its signature fisheye lens to create a peephole effect (hence the series' title). Paired with Mitchell and Webb's voiceovers, the effect was one that pitted inner monologue against external, decorous expression, to get inside their most uncensored, usually seedy thoughts (the title's also a nod to illicit films viewed through a peephole). But where Peep Show uses the technique to expose just how little people say what they really mean, and to plunge you into existential discomfort over the sheer mundanity of everyday life, Rye Lane uses it to fuel the sparks between its two romantic leads.
"We called them 'peep shots' when we made the film," says Allen Miller, "because I really love in Peep Show when they do that shot where it's close on the person but they kind of look slightly above the lens. They're not down the barrel because that breaks the fourth wall and it doesn't feel like you're quite in their head or they're talking to another person. It's slightly above the lens so that you're in their head but they're still talking to the other character. And I've always really loved that."
Using this technique, Yas and Dom's cheeky banter and bubbling flirtation is infectious for the audience, delivered so earnestly to each other but also slightly to the viewer. We see every moment of Yas' swift spontaneity and Dom's sweet awkwardness up close, as they learn more and more about each other.
Rye Lane doesn't just use the fisheye lens for these "peep shots" however, as Allen Miller also uses the lens to frame South London in all its glory, with one-off characters weaving in and out in the background in scenes set in Brixton Market, Brockwell Park, Peckham's Rye Lane Market, and Warwick Gardens — a woman battles a gigantic bunch of balloons, a man in a blue cowboy suit dances solo, all while Dom and Yas continue their conversation.
"It is a character in itself. Walking around Brixton and Peckham, you don't know what you're going to get. It's an absolute joy 70 percent of the time, sometimes it's hard, but this film is about South London on a good day, and it's trying to shine a light on it…that it can be a really great place to be," says Allen Miller.
"When I moved from Manchester — I'm originally from Manchester and I moved to London when I was 12 — my grandmother took me on this, like, Goodfellas…you know the scene in Goodfellas when he takes her through the back of the restaurant and it's all one shot? My grandma did that for me in Brixton Market and she was like, 'This is where you get your jerk spice, this is where you get your plantain,' and it's just this amazing, colourful, wonderful place. And it was so exciting for me to have the opportunity to shine a light on it like this."
Rye Lane is now in cinemas, and also streaming on Hulu in the U.S. and Disney+ in the UK.
