By Tylah Hendrickson, Senior Digital Editor 26/27
‘Not only is it the last show of the tour, but it's the last show that we'll ever do,’ - David Bowie, Rock 'n' Roll Suicide, July 3rd, 1973
Made initially as a part of Infilm Society's short film project, filmmakers Yotam Livni and Laurie Morgan were slightly ambitious with this one, hosting a separate premiere for the 42-minute long film. Looking for Laurie (2026) stars Sam Fulton portraying Yotam, escapading around Bristol to ‘find Laurie’. He zaps between different directorial cuts and encounters a range of familiar-looking faces.
Apart from Yotam, every other character plays a version of themselves–contributing directors, editors and actors who played a pivotal role in the film’s creation. As an ode to the directors’ time at The University of Bristol and the friends made along the way, the collaborative nature of the project only adds to its heartwarming quality. It’s a film made in Bristol, for Bristol.
The film opens with Sam Fulton running up Park Street, visibly distressed and disorientated in the night light–tired, obviously, but also recovering from a broken ankle for the majority of filming (he explained later in the Q&A that he was ‘paid with pints’ for the stress fracture). A homage to Tom Cruise running through New York in Vanilla Sky (2001), but to some a Marty Mauser moment.
The first collaborator we meet is George Foulger, sprawled on a bench a tad out of it from the night before. In his state, he cannot understand our Yotam lookalike, and so he must be ‘rambled at on his terms’–which then snaps into an absurd animated sequence with dragons, fishmen, and Anna de Armas, drawn by Foulger himself.
The first half of the film is stylistically the most immersive. The cartoon cuts into a Sideways-esque (2004) pub crawl montage, set to a techno score by Gus Hatt, as Sam drinks his way through notable Bristol pubs–including a cheeky middle finger aimed at Diggs letting. Inside jokes are abundant, which is part of the charm.
One scene uses mockumentary cuts of the InFilm Committee (directed by Ishbel Ewing), dramatising the members’ habits to form distinct characters that are still enjoyable to watch even if you don't know them personally.
I cannot stress the amount of running in this film. Between sequences, we get callbacks to past Infilm productions–such as The Other Guy (2025), John Miami (2025), and The Space Between (2024). One standout scene, shot by Oscar de Young (known for slower-paced nature filming), uses transparent overlays and repeated cuts. It takes nothing away from the experimental nature of the varying directorial styles. It slows the frantic energy perfectly. Sam climbs into a box–a reverse echo of The Boxer (2025) (directed by Jacob Joseph Held) where Laurie climbs out of a box, and adds to the intended dreamy, playful undertones.
To an unknowing perceiver, that density of references could be a weakness. In the Q&A, Morgan and Livni said they would trim the more niche callbacks for festival submissions. However, in its formation, Looking for Laurie was very consciously a project catering towards an audience of friends, so these details are embedded and valuable even without elaborated context.
Quite possibly my favourite scene was Yotam confusedly walking through winding corridors–reminiscent of Severance (2022)–in the Wickham theatre, accompanied by an intense and stunningly well-written monologue by Laurie in the background. One particular line stood out to me: ‘Do you think I am lost? No I’m not lost I was once and guess what, that was inside your hallways’. Learning later that this scene was supposed to represent his own time feeling lost within theatre before transitioning to more film-based mediums made the scene all the more striking and personal to me.
Laurie’s whereabouts remain unknown until one of the last scenes of the film–in a neo-noir style, he appears almost in a different time and space from the rest of the scenes. Yotam stumbles into this scene briefly, however, the possibility of ‘finding Laurie’ feels like it will continue as a cycle of nothingness and everything at once.
With two monologues back to back, they feel cohesive. Actress Emi Allinson delivers a slightly confused anecdote to Laurie about remembering and time passing: to ‘not forget when it’s all over’, but having ‘too much to remember’. It feels cathartic and acts as the acceptance of a bittersweet end, but I guess you could say ‘that’s the way it crumbles, cookiewise’ (From The Apartment (1960)). The film concludes in the same vein: Yotam is not successful in his search, but simply changes his objective after running into his flatmate George Balint. David Bowie speaks up again (not literally) as the camera (or drone) pans into the sky.
The cinema broke out into applause. After a five-minute toilet break came the Q&A, hosted by collaborative director and Royal Television Society winner Jacob Joseph Held. For a 42-minute film (technically a feature–a point of contention during editing), the pacing never dragged. But if I’m being nitpicky, the title and credit fonts are not my favourite. But I’m biased due to my own involvement in the film's finer creative decisions (I made the poster, it's really good–personal opinion). That involvement may colour my enjoyment, but it doesn't stop me from being critical, and I think most of the collaborators would agree.
While a massive achievement for Laurie and Yotam, once the credits rolled you could place the faces of the people mentioned also within the same room, celebrating the time and effort they'd all contributed towards this eleven-week project. The details are meticulous, and the film cannot possibly capture everything that went on behind the scenes. Whether they decide to take it further, Looking for Laurie represents a passion project of filmmaking for everyone involved, which is far more important than any festival run.
Beth Nugent
Featured Image: Epigram / Tylah Hendrickson
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