Locarno Review: Better Not Kill The Groove (2024)

Locarno Film Festival
Pardi di Domani – National Competition

Growing up means finding our own place in the world, but when we are young we tend to search for it in the most unlikely places. It seems that Jonathan Legget with his short film Better Not Kill the Groove (premiering in the national section of the Pardi di Domani competition at Locarno) did not only search for himself in filmmaking, but he also did it with – scooters, you know, the children’s toys, not the buzzing motorised ones.

Childish idea, but it might be the reason why the filmmaker uses the narration in the child’s voice, the animation that seems lifted straight from the video games and the aesthetics of TikTok and YouTube videos. Maybe he is filming a commercial for his ride (hence the clips from home videos and personal archives), maybe he does so for his riding. Until he falls and breaks his leg, so he has to face with some existential questions. But, is it him, or is it any given boy?

Better Not Kill the Groove might actually do so with the more impatient bunch amongst the audience, but it certainly is an energetic movie. We can see it in the rapid editing of striking images and loud noises, but there is a method to the madness, as we can observe from using music and photos as a sort of comment. Legget has done the work himself (only the sound mixing is credited to François Wolf), relying just on the material he has found online. Nevertheless, with it, he actually channels the anxiety of growing up in today’s world, getting in touch with his own body, mind and emotions.

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Year: 2024
Runtime: 6’ 32’’
Country: Switzerland
Language: English
Directed by: Jonathan Legget
Written by: Jonathan Legget
Narration by: Jonathan Legget
Editing by: Jonathan Legget
Sound by: Jonathan Legget
Sound Mixing: François Wolf
Produced by: Anita Hugi
Production company: HEAD Genève, Départment Cinéma