Chattanooga Film Festival 2025 Coverage
Noclip 2: Return to Lunchland review
Once more into the breach, dear friends.
Festival movie reviews will not contain spoilers.
Noclip 2: Return to Lunchland
Directed by Gavin Charles and Alex Conn
Written by Gavin Charles and Alex Conn
Starring Alex Conn and Gavin Charles
Noclip 2: Return to Lunchland Review
I don’t know if Noclip 2 is the most or least surprising sequel ever made. On one hand, didn’t we say all there was(n’t) to say in Noclip? On the other hand, it’s two guys walking around empty hallways for an hour. I’m almost surprised that there aren’t thirty of them. Perhaps, one day, there will be. The appeal to people who find videos of people walking through empty malls is still on full display here. Comparing a film to a YouTube video isn’t the highest praise…but it gives you some idea of what to expect.
It’s only been about a year since I reviewed Noclip. In that review I referred to it as more of an experiment than a film. Noclip 2: Return to Lunchland (which we will simply refer to as Noclip 2 going forward to preserve my sanity) is the same experiment. Two friends search out liminal spaces and end up in some slightly trippy places. I didn’t understand its purpose then…and I don’t understand its purpose now. But I will happily argue in favor of its existence once again.
Of course, reviewing a movie like Noclip 2 is slightly more difficult than reviewing a standard narrative feature. When I say that it’s an hour (and change) spent watching two people walk around empty hallways…that’s (pretty much) exactly what it is. Nothing is going to pop out of the darkness. There’s no ultimate destination…at least not one we’re meant to understand. There is, however, something a bit more poignant and, frankly, sad about some of the places Noclip 2 journeys to.
In my review of the original film, I talked about how a mall setting is the appropriate place for a movie about empty and abandoned spaces. Noclip 2 returns to the concept…but expands it to include more than the seemingly disconnected hallways behind the once bustling complexes. Now the stores are just as empty. The movie theater sits dormant, silent, and still. The liminal spaces are expanding. Out of the creepy corners and into what the world we’ve left behind.
The result of the expanded locales should be obvious. While a strange corridor with little purpose may be interesting…movie theaters and stores hold a more personal and emotional connection. These are places we used to go…used to love. Places we practically lived some days. How these places physically connect now that the world has left them behind is where Noclip 2 comes in.
Wandering around these spots, the two stoners (Alex Conn and Gavin Charles) find it difficult to follow. We’re still getting lost in the mall…just not in the same ways we did before the internet made shopping something you didn’t need to get up for. Don’t go into Noclip 2 expecting large character arcs…or much development for these returning characters. It’s still an experiment. The laws of narrative film need not apply.
Noclip 2 expands the boundaries of these liminal spaces. The routes are more interesting…including what appears to be a cave system. The same trippy camera tricks used in the first film return here…though not often enough to be distracting. Things that shouldn’t be connected are…like the friends are trapped in a magical maze. Whether they ever make it out is as close as Noclip 2 has to a narrative direction. Maybe they do…maybe they’re trapped forever. Maybe we’ll abandon more places and it’s coming for us all. Whatever the reading…I’m pot committed at this point. Bring on a trilogy.
Scare Value
If you enjoyed Noclip, I can’t imagine a reason you wouldn’t enjoy Noclip2: Return to Lunchland. That may sound like a backhanded compliment. Perhaps it is one. I was at a loss last year when I watched the first version of this experiment. Noclip2 doesn’t make a new or more persuasive argument for itself. But I can also say, without hesitation, that I’d happily watch a third experiment in what would be the most unlikely franchise in cinema. Like the characters in Noclip 2, I have no idea if I understand what the point is. But I’ll keep wandering the empty halls looking for it with them.
