Lola is a 2022 time-travelling sci-fi war movie and the feature-length debut of writer/ director Andrew Legge (The Chronoscope, The Unusual Inventions of Henry Cavendish and The Girl with the Mechanical Maiden). It stars Emma Appleton (The Witcher, The Last Letter from Your Lover and The End of the Fucking World), Stephanie Martini (Crooked House, Prime Suspect: Tennison and The Last Kingdom), and Rory Fleck Byrne (Vampire Academy, The Foreigner and Falling Into Place).

Lola is a very interesting entry in the found footage genre of cinema, and much like films such as Cloverfield, The Blair Witch Project, The Last Broadcast and Rec it has managed to find its own niche within the cinematic universe. Orphans and sisters Martha/ Mars (Martini) and Thomasina/ Thom Hanbury (Appleton) have grown up living in isolation in the  English countryside after the deaths of their parents. Thomasina is a brilliant inventor who has fabricated a machine, known as Lola. Lola, is able to decode future radio and TV broadcasts and while the sisters use her mainly to listen to future music Once World War II breaks out the girls begin listening to future news broadcasts and broadcasting warnings about future air attacks under the moniker of the Angel of Portobello. Lt Sebastian Holloway (Byrne) is tasked with tracking down the Angel, and after discovering Martha with a radio receiver in the basket of her bike, he follows her home and learns the truth of Thomasina’s remarkable invention. After reporting back to his superior, Major Henry Cobcroft (Aaron Monaghan, The Banshees of Inisherin, Assassin’s Creed and ’71), he persuades him to allow Thom and Mars to access military radio frequencies, under the proviso that Holloway remains at the house to authenticate their work and relay details of future German attacks to Cobcroft. However, when things go awry and the messages Thom has overheard turn out to provide false information about German attacks, the whole future of the UK as we know it comes under threat.

Lola is a fascinating look at how foresight can have a negative effect on future events. Thom’s incredible scientific advancements which were intended to give the UK military the upper hand turn out to be quite the opposite, leading to the downfall of the UK's defences and the subsequent invasion of the Nazis.  Lola belies its low budgetary constraints with solid performances from the cast, and through its unique and ingenious take on science fiction cinema. The pop culture references are creatively used, especially the stuff involving David Bowie and his fictional far-right equivalent, Reginald Watson who inhabits the alternative reality that Thom has brought about through the broadcasts she has listened into via Lola.

Overall, this is a wonderfully intelligent movie that really doesn’t appear to have received the attention it deserves. Andrew Legge and his co-writer, Angeli Macfarlane (Death of A President, I Am Slave and Flight of the Innocent) have created a fascinating Fukuyama-esque post-modernist counter-history of World War II and beyond. The film is shot in black and white, which seems most appropriate and due to its nature as a found footage movie it seems at times overexposed and grainy, however, this is an aesthetic choice.

The disc from Severin features two of Andrew Legge’s previous short films, The Girl with the Mechanical Maiden and The Unusual Inventions of Henry Cavendish, both of which are enjoyable and worth your time, providing some context for Legge’s background. On top of these, we get an audio commentary from Legge and producer, Alan Maher, a making-of documentary as well as outtakes and trailers.