FILM NOTES FOR 2022: coming-of-age, animations and out there offerings

Eh, delayed with my notes on 2022 screen offerings because I was dealing with a second bout of COVID. But rest assured I used the time well to do nothing but binge watch. There's nothing like being forced and not wanting to do anything but watch fun stuff. 

Anyway...

C o m i n g  o f  A g e

Coming-of-age dramas offered the usual wealth of insights, magic realism and horror.

 

Elie Grappe’s ‘Olga’ – focused on the adolescent angst of the eponymous Ukranian youth (Anastasiia Budiashkina) trying to assimilate and succeed when she attends a Swiss National Sports Centre – attained extra contemporary poignancy with Russia’s aggression against the Ukraine.  This tale, told in solid unfussy aesthetic, attained equal personal and sociological depth with its tale of a young girl finding herself somewhat marooned, hounded by politics back home (in this case, the Euromaiden revolt) and finding her own way, her independence. Arguably, the feats of gymnastics and athleticism are a little compromised by being shot a little too close up and broken up with multiple edits (like most action sequences, mid-shot longer-takes seem best to me for really showing what the artist is doing). But this is a coming-of-drama that runs on understatement and low-wattage and is all more affecting and sharper for that.

 

Carlota Pereda’s ‘Piggy’ similarly pursued its young, bullied protagonist’s search for agency and dignity against a horror background. The blood-drenched poster, although true to the film, perhaps implies a straightforward revenge-of-the-bullied flick, and although it's that too, 'Piggy' comes more from the long heritage of touching, rambling and empathic bildungsroman. Laura Galán’s performance is compelling, bold and unforgettable as our bullied and put-upon heroine finds her Id unleashed in the form of a serial killer that takes a shine to her. There's then her moral dilemma of if she allows vengeance by proxy, thereby investigating the very revenge sub-genre we are in. If it ultimately doesn't challenge too much, it's a strong, self-aware drama whose move into genre shocks aren't necessarily celebratory. But even if it was waste-deep in genre, it was more interested in a Sara’s (an unforgettable Laura Galán) moral conflict, making this more insightful than just another revenge flick. The final showdown had a weight of themes and dilemma not usually found in such denouements, remaining true to all that had gone before by being primarily about Sara’s conscience and choices.

 

Hanna Bergholm’s ‘Hatching’ was a critical favourite which was like a mash-up of ‘Olga’ and ‘Piggy’: harassed sports girl manifesting her issues through the horror genre. If its themes were all on the surface, it had a neat monster, tended towards an arthouse feel and wasn’t afraid to go the distance. Following many contemporary horrors where the analogies, metaphors and symbolism are all on the surface (‘The Babadook’ and ‘Men’ come to mind, even ‘Slapface’) this is the tale of a mother fermenting something monstrous due to the relentless ambitions she has for her daughter. This is very much a matriarchy, a passive-aggressive power with the father-figure worn down and cuckolded. The tantrums of the younger son notwithstanding, this isn’t really a household allowing insurrection, and it’s the twinges of disillusion and rebellion that causes the supernatural upheaval.

 

It is very ikky, well performed and rendered in glossy magazine clarity, a little on the nose and a little Grimm’s fairy tale. But if there isn’t so much subtext, the film follows through on its metaphor in a manner that reflects and elucidates on the characters. The practical effects are a bonus: the monster is unsettling and unforgettable*. There is something equally stylish and visceral offered by ‘Hatching’, a creature-feature with arthouse executon and intention, that makes this a highly enjoyable and an often discomforting horror coming-of-age, even if only for Sophia Heikkilä’s smile.

 

I had the bonus of not knowing ‘Hatching’ would be a creature feature, having just picked up the positive reputation without knowing so much. So when the egg cracked and it the creature appeared, I chuckled to myself with delight.

 

If ‘Piggy’ and ‘Hatching’ were embroiled in the negative pressures of mother-daughter relationships, Cécile Ducrocq’s ‘Her Way’ (‘Une femme du monde’) was another female-helmed delve into parenting, this time what a mother will do for her son, despite the challenge of being a sex worker. Making no judgements, however wrongheaded Marie (a formidable Laure Calamy) could be, it was empathetic to all concerned and reached respectful conclusions. We all have to find our own way. 

Céline Sciamma proved again with ‘Petite Maman’ that she has remarkable affinity capturing childhood. With a bit of magic realism, this paean to mother-daughter bond had fairy tale allusions whilst still having a grounded, realist vibe, creating an overall respect for the intelligence and imagination of children. Celine Sciamma sees cinema as consolatory, and ‘Petite Maman’ certainly works directly from that foundation. A little childhood fantasy opens up all kinds of ruminations about generational, parental and peer relationships, if not about childhood fantasy itself. And being Sciamma, it’s all done without any feeling of excess, sentimentality or manipulation. Except we’ll allow the one moment where exuberant music makes a simple moment transcendent.

 

Laura Wandal’s ‘Playground’, however, was gruelling and upsetting to an extent that no horror or magic realism could reach. Its realistic portrayal of the matter-of-fact confusion, psychological and physical bullying of school life achieved an honesty about the bewilderment and the micro- and macro-cruelties that young children have to suffer and survive every day. A stark, truthful portrayal of the baffling drama and grinder of childhood confusions and bullying. The camera stays close to the faces of our young protagonists so there’s no doubt or reprieve from empathising with them or the bewilderment and suffering conveyed in Maya Vanderbeque and Gunter Duret’s expressions. Somewhat heart-breaking.And its message that love and bonds are all we are left with convinced and hit harder than a hundred other films.

 

Eskel Vogt’s ‘The Innocents’ did this with a horror-and-shock twist on the super-power genre. A handful of preteens discover they have powers but are too young and immature to fully control their feelings. As if Céline Sciamma filmed ‘Chronicle’, ‘The Innocents’ uses its kitchen sink realism on a Danish estate to underplay the increasingly devasting tale of bunch of young preteens discovering powers, to leave audiences underpredicting the shocks forthcoming. And, of course, the adults and outside world hardly know. Immaculately told and sporting stunning young naturalistic performances, chilling and compelling.

 

But if you were after the warmth of childhood memories, there was Richard Linklater’s ‘Apollo 101/2: A Space Age childhood’. The wonderful rotoscoping only accentuates the picturebook nostaligia of a Summer of ’69 childhood, defined by the NASA town mileau and moonage daydreams. A little drifting, but it’s a pleasant, good-looking mood-piece underlined by gentle casual humour (“Mad” magazine in space) and Milo Coy’s insouciant performance.

 

 

A N I MA T I O N S

 

And to other animations:

 

Phil Tippett’s ‘Mad God’ was a small stop-motion wonder. The most likely general introduction to his work is the Millenium Falcon alien “chess” game in ‘Star Wars’. This was more like the semi-abstract stories of the Quay brothers, hooked on the macabre and stream-of-consciousness madness. It’s an experience rather than a story: an assassin goes into the underworld… and then Alex Cox turns up. There is the theme of the relentless punishment and ruthlessness of industrialised work-life, but mostly it works on nightmare logic. Perhaps lacking a magic narrative ingredient, but just sit back and marvel at the animation and miniatures, the design, the cruelty and the animated gore.

 

The anthology ‘The House’ also provided something quite different, delving into various genres and moods that ranged from the Gothic to the creepy to an ensemble piece at the end of the world. 

By contrast, ‘The Bob’s Burger Movie’ was just a lot of fun. This was the year that I discovered that ‘Bob’s Burgers’ was my new comfort viewing. If you know the show, this transition to the big screen smoothly provides what you are looking for in a bigger bun: funny, frivolous, smart, daft. Another franchise would have overreached with its caricatures, but 'Bob's Burgers' as a series never quite overreaches, grounded by a sense of something quite humble. Great fun.

And as an example of how glorious daft animation can be, there was ‘Minions: the Rise of Gru’. You already know if this is going to be your thing, but the Minions gag – silly voices; slapstick – is an unpretentious source that keeps on giving. It also helps that the creators don’t coast. Silly and enjoyable, undemanding fun where the gags for the adults (Rolling Stones?) don't sneer down at the slapstick for the kids. (If I was *a lot* younger, lamenting "Kevin, Kevin, Kevin..." would be a hip refrain between me and friends.)

 

O u t  Th e r e

 

But there were a smattering of great films that were willing to go “Out There”, to throw in curveballs and/or the kitchen sink to deliver something entertaining if not new.

 

The true break through was The Little Multiverse Movie That Could, Daniel Scheinert and Daniel Kwan’s ‘Everything Everywhere All At Once’. A multiverse film for those not into superheroes? Perhaps I was expecting something in the style more of channel-hopping, but ‘Everything Everywhere all at Once’ is grounded in domestic drama even as it embraces the mayhem of the alternative dimensions. It’s fast, furious and consistently amusing, stuffed with inventive asides, googly-eyes and film homages – not only ‘2001’, ‘Ratatouille’ and martial arts  Mexican wrestling films but one alternative world is a Wong Kar Wai reality – but then spends the last third belabouring its points about family. It’s this sentimentality that is more tiresome than the multiverse, but there’s a whole lot of fun being had and Jamie Lee Curtis is obviously having one hell of a party.

 

 

Robert Eggers went for broke with ‘The Northman’ 

and Paul Verhoeven proved as much as a prankster and subversive as ever with ‘Benedetta’. Both earnest in its targets and trolling the easily outraged. A full-blooded mash-up of historical drama and nunsploitation... evocatively mounted and as slippery as Verhoeven always is.

 

And then there was Zach Cregger’s ‘Barbarian’. I am so, so grateful and lucky that I got to see it at FrightFest before anyone knew even a smidgen of what it was, so all the twists and ton al changes hit me exactly as they should in a way that isn’t possible now, what with its reputation and all. It’s the kind of film that if you have seen it, you are likely to think that even the promotional pictures hint at too much. As this film is especially best served cold, I will just leave it at: it’s good and brilliantly gamed.

 

Of course, the horror genre is the home of the outrageous, so we also got Travis Stevens’ ‘A Wounded Fawn’. With some formal play, style, psychedelica, and great performances, this pumps colourful juice in the serial killer genre. It’s a kind of abstract revenge and Final Girl flick where the murderer-in-denial is tormented seemingly by a group of performance artists (embodying his obsession with myths). Trippy and artfully done and topped off with an audacious closing credits sequence.

 

And ‘Titane’, in which Julia Ducournau takes the discomfort, body horror, black humour and farce, jaw-dropping boldness, etc., of the "Brazilian" scene in her previous film "Raw" and shows she can make it last a full-length feature. A pure oddity that any Cronenberg fan would take to with its mash-up of sex and technology.

 

And speaking of David Cronenberg: ‘Crimes of theFuture’ found him updating the themes that dominated his early work through his latterday slickness and control. Stuffed full of ideas that you could mull over long after and as prescient as ever. 

 

But although Sam Raimi snuck in some welcome horror touches to ‘Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness’ wasn’t so much. The 'other' multiverse movie of the moment, and this one may have a bigger budget but it’s less surprising and makes less use of the limitless possibilities of its alternative realities. However, there’s plenty of Raimi trying to push it with horror stuff (even down to its conflation between motherhood and monstrousness) when Strange must go up against The Scarlet Witches’ merciless, seemingly undefeatable brooding. This and the cameos keep things diverting and Cumberbach and Olsen know what they’re doing, giving it all a touch of class.

 

And Jaume Collet-Serra’s ‘Black Adam’ was even more ho-hum. Average super-hero stuff with Johnson trying to play a little against type, but we aren't fooled. Overstuffed with backstory and punch-ups and inclined to reduce its muddled  political aspirations more than mouthpieces and simplistic gestures. Aside from Johnson, Hodge and Bronson make meals of scraps as Hawkman and Dr Fate, but everyone else is given little room to breathe, although  Bodhi Sabongui dominates as the over-confident, enthused, cocky-but-charming kid as the audience avatar.

 

Rather, it was up to something like the more modest ‘Werewolf By Night’ special by Michael Giacchino to deliver the comic book fun.

 

And for blockbuster superhero bravura/indulgence, there was ‘The Batman’ from Matt Reeves. There was plenty to admire even at three hours: I, for one never was bored and intrigued/entertained throughout until the third act delivered slightly different ingredient to boost interest again for the showdown. But your mileage may vary, of course.

 

I possibly enjoyed Jordan Peele’s ‘Nope’ more on a superficial than those looking obsessively for meanings and symbolism – which they found – but I conceded that I may thinks it gels better on a second watch. 

 

Alex Garland’s ‘Men’ provided me with lots of fun debates with a pal that didn’t like at all and another that thought it was too on-the-nose. Yes, but in a way that makes me laugh with glee when horror sheds all the allusions and gets on with the gratuitous. It’s the same response when the shell cracked and I realised what ‘Hatching’ was going to be.   

 

‘Deadstream’ by Joseph and Vanessa Winter was a title and premise that I wasn’t intrigued by, but within minutes, the FrightFest audience were laughing themselves giddy.  Me too, and I think this might be the film this year where I let all thoughts go and just enjoyed myself a riot.

 

Showcasing Joseph Winter’s brilliant comic performance, this is both hilarious and scary. The relatively new internet culture genre is truly finding its footing, and perhaps reaping more multi-layered rewards than just straight Found Footage, including the social media influencer culture. Certainly, our funny internet-celebrity protagonist has to face manifestations of his own fame-hungry demons.

 

Peppered with many great one-liners that keep on coming, and details that reap narrative rewards later, belying its seemingly superficial veneer. Things set up early on – and as we know we’re in a horror film, amuse us – still manage to reap rewards and laughs when coming to fruition. Especially with a second watch, the deftness and smart plotting becomes apparent. But, again, considering how daft this is, there is just something inherently creepy and unnerving about empty buildings like this. I admit also to being on edge several  times. And yes I was happily suckered and jumped.

... more to come....