War Pony

 

War Pony

Directors – Gina Gammell, Riley Keough

Writers – Franklin Sioux Bob, Bill Reddy, Gina Gammell

2022, USA-UK

Stars - JoJo Bapteise Whiting, LaDainian Crazy Thunder, Iona Red Bear, Ta-Yamni Long Black Cat, Wilma Colhof

 

IMDB: “The interlocking stories of two young Oglala Lakota men growing up on the Pine Ridge Reservation.”

 

Initially, Bill’s Bill (JoJo Bapteise Whiting) introduction as a barely responsible young swaggerer of two girlfiends and children and the loose-limbed feel has a hint of Larry Clark, or Harmony Korine without the carnivaleque. But Whiting’s performance soon becomes more relatable and complex, and despite his waywardness, it always has the essence of someone’s goodness trying to get out but thwarted by poverty and immaturity. Meanwhile, Matho (LaDainian Crazy Thunder) is a somewhat quiet kid that just can’t seem to help getting into deeper trouble, cycling around the reserve with his pals like a drug-dealing variation on ‘Stranger Things’, although the feel is more loose-limbed like ‘We Are the Animals’. Or Waititi’s ‘Boy’, although this is even more obviously and deliberately downbeat.

 

Bill’s buying a poodle, hoping to breed, is not only a way for him to make money, but it feels like a subtle manifestation of his aspiration to care for something, even if he is a neglectful/clueless young father. Natho gets more resentful and angrier and neglected and isolated the more he tries to tough it all out. The film’s central sadness is watching him sink further into himself with bitterness. And there will be casualties, but not necessarily as you predict.

 

It’s this Native American specificity that gives ‘War Pony’ it’s polemic, social conscience and relevance (and it’s this that gives an otherwise mostly conventional low-budget sci-fi ‘Slash/Back’ added charm and poignancy). Screenwriter Sioux Bob is quoted by Nicolas Repold as saying at the Cannes festival: “In a lot of Native films, it’s either the poverty porn or it’s about onetopic. It’s about one dilemma, it’s not about everything, and that’s what thisfilm gives you: everything.” So domestic abuse will cut to the next moment: instead of dwelling, it quickly moves to how the circumstances, needs and opportunities have changed. And it’s this agenda that means the ending might seem underwhelming to some, that it might not satisfy, but that strikes as the point: you have an act of revenge, but you still wake up to the same shit’n’struggle every day.

 

Just as the story avoids being simply a downer, David Gallego’s cinematography stops short of being de-saturated by despair. And similarly, the characters we meet are given to hustle rather than melancholy. They’re not broken: they’re survivors. Perhaps poverty looks the same given any specificity, but film is a most potent platform/weapon for giving voice to the disenfranchised. ‘War Pony’ is one of those films that makes the ache of life within you rise to the surface.

 

 

Influencer

Influencer

Director – Kurtis David Harder

Writers – Tesh Guttikonda, Kurtis David Harder

2022, USA

Stars - Emily Tennant, Rory J Saper, Cassandra Naud

 

Harder’s credits show a reliable name in smart, low-key thrillers whether as a producer, writer or director, and ‘Influencer’ continues this brand. Although starting by promising to focus on one of those contemporary and grating social media “stars”, it quickly evolves into something that maybe looks like a serial killer scenario and then evolves into something different.

 

It starts with the kind of opening that typifies many annoying self-assertive dramas of the social media age: pop culture editing and condescending voiceover of cod-poignant platitudes about, y’know, life. But rather, having given influencers as designated worthy targets, Emily Tennant soon colours in a more melancholy, thoughtful performance for Madison as an influencer hanging around in Thailand for her somewhat gaslighting boyfriend. And no one is thoroughly stupid here: we’re not talking about the kind of characters skewered in ‘Bodies Bodies Bodies’. You can sense the Red Flags going off in their heads, even if they don’t immediately take heed and you can see CW half-duping them. It’s this insistence on treating their personalities as having depth instead of just as horror airheads, however archetypally they are presented, that sets ‘Influencer’ above average. This layering of characters even acts as a subtle but strong rebuke against CW’s sociopathic and psychopathic war against the vacuity of social media culture. She insists that no one will care when you’re gone from a social media existence, but she has to spend a lot of time covering her tracks in the real world, faking her victim’s personality and keeping the illusion going. And with her obsession clouding her vision, patting herself on the back, she underestimates how reality always comes calling.  Even a dodgy boyfriend will put himself out to genuinely care about a lost girlfriend. 

CW’s motivation is never clearly stated (some may see that as a weakness; I say we don’t always need a backstory), but even if we assume it’s the same as ‘Sleep Tight’ (just sociopathy, nihilism, jealousy of well-adjusted others) or simply her venting of a general resentment at influencer culture, Cassandra Naud’s facial birth mark plays into that horror trope of the antagonist being outside of the normative, and therefore homicidally resentful of it; and that’s the impetus. Superficially, we may assume the face mark makes her aggrieved of the Beauty and Best Life manufactured by influencers, but the film never makes play with this, the characters never mention it and the nuance of Naud’s performance gestures to something more and unknowable. If we can easily put 'Sissy's troubles down to conforming to mainstream looks, it is murkier here. And Naud is beautiful.

 

But mostly, it’s a fun, slick thriller that doesn’t let up, runs on some excellent performances and character shading, throwing in some twists, and all set in gorgeous Thailand locations. And it’s true that this is just another example of low-level horror tiring of just shallow-stupid characters and providing great female performances.

Fresh

Fresh

Director – Mini Cave

Writers – Lauryn Kahn

2022, USA-UK

Stars –     Daisy Edgar-Jones, Sebastian Stan, Jojo T. Gibbs

 

It’s probably what you thought ‘A Wounded Fawn’ was going to be, and it even goes psychedelic for a moment with the (late) credits going all Joe Meek. Although there are not so many surprises, the true gold is to be found in the performances, the chemistry between Daisy Edgar-Jones (Noa) and Sebastian Stan (Steve). Stan is all quiet charm and confidence and it’s easy to see why Noa would fall for Steve. But it’s even with Jones and Jojo T. Gibbs, conveying a full friendship without much screen time together, or the interaction between Gibbs and an ex (Dayo Okeniyi).

 

‘Fresh’ goes for a dungeon chic aesthetic with an exceptional production design by Jennifer Mordenfor the house created for the film. Otherwise. Cave offers up a long set-up to make you care, an excellent soundtrack that goes from indie pop to hip hop via an ‘80s classic, a nasty showdown and some flashes of degenerate “customers” in kind of Alejandro Jodorowsky tableaus. That last is a little obvious, a little shoe-horned, perhaps, but it doesn’t dwell and it’s not aiming for torture porn veracity. But its feminist credibility is more organic, stated in a couple of key lines (“It’s always their fault” and “Women like you are the problem”) and the fact that the women pull together for quite that kitchen battle. No one is stupid (you can’t even blame the guy who assesses the situation and decides he won’t actually hang around to play saviour) and the maturity of the characters is where ‘Fresh’ really excels. 

 

 

It is slick, just a little sick and a little standard, and, having allowed itself a slow burn to the credits, never loses it pace or is diverted by abuse when it kicks in (another benefit of having women at the helm where it’s the betrayal that hurts?).  Despite its truly nasty premise, with the perpetrator’s barely acknowledging the brutal misogyny, ‘Fresh’ has one of the most charming villains and a fun realisation. And again, another horror film that provides excellent female performances.