An Accusation Has a Mother Question Her Son

Paul Mescal and Emily Watson in
"God's Creatures"
Photo Credit: Imdb.com

The opening shots of directors’ Saela Davis and Anna Rose Holmer’s psychological drama, “God’s Creatures,” shows an Irish fishing village at the cusp of dusk.  We hear the oceanic waves and the wind as the town gets ready to begin a new day.  However, as the sun comes up and we’re introduced further into the community, we’ll see a village that’s about to be broken.

The story follows Aileen O’Hara (Emily Watson), whose son, Brian (Paul Mescal), returns from Australia.  For a while, she’s overjoyed.  Later on, when he has an allegation of assault placed against him by a local girl, Sarah Murphy (Aisling Franciosi), Aileen covers for him, thinking she knows her son and that he didn’t commit the crime.  But, as time goes, she’ll begin to think she’s made a mistake.

Watson delivers a quiet, yet searing performance as a mother who wants to believe her son is good, but must face the overwhelming evidence that continues to stack up against him.  She shows the grief of someone who begins to think that the son who went away isn’t the son who has come back.  Although you don’t see the inciting incident, the movie makes it obvious that Brian is guilty early on, so this movie isn’t all about Aileen trying to defend her son, but defending him for a short while until she begins to face the fact that there’s a much darker and dangerous side to him.  Watson’s able to convey plenty of emotion in the scenes where she doesn’t have any dialogue as much as she does in the scenes where she speaks, showing an ability to display her character’s tortured self in different ways as she goes from experiencing a happy return of her son to having it turn into an unbearable realization of the kind of person he really is.

Pascal is very unsettling as a character who doesn’t feel remorse for what he’s done, but goes about his life as if nothing’s happened.  He gives his character a calmness throughout the film, seeming like Brian is confident in being able to get away with what he’s done, offering another layer of danger to his character as we worry if he’ll commit a similar offense as he did against Sarah.

Franciosi provides a heartbreaking performance as a young woman who experiences betrayal from Aileen, a coworker and friend of hers who’s hesitant to believe Sarah’s side of the story.  She displays the psychological toll over what has happened to her, yet still exhibits little by little that she intends to stand up for herself, no matter who might see her as a liar.

Toni O’Rourke, who plays Aileen’s daughter, Erin, makes the most out of her scenes as her character starts to question her mother’s ethics and distance herself from her.  She becomes part of the losses that Aileen experiences as her decision to cover for Brian starts to backfire, and just like Aileen begins to wonder if she knows her son, Erin shows the pain of feeling like she doesn’t know her mother.

The screenplay by Shane Crowley makes it known early on that Brian is guilty, so the tense nature of the film doesn’t come from us trying to find out if he’s innocent or guilty, but knowing that he’s guilty and wondering when and how Aileen is going to face this harsh reality.  This presents one of several angles of the story exploring the theme of self-preservation as the characters try to survive in their own way; and, in Aileen’s case, it’s her wanting to believe that her son is the harmless person that she once believed he was.

The accusation doesn’t happen until about a third of the way through the film.  Before then, we’re providing with the opportunity to get to know the characters, their day-to-day lives, and the setting, so that by the time this turning point occurs, we’re invested in everything that the narrative has presented to us and understand the greater sense of the weight that’s being pressed upon this community.

The cinematography by Chayse Irvin creates several long takes as we watch characters interact, absorbing you in everything that they say and giving you a view into how members of this community talk with each other.  However, some of the most-effective long takes are the ones where there isn’t any dialogue, where we instead watch a character’s emotions play out in their facial expressions, such as a scene where Aileen paces around her kitchen in a state of confusion and nervousness as she tries to understand what’s happening in her life.

Davis and Holmer do accomplished work when inviting us into Aileen’s village and maintain the disquieting atmosphere.  With ominous music from Danny Bensi and Saunder Jurriaans, terrific sound design, tight closeups, and some confined settings, Davis and Holmer give us heavy doses of unease as we’re taken through an unfamiliar community and come to know its inhabitants.  Through the way that they present everyone and everything within the village, we feel as though we come out with a better understanding of what this community holds within its borders.

A parent will do anything for their children, but with “God’s Creatures,” you’ll that this instinct may only go so far.

Grade: A

An Interview with Michael Roemer, Director of "The Plot Against Harry"

"The Plot Against Harry"
Photo Credit: BurnsFilmCenter.org

With the Jewish Film Festival about to take place at the Jacob Burns Film Center in Pleasantville, New York, from October 6-20, I was given the opportunity to interview Michael Roemer, the writer-director of the 1971 film, "The Plot Against Harry," which will screen at the festival.  Click here to read the interview!

Wanting Fame, a Farm Girl Has Disturbing Dreams of Stardom

Mia Goth in "Pearl"
Photo Credit: Imdb.com

Back in March, writer-director Ti West gave audiences the throwback slasher, “X,” a fun and tense movie that followed a film crew that puts up shop on a Texas farm for the setting of their adult film, only to then be terrorized by the farm’s owners.  Not only is it the best horror movie of the year right now, but also one of the best films of the year.  After the credits, there was a final surprise: a teaser announcement for the already-filmed prequel, “Pearl,” which sets out to tell the story of one of the killers from the previous film.  What West gives us is a movie that’s as character-driven as it is nail-biting and lives up to what came before.

Pearl (Mia Goth) is a farm girl in Texas who dreams of becoming a star.  However, she’s told by her mother (Tandi Wright) that she has to stay with her to help take care her sick father (Matthew Sunderland).  As Pearl becomes more and more impatient to leave her old life behind for something greater, she’ll do whatever she can to get what she wants.

With Goth having portrayed two characters in “X,” that of the young aspiring actress Maxine Minx and the much older farm owner Pearl, she displayed a terrific range of what she can do with her talents.  She now gets to go even further with the character of Pearl, bringing out the same aspirations for fame that we saw in Maxine and combining them with the hidden rage that we saw in the older Pearl, and then heightening both of them to develop an intense, volatile character whose psyche begins to crack into irreparable damage.  Between “X” and “Pearl,” we see both of these characters’ needs to get away from their lives and search for something more.  However, that ambition is where their comparisons end because this is a performance where, after we see Goth present a seemingly innocent, daydreaming young woman who desires to be discovered, she quickly turns Pearl into someone much, much darker as she realizes she has to do some terrible things in order to get what she wants.  And, to see Goth portray Pearl’s unraveling keeps you on edge as you watch how far her character’s willing to go to see her dreams fulfilled.

Goth’s work in this film reaches a disturbing and poignant highlight near the film’s end where Pearl opens up about the darkness in her mind.  This is done in a mesmerizing monologue that’s done in one long take with a closeup of Pearl, the only time her character will get the dramatic Hollywood closeup that she craves.  It’s a scene that lasts for several minutes that will have your eyes imprisoned to the screen.  If you thought Goth was good in “X,” she finds a whole new depth when portraying a younger Pearl.  With Goth having portrayed the older Pearl in “X,” this allows her to really show her understanding of the character, having displayed Pearl as both a young woman and an older woman and experiencing this character from two time periods.  She takes the sadness of the older Pearl and gives it rich, painful context in her latest performance.

There’s also a great scene about halfway through the film that’s shared by Goth and Wright, where the two characters come to a head about what they’ve had to sacrifice to ensure their survival on the farm.  You see a battle between someone who’s given up her dreams, and someone who refuses to do so.  With a storm pounding outside their home as they have this emotional argument, the way in which they dial up their anger little by little makes for a tense scene that’s one of the film’s most memorable.

The screenplay by West and Goth gives audiences a deeper look into Pearl’s character, expanding on the surprising depth that was given to her in “X.”  In between the tense moments of gruesomeness, West and Goth provide us with extended sequences that are all about the characters and how they interact under what they want out of life and the strains of their hardships.  With the pacing of the narrative, there’s considerable buildup to each moment of violence, so by the time they happen, we’re invested in all of the characters who are involved with these scenes.  This is an origin story done right, not one done to squeeze extra money from the people who saw the earlier installment, but rather a film that has a story to tell that adds to what we’ve seen.

While “X” was written like an old-school slasher, “Pearl” has the vibe of a classic Hollywood production, but maintains the slasher angle.  The film plays out like a demented version of “The Wizard of Oz,” but is still able to tell its own story that has you see the world through Pearl’s eyes.  The homage that’s used in this film allows for West and Goth to get creative with how they utilize the old-Hollywood sensibilities, adding another layer with which to engage the audience and have them spot the screenwriters’ influences.

To further the look of a Hollywood Golden Age film, West re-teams with cinematographer Eliot Rockett, who provided the camerawork for “X” and three other films from West.  For “Pearl,” the look of the film has more of an old-Hollywood, technicolor vibe, like the aforementioned “Wizard of Oz.”  Many of the colors pop off of the screen, a departure from the equally effective grimy slasher look of “X.” 

As a director, West is a filmmaker who knows how to make us recoil in our seats as we wait to see what kind of terror he has in store.  But, his biggest accomplishment of this film is how well he’s able to make the character moments stick with us, often creating as much tension with those as he does with the horror-centric ones.  With these character-driven scenes, such as the turning-point dinner-table discussion between Pearl and her mother, or the scene where Pearl waits to go on stage for an audition, West makes full use of their length and utilizes his directorial prowess to deliver as much apprehension as possible with pretty simple technical approaches.

West is set to continue his series with the recently green-lit, “MaXXXine,” which will be a sequel to “X” and will follow Goth’s character from that film as she tries to establish a career in Hollywood.  If this third installment continues the upward trajectory that has been established by “X” and “Pearl,” we could have another classic horror series on our hands.

Grade: A

A House with Dark Corners and Darker Secrets

Georgina Campbell in "Barbarian"
Photo Credit: RottenTomatoes.com

With several modern horror movies, we’ve been given films with deceptively simple premises like “It Follows,” “It Comes at Night,” and most recently “X,” but offer much more to their stories than we anticipated.

The latest horror film to pull this off is writer-director Zach Cregger’s “Barbarian,” a tense terror that begs you to go into it knowing as little as possible.

Tess Marshall (Georgina Campbell) travels to Detroit suburb for a job interview.  When she arrives at the home she’s renting and finds out that it’s been booked by a young man named Keith Toshko (Bill Skargård), the two decide to share it.  Not long afterwards, they find out that the house holds a disturbing secret.

While I don’t want to delve too deep into Campbell and Skargård’s performances for fear of going into spoiler territory, I’ll say that they share a great chemistry as their characters get to know each other.  They exhibit the apprehension of whether or not to trust each other at first, but then begin to warm up to one other as the tension of their situation eases, at least for a little bit. 

Although Cregger’s screenplay has a couple of contrivances that are present for the sake of moving the story forward, what makes up for this is the sheer all-bets-are-off unpredictability of the narrative.  In all seriousness, go into this movie knowing nothing more than the basic premise because, beyond that, you’ll be seated on a scary thrill ride that’ll leave you guessing at every wild turn.  In the middle of this, Cregger’s able to weave in some thematic depth to add to the persistent chills without it becoming heavy-handed.  To say anything else about the story would give too much away, but trust me, it’s not short on surprises.

This is Cregger’s first solo directorial effort, with his first two movies, “Miss March” and “The Civil War on Drugs,” being co-directed with Trevor Moore.  As a filmmaker on his own, it’s clear that Cregger has quite a bit of potential to display.  Right from the beginning of the film, Cregger’s able establish a disquieting setting as we have the initial awkward meeting between Tess and Keith, as well as the assimilation into the area that’s unfamiliar to them.  And, between the scares and the occasional humor, Cregger’s able to balance the two while maintaining the tension throughout as the movie becomes more and more surprising.  When it comes to framing the house’s interior, the cinematography by Zach Kuperstein captures the halls, corners, and deeper parts of the house in unsettling ways, adding to the tension of the unpredictable scenario as you keep wondering if someone or something is waiting near by.

With “Barbarian,” Cregger has shown himself to be a talented director hiding in our midst, and you shouldn’t wait any longer to see what he has hiding from you in this film.

Grade: A-