Shorts #101
Shorts Thoughts: Us (2019), I Think We're Alone Now (2018), Dawg Fight (2015), High Life (2018), The Meg (2018)
A longer review is certainly necessary, but Us... hmm... I'm not sure. The score and soundtrack of Us makes the film; in fact, maybe it oversells it. I then found the austere opening making promises (tonally and atmospherically) that weren't really fulfilled.
Not a straight art-house thriller/horror, Us has may genre inflections that make it distinctly--let's say American. The comedy works at times and the horror aesthetics do, too, but characterisation doesn't go too far in my view. Without many stakes, Us is then quite unaffecting. But, worse than this, Us appears slightly pretentious in my view. There is an awful lot that could be postulated and proffered when it comes to subtext, but, whilst I see many ways of reading this film, none of them enhance the filmic experience or resonate with the narrative as whole. More needs to be said, but Us left me dissatisfied.
A rather fascinating film, I Think We're Alone Now is quiet and subtle; it doesn't attempt to do much at all beyond slowly build character and assert something rather simple.
This constructs a post-apocalyptic narrative that is essentially about the failures of Utopianism. Presented here is a question of: What if humanity got to start again in a somewhat grim Garden of Eden? What should become the priority, painting the garden in brighter colours, or planting the seeds for a tree of knowledge of good and evil? These questions are explored with an uncanny feeling of originality that is only somewhat perturbed when sci-fi genre elements become more prominent and drama intensifies. But, beyond these minor limitations, I Think We're Alone Now is a brilliantly angstily contemporary post-apocalyptic film well-worth watching.
Formally speaking, Dawg Fight hasn't got much going for it. However, it successfully tunnels into a world erupting with the bitter and ugly truths reality doesn't care to hide.
All too easily could you suggest that Dawg Fight glorifies and buffs over a world with much texture. There is, however, a genius in the boisterously naive posturing that the camera indulges. Behind the facade of a Rocky-esque narrative is a story of minor success and, above all else, a discovery of how small one's world truly is. One has to be able to see past much of the strutting and talk to realise this, but defeat and shame prowl on the edges of the realism; the world is bigger than we think; we, too, are smaller than we can conceive of; cover your eyes and march forward. $25 to lose a fight in the backyard. 25.
Aesthetically derivative of Tarkovsky - more an achievement than anything else - yet tonally dry, High Life is unfortunately lifeless. Its dull sense of character and story make drudgerous the thematic journey Denis attempts to take us on. That leave this too abstract and seemingly depthless a rumination on death, sex and life.
Not much can be said for the performances and script. Robert Patterson calmly falls into a mould of a silent French character archetype, yet is left half-baked - the script fails him, the camera oversells him. The rest of the cast only provides trouble with their clunkily constructed and delivered dialogue. The only light in this film are the shots of a baby taking her first steps. Not much more is to be found here.
Not as fun as it wants you to believe it will be. Whilst individual characters provide somewhat comical caricatures, too often do they come together to create a mess. Whilst entirely undermined by the absurd melodramatic monster-horror-spectacle, only our male and female leads' bond creates something worth watching
What would have made this work better is, put simply, less smart-assery. Those strains of plots lead by Rainn Wilson's dumb billionaire typify elements of self-consciousness emergent from the too-present sci-fi sides of this story. Why not make the giant shark 100ft bigger? Why not let there be 3 of increasing size? Why can't Statham's final gratuitously stupid kill have been the first? More stupidity required.
