mosheq

This was a delightful film for all its sensitivity, nuance of story development, and how it respects the awareness and intelligence of its audience. Its craft in storytelling starts strong at the get-go with an in medias res delivery. We enter the story in the middle of some specific scenario between three main characters with history between them. Through somewhat exquisite gradations delivered in a plain and straightforward manner, the film reveals increments of who they are with respect to each other, the nature of their inter-connected backgrounds, and what shades of affinity or tension have existed and continue between them. The essential conflicts and struggles are clear, crisp and relatable, made artfully pleasurable by strong and believable performances across the board, including all the minor characters. Sophia Lillis is the emotional anchor of the film, delivering a layered and wholly winsome performance as the sister who needs and fails to get so much.

What a beautiful little film. There is as much silliness here (think fierce teen in hand-to-hand combat with a poshly fashionable matron) as there is genuinely moving storytelling (think teenager anxious about her older sister leaving home). The silliness and the serious storytelling get a special boost and mix from the cast, whose commitments to their characters and to the central drama boldly twist contrasting threads: satire, parody, meta-narrative, adventure, teen angst, kung-fu and genuine human sadness. This is especially true of the central performer, Priya Kansara, who carries the movie as supported by a generous cast. Kansara sparkles with fun. Her timing is impeccable. For the savvy, silly ride that is this film, we're willing to suspend all kinds of belief and play along.

There are things to admire in this film. The cast does a great job. In fact the very fine casting work matches a slate of interesting, differentiated characters developed in the script. However, good horror/suspense films establish some ground that gives us a greater understanding of the source of terror. There's a point to the horror. Here, there's no effort to establish anything like this. At best we have a picture of unsettled spirits from beyond wanting to inflict maximum pain and suffering on living people. That's at best. Even this leaves much to be desired. Why are they unsettled? Why are they motivated to torment people? What is the nature of these spirits from beyond, and what do they really want? The filmmakers don't appear interested to offer any point behind their slick production of stomach-churning gruesomeness. That can work for some films, maybe, but other qualities - camp, humor, smart ironies, a sense of adventure and so forth - usually come into play for something elevating and positively entertaining to occur. This film, on the other hand, is half-baked in this respect. And with so much serious gruesomeness it leaves a bad taste in the mouth. But it's worse than that. It plays on themes of suicide, grief, and serious mental illness like schizophrenia. It does so without a sense of responsibility. In a world where terror happens for no reason, serious issues like these are left dangling. The result is like someone poking grotesquely at a wound because nothing else interests them. Unfortunately this film is more diminishing and gross than positively entertaining.