Crasse

The young "Maria" (Lily-Beau Leach) lives with her loving mum (Hayley Squires) in an home full to the brim of junk. Some of it just bric-a-brac, some of it more distasteful and unhealthy, but the pair rub along well enough scavenging their way through skips and bins. "Maria" has a tough time at school and doesn't really fit in, so when an accident at home sees her put into foster care, she has quite a bit of adjusting to do under the care of the savvy "Michelle" (Samantha Spiro). Now we scoot forward to her late teens where she (now Saura Lightfoot-Leon) is still living with "Michelle" and seemingly quite a content. One morning it's announced that "Michael" (Joseph Quinn), who was a former charge, is coming to stay for a while whilst his housing is sorted out. He's a decent cove with a girlfriend expecting a baby. Almost immediately he arrives, the two click. Not quite in any conventional sense, but there does seem to be something between them, and understanding. It's this that starts "Maria" thinking of her past, pining for it even - especially when a delivery man presents her with something entirely unexpected in a small package! With the two of them living increasingly closely, how might their relationship develop? Now this isn't for the squeamish. Right from the start we experience the rather sticky downsides of their quite grubby way of life, and as the story moves to it's second phase it becomes a potent, if shallow, character study of two people that just don't conform. The problem for me here is that the drama goes nowhere. It's a sequence of observations of the life of a woman that I didn't feel I knew on any level at all. Her behaviour is unsettling but it seemed to me that was so that the audience could feel unsettled, squirm in our chairs a bit, rather than because the character of "Maria" was evolving in any way. Indeed she seems to retrogress as the film just becomes increasingly tasteless and contrived. It's rare to see people leave an arthouse cinema mid-film, but they did during this. I didn't, but I am not at all sure what the point was, or to whom this is aimed. It has it's moments and at times is really visceral, but sorry - by the end I found it all just a bit too introspective and dull.

It will turn out to be a visceral nightmare for anyone with OCD, so it's best to keep your distance.

Now keeping my courteous forewarning aside, this just didn't hit the mark for me, even though I get what they were trying to do, and what they have had in their minds.

A lot of it comes down to the inefficient execution which focuses way too much on visuals and forgets to build a strong emotional groundwork.

Even though I like their intent to highlight 'hoarder disorder' and them providing a voice to those affected by it.

But the real question is, did the story do enough to foster compassion for people dealing with such issues? Or at least help others understand their off-beat mindset better?

I don't think so.

Greetings again from the darkness. I don't know why. I wish I could explain it. So many movies I admire or find intriguing are not the kind of movies that one would describe as uplifting, likable, or even watchable multiple times. The first feature film from writer-director Luna Carmoon is yet another for that category. It's simultaneously compelling and unpleasant - a difficult movie to watch with an unrelatable lead character. And yet, I couldn't turn away. The film won multiple awards at the 2023 Venice Film Festival, so obviously I'm not the only one drawn to this.

When we first meet Maria (newcomer Lily-Beau Leach), she's dumpster-diving with her mother (Hayley Squires, THE ELECTRICAL LIFE OF LOUIS WAN, 2021). Maria is around 8 years old and it's obvious her mom adores her despite being burdened with an unfortunate form of OCD. Mom is a hoarder-extraordinaire, and each evening she takes her young daughter to the streets to collect items that do nothing but add to the messy collections that make it nearly impossible to open the front door of their now disgusting home. As loving as her mother is, Maria can't help but prank her by hiding the rolls of aluminum foil from her lunchbox. Mom begins to freak out at the thought of used aluminum foil being wasted, and only relaxes once Maria pulls the wads out of her pocket.

A tragic and bizarre accident leads us to flash forward - with a visually clever transition - to Maria (now played by Saura Lightfoot-Leon, "Masters of the Air") in her final days of school, having lived with (and learned from) her warm-hearted foster mom Michelle (Samantha Spiro, ME BEFORE YOU, 2016) for nearly a decade. Although she lives a relatively 'normal' life now, Maria is a bit lost and unmotivated for the next step in life. Things shift quickly and dramatically for Maria when Michael (Joesph Quinn, A QUIET PLACE: DAY ONE, 2024) shows up. Having been a previous foster child for Michelle, he is now in his late 20's and engaged to be married. Michelle doesn't hesitate to let him move back in temporarily, innocently unaware of what this unleashes in both Michael and Maria.

This twisted psychological drama reaches new heights (or new lows) as Michael and Maria discover each other on the same wavelength. Maria's repression combines with her reverting to childhood, despite her opportunity to begin again. She finds so many reminders of her mother: a fork, chalk, foil, a bedsheet drying on a clothesline, an iron, and a dumpster, all take her back to the stage which was set early on by her mother. At times it seems like Michael is being whisked away by her, although he is unable to stop their actions. The clean ending of a movie that wallows in messiness may disappoint some viewers, but for me, I found some relief. Filmmaker Carmoon succeeds in making us uncomfortable, yet I couldn't look away.

Opening in select theaters on September 6, 2024.

I enjoyed every second of it so why would I rate it lower? I understood everything I saw and I understood the character of Maria and the way grief worked on her and made her do certain things. Joseph looked absolutely scrumptious. I guess you either really like it or really hate it there's no in between.

An examination of trauma, this film is relentlessly tense as the vulnerability of the main characters means they're constantly on the edge. It left me asking questions of the effect of trauma on relationships and the individual, which I suspect was the aim.

The actors carry themselves faultless, the breakout young star a particular highlight, though the script falls flat a few times. The direction is stupendous - the way they turn a hot iron in to a menacing, predatory presence was a favourite of mine

Sometimes it's incoherent which makes the film difficult to follow scene by scene, and can fall in to itself, but the intensity never abides and all you really want is for these damaged people to turn out OK.