Smash Cut

Tag: SXSW 2020

  • ‘The Carnivores’ and a third-wheeling dog — SXSW movie review

    ‘The Carnivores’ and a third-wheeling dog — SXSW movie review

    The Carnivores follows Alice, whose strain with her long-term girlfriend Bret is being manifested in her sick dog causing increasingly odd cravings

    Quick review: The Carnivores for better or worse is uncategorizable with elements of drama, psychological thriller, horror, and even comedy — and I was happy to be confused.

    With SXSW 2020 canceled, I’m doing my best to help review as many of the features that would have premiered there, particularly those of first-time filmmakers. If you know of a film that needs support, let me know!

    From the start, you can tell there’s something offbeat about The Carnivores. It’s set in a normal suburb — filmed in SXSW’s home Austin — and the characters are just a normal couple. However, its idiosyncrasy quickly reveals itself to you — the dry humor, the absurdist storyline, and almost whimsical imagery. It’s all in service of a ridiculous narrative that sets its sights on long-term relationships and the insecurities that come along with them.

    Alice (Tallie Medel), a doe-eyed bank teller, and her girlfriend Bret (The Invitation‘s Lindsay Burge) have been together for years. However, when we meet them there is clearly a strain represented by Bret’s beloved dog Harvey. In Alice’s eyes, she’s second to Harvey in both Bret’s time and affection — and that might actually be the case, at least from what director Caleb Johnson shows us. Then again, we are watching from Alice’s perspective.

    We watch as Alice calculates the costs of Harvey’s expensive treatment — that at best will keep him alive for a few months — and keeps track of the nights she and Bret don’t have sex. They’re experiencing what many long-term partners experience, intimate strain and financial burden. However, in their case, there is a physical manifestation of that strain, Harvey.

    Alice spends her days fantasizing of ways of getting rid of him while Bret dotingly cares for him, even risking her job at times. Alice’s hate begins to manifest itself as a bleak desire for meat — they’re both vegetarians. The visceral shots of Alice going to the meat aisle in a grocery store to feel the meet or lay a leftover cold cut on Bret to lick it immediately bring up thoughts of Julia Ducournau’s Raw, just less depraved.

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    The movie is a swift 77 minutes that sometimes feel meandering, but never boring as Alice’s cravings grow more intense. It’s difficult to even categorize what genre the movie is in as elements of psychological thriller, horror, comedy, and drama jockey for the tone. However, that whimsical amalgamation is what makes The Carnivores so engrossing.

    Medel finds an endearing quality with Alice that makes you empathize with her struggles. Anyone that has been in a long-term relationship can understand the block that often forms at some point when routine turns into distance. She keeps you so captivated with her dry delivery and bewilderment at even her own feelings. If anything, I think her performance tips the movie a little too far into her direction making scenes with Bret less successful.

    The Carnivores is a visceral experience. It’s less plot-driven and more an exploration of emotions and feelings — Johnson based it on his own relationship. You can feel him thinking and grappling as the movie goes along — it may leave something to be desires — but his style and exciting voice are something I’m looking forward to seeing more of.

  • ‘The Surrogate’ poses a moral dilemma — SXSW movie review

    ‘The Surrogate’ poses a moral dilemma — SXSW movie review

    Jess is thrilled to be the surrogate for her best friend and his husband, but when a prenatal test comes back, it creates a moral dilemma that threatens their friendship.

    Quick review: The Surrogate has an important story to tell and forces us to face our own decisions in a moral dilemma — but it leaves much to be desired.

    With SXSW 2020 canceled, I’m doing my best to help review as many of the features that would have premiered there, particularly those of first-time filmmakers. If you know of a film that needs support, let me know!

    New York filmmaker and playwright Jeremy Hersh broke out at the Sundance Film Festival in 2015 with his short film Actresses — so his feature debut was one of the films many were eager to see at South by Southwest this year. 

    Jess Harris (Jasmine Batchelor) is over-ecstatic to be asked by her best friend Josh (Chris Perfetti) and his husband Aaron (Sullivan Jones, coming off a run in Broadway play Slave Play) to be the surrogate for their first child. However, twelve weeks into the pregnancy a test reveals that the child has down syndrome. The shock sends the trio into a moral dilemma that leaves them at odds looking for a middle ground.

    It takes a while for The Surrogate’s story to get where it needs to be impactful without feeling contrived. The first two acts spend a lot of time maneuvering its characters to deliver a remarkably wrought and candid discussion where both sides of the dilemma are picked apart. If you’re looking for what the movie is trying to say you won’t get far. You can see Hersh thinking and struggling with his own thoughts on the subject through the film. In that way, it’s a morality play. Justice and equity aren’t necessarily found. Instead, the movie asks you to confront your own opinions. In that sense, the movie is something to celebrate.

    Hersh is unafraid to bring up the arguments that may be difficult to face. He is unraveling complex themes from how queerness could breed its own privilege and how progressiveness is often paradoxical. We want to think we know the “right” thing to do in this situation. The Surrogates asks whether that even exists.

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    The Surrogate SXSW poster

    However, something didn’t connect for me. As I struggled to figure it out while being genuinely compelled in the story, I realized it wasn’t that anything was wrong with the movie. It’s that it was too right — too clean. Every character and interaction felt like it was built to explore this single topic rather than watching characters experience it. The focus could be welcome in some cases. In The Surrogate, it left me gasping for who the characters are outside of the moral conundrum that they’re facing.

    In particular, I was disappointed we didn’t explore Jess more and what inspired her passionate reaction to the situation. Her unflinching optimism is admirable and interesting but never explained. We’re left to just accept it as a fact of her character. It’s when her perspective is challenged that The Surrogate feels alive. On stage — or as a short — the story could have been electric. It is electric at some points but never finds its footing. 

    What Hersh and the cast accomplish is something to celebrate. I just wish the messiness of its themes found their way into the story and the characters were more often faced with the imperfections of their arguments. Still, The Surrogate tells an essential story. Hersh has vision — and talent — that much is apparent.