Two Neighbors
EIFF Film #7
This film started off with an introduction, which was incredible brief. Ondine Viñao, the director, said this movie is "where Aesop's fable meets a 4chan meme”. I almost wish that this was included in the film as it’s a perfect place setter for said film.
This film takes the archetypes of Becky, Stacy, Chad and Benjamin “The Virgin” (incel) and concocts these memes into a narrative strung together by Aesop’s Greed and Jealousy fable. I mean talk about a creative concept, and this truly feels so original in how it blends internet culture into a traditional narrative.
The internet is rife with interesting ideas, some horrifying, but rarely do we see these play out in film as the world hasn’t quite figured out how to tell internet narratives compellingly. What this film so does so superbly is bring those concepts into the real world, because at this point the lines have fully blurred between the internet and real life. No longer do these kinds of people exist soley online, these archetypes have bleed into our culture and this film seeks to interrogate them.
The extent to which these archetypes are interrogated perhaps leaves a bit to be desired. This film is mainly told from Becky’s perspective, who is a fish out of water, an aspiring writer down on her luck thrust into this world of wealth. The film really nicely gets across how equally twisted and messed up Becky is, and it becomes an interesting conversation on how society values women and how the pressures placed upon them can manifest itself into something quite sinister. A super fascinating character that I just wished was performed slightly better, perhaps it comes down to accent because Anya Chalotra’s was truly all over the place.
The film also just nails the incel archetype. Very much inspired by the alt-right pipeline, and the ridiculousness of those men who feel like masculinity is under attack it was so wonderfully accurate, and portrayed brilliantly by Jake Simmance.
The other archetypes really aren’t explored in that much depth, perhaps that’s the point, but when the film hinges on the women being polar opposites and a part of this modern telling of this fable, it becomes a little dissatisfying not exploring both of these women.
The writing becomes a little annoying as the film has fashioned a world so rife with interesting ideas and it seems to not go in as much depth as it could. There is quite uneven pacing throughout as well, both of these could come down to the fact that this originally started as a long short. It seems a little strange as well for this film to end so literally when it has twisted and expanded upon the mixing of fable and internet culture all throughout the film.
In saying all that however, this is an incredible achievement in directing. The film is absolutely gorgeous and has a clear and distinct vision behind it. You could really tell there was heaps of passion put into this and it feels like you’re watching somebody who has made stuff for a while, it was so fully realised. Thank god it was not your typical wealth integration movie that we’ve been getting as well, it was interesting to see this go in a different direction.
Really interesting movie that should encourage people to include more varied uses of the internet into their films. Just a stellar debut feature