Saulnier is one of the filmmakers that has, on the strength of his previous work, Blue Ruin (2013) and Green Room (2015), bought my continued fandom.
When his latest film, Hold the Dark (2018) dropped on Netflix, I knew that I was all in. So I decided to include it, here, on my October playlist.
Summary:
Russel Core, a naturalist who specializes in studying wolves, is called out to the Alaskan wilderness to help track the wolf that took a woman's son. While hunting, the woman, herself, disappears, leaving behind a grisly scene in her cabin. That woman's husband returns home from war, injured. Both Core and her husband set off into the wilderness to find her.I can't really discuss the plot without spoiling it, so I won't go any further than that. Trust me, though, you really have no idea where this one is headed.
** In order to really discuss this movie, I am going to need to wade deep into spoiler territory. I will break my Pros section into two halves, so that if you want to avoid spoilers, but still understand how I feel about the film, you can.**
Pros (Spoiler Free):
Absolutely Gorgeous: Saulnier's eye, as a filmmaker, always astounds me. He finds new, interesting ways to shoot even the ugliest of things. He, and cinematographer Magnus Nordenhof Jonck, have crafted a brutally beautiful film that utilized natural light and pools of black shadow to incredible effect. The remote village of Keelut is a place on a precipice, and Saulnier and Jonck know how to photograph it just so. They capture its sense of sadness and audacity and history. This film is unimpeachably beautiful to look at.Pervading Sense of Dread: Macon Blair's script, based on the novel by William Giraldi, is a slow burn that has been marinaded in a sense of palpable dread. When the movie explodes, and it does so in incredibly brutal fashion, you will feel like the moment is earned.
Symbolism: This movie is stuffed to the gills with it. In one of the windows of the Slone home, if you look for it, you will see a skull, heavily alluding to what is to come. The wolf masks that the Slone's wear tip the film's hand as to their true nature (more on that below). There are more, sprinkled throughout the film, and I won't spoil them here, but, rest assured, this film is less a story and more a collection of metaphors and symbols. It is a nerd's dream to unpack.
It's Quiet: One thing that Saulnier has never been afraid of is keeping his characters quiet. They speak, but they do so sparingly, and almost always in a hoarse whisper. He allows his actors to communicate with facial expressions and physicality in ways that most filmmakers would balk from. And all of the actors here came to play: Jeffrey Wright's a stoic man out of his depth; Riley Keough is a woman haunted; Alexander Skarsgard is man of quiet violence; James Badge Dale is a lawman in the wildest wild, resigned to his post at the end of the world. The characters speak, but they don't monologue, and they don't dump exposition on you in waves. Saulnier lets their acting tell the story, and you are either on board for that or you aren't. I'm here for it.
Defies Genre: It is a thriller. And it is a slasher movie. And it is a backwoods noir. It is all of these things at once. Saulnier blends the elements with ease, as they suit him and his story.
Pros (Spoiler Time):
They're the Wolves: I actually wrote that in my notes. There is a moment, and your mileage may vary, when the viewer begins to understand that the Slones are, themselves, a pack of wolves. Medora kills her sickly son, in a mirrored reference to the pack brutally killing the cub earlier in the film. She is the mother wolf looking for an Alpha. Her alpha, Vernon, is away, at war. When Vernon returns home, the audience believes he goes on his murderous spree to find and kill her. But he doesn't. He kills anyone that would know them and impede their getaway. When he chokes her in the cave, it is a show of dominance, not malice. The only reason Core survives at all is because he is NOT an alpha. He's just a sad old man that wandered into the darkness where he doesn't belong. He is spared by a wolf's mercy three times in the movie. In the beginning, when he tracks the pack he believes responsible for the Slone boy's disappearance; he stumbles and falls, giving away his position, and the pack descends on him. They stop, paces away from him, consider him, and then leave him be. Later, in the epic shootout, while Cheeon is reloading his machine gun, Core goes to save a wounded young cop. Cheeon has spent the last five minutes or so brutally gunning down every cop on the scene. Core screams, "STOP IT!" This gives Cheeon pause, and he lets the old man take the younger cop away. In the finale, Vernon disarms Core with an arrow, but lets him live. Core is an old man in a world of wolves, and nature doesn't kill for vengeance. Core is only allowed to live because every other character knows he has no place there. The depth and scope, and sheer commitment, to this metaphor is a staggering feat of vision.The Shoot Out: Holy shit, when Saulnier lets the shit hit the fan, he does in in glorious fashion. The shoot out is hectic and brutal. While he never skimps on the brutality, he never glorifies it, either. The shoot out in this film is excellently paced, and nerve-wracking to watch. James Badge-Dale's character says, "I have never seen anything like that," and neither have you. His scene with Cheeon just before the violence errupts acts as a tragic prelude: Cheeon is a man backed into a corner and he will not be taken, not matter Sheriff Marium's pleading to the contrary. Marium walks back to his compatriots, while the second story window quietly swings open behind them. Then the shooting starts. Faces explode, blood sprays, and men lay, screaming, in the snow. It is a beautifully choreographed ballet of violence. And I think it will stay with me for some time.
Cons:
This Movie is What the Fuck: My wife and I talked, sans intermission, for about an hour after the credits rolled. We laid in bed and continued talking about it. And while I really enjoyed it, the movie is dense and hard to pin down. It offers no easy answers and no quick explanations. The clues are all there to be gathered, but it does demand more of you, as a viewer, than most films. I have a feeling that a lot of people will hate this movie, and hate that they watched it. I cannot, all together, blame them. It is uncompromising. Again, you are either on board for it, or you aren't.Incredibly Violent: Saulnier does not shy away from the ravages of a wolf attack, or a barrage of bullets on the human body. He does not shrink away from the horrors humans do to each other. It may be too much for some viewers.
In Conclusion:
The more time away from it that I spend, the more I love this movie. I had to earn something to understand it. I only have a half page or so of notes, which says something: my rapt attention was held for over two hours without me constantly dipping down to write notes. I couldn't escape the thing while viewing it, and I still can't, three days later.Should You Watch It?
I cannot honestly recommend this movie to many people. It just isn't easy viewing, and many people would do well to steer clear of it. If you are a fan of Saulnier's work, however, give it a whirl.Miscellany:
- This is the first of Saulnier's features that he did not write the script for. Macon Blair, who also acts in the film, adapted the script from William Giraldi's novel.
Comments
Post a Comment