Jason KingAFTERSCHOOL: A Review
June 28th 2012 19:50
:
We need to talk about younger Kevin
Violence and voyeurism lurk beneath the surface of life at an exclusive prep school in this independent drama. Robert (Ezra Miller) is a high school student who has made a hobby out of dulling his senses with violent pornography that he finds on the Internet. While Robert doesn't have many friends, he does have a habit of documenting the habits of his classmates with a digital video camera, and he happens to be on hand when two girls from his class succumb to fatal drug overdoses. As the deaths leave the school's faculty at a loss for what to do and send many of the students into a state of depression and denial, Robert finds himself becoming even more alienated from the world around him. Afterschool was the first feature film from writer and director Antonio Campos, and was screened as part of the "Un Certain Regard" series at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival.
I wanted to watch this film ever since I saw Ezra Miller in WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN - I just found him superb in Kevin and one of the most chilling psychos on the modern screen. I had heard about this one a while back as it was made in 2008 and thought I would give it a suss. It is basically Ezra playing a younger Kevin and honing his psychodom.
Now this film is a hard one to recommend. I loved it and found it very dark, it is very similar to Gus Van Sant's ELEPHANT but it moves incredibly slow, I mean snail pace slow but that was what I liked about. Campos has made a film that thrives on making the viewer uncomfortable and out of their comfort zone. It starts with a Miller masturbating to hard core violent porn and it goes further and further throughout the film. But what makes this thing is two things;
1) Ezra Miller - he is like an acting prodigy and it commenced back then. And progressed to We Need to Talk About Kevin. Why do we not see him in film after film? I think because he is so alternate and completely left of field. Producers and directors are also probably scared of him due to his performances as these two subtle and utterly chilling nut jobs. But I also think he only chooses these roles. He can play a person completely devoid of empathy. It is really a superb quality in an actor but also disconcerting that it may be present in reality
. But get excited people - he is in one of my most anticipated films of the year THE PERKS OF BEING A WALLFLOWER with Logan Lerman (love) and Hermione (Emma Watson). Wallflower has one really dark suicidal character and I am thinking this will be Miller's I could be wrong though but I will place bets on it.
2) Anotnio Campos. Campos's story, directing and amazing camera work on shooting this film are enlightening. Campos made this film at 24yrs old and for that this is a HUGE accomplishment. The story is so powerful but overly subtle, it deals with teenage internalising and withdrawal from society, the failure of the US school system or any sense of understanding beyond themselves for the students they teach, drugs rampaging through the lives of school students (illegal and legal) and it presents a very mature look at the downside of depressed teenagers - much so in the vain of Elephant, Kids or even Ken Park. It doesn't quite hit the extreme visually as Larry Clark's films but it heads in that direction unintentionally.
I don't know if Campos directed this work masterfully or if he fluked it - this was his first and only feature film currently released - he does have another one coming out this year called SIMON KILLER but it has no release date and it looks very left of field, I only imagine a very small art house release if not straight to DVD. Shame - I want this guy to go from strength to strength because he is on the way to becoming a Larry Clark of Van Sant.
His camera shots of subtlety and minimalism were impressive and the use of phone cameras, handicams and unique angles really told the story in a YouTube generation kind of way.
The rest of the cast barely deserve a mention - Miller carries this whole film. It is not that the other actors are bad but Miller is just a presence to be reckoned with and at the same time someone I would run from immediately. Now this film is SLOW as I have said and a lot of people hate it for this - if you want a Transformers kind of action film that doesn't require thinking then run from this but if you want something unique and interesting and a bit weird then this is for you. If you liked Elephant you may like this one. It is out on DVD and for me is worth a nice 9 out of 10 psychotic serial killing Ezra Millers
I wanted to watch this film ever since I saw Ezra Miller in WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN - I just found him superb in Kevin and one of the most chilling psychos on the modern screen. I had heard about this one a while back as it was made in 2008 and thought I would give it a suss. It is basically Ezra playing a younger Kevin and honing his psychodom.
Now this film is a hard one to recommend. I loved it and found it very dark, it is very similar to Gus Van Sant's ELEPHANT but it moves incredibly slow, I mean snail pace slow but that was what I liked about. Campos has made a film that thrives on making the viewer uncomfortable and out of their comfort zone. It starts with a Miller masturbating to hard core violent porn and it goes further and further throughout the film. But what makes this thing is two things;
1) Ezra Miller - he is like an acting prodigy and it commenced back then. And progressed to We Need to Talk About Kevin. Why do we not see him in film after film? I think because he is so alternate and completely left of field. Producers and directors are also probably scared of him due to his performances as these two subtle and utterly chilling nut jobs. But I also think he only chooses these roles. He can play a person completely devoid of empathy. It is really a superb quality in an actor but also disconcerting that it may be present in reality
. But get excited people - he is in one of my most anticipated films of the year THE PERKS OF BEING A WALLFLOWER with Logan Lerman (love) and Hermione (Emma Watson). Wallflower has one really dark suicidal character and I am thinking this will be Miller's I could be wrong though but I will place bets on it.
2) Anotnio Campos. Campos's story, directing and amazing camera work on shooting this film are enlightening. Campos made this film at 24yrs old and for that this is a HUGE accomplishment. The story is so powerful but overly subtle, it deals with teenage internalising and withdrawal from society, the failure of the US school system or any sense of understanding beyond themselves for the students they teach, drugs rampaging through the lives of school students (illegal and legal) and it presents a very mature look at the downside of depressed teenagers - much so in the vain of Elephant, Kids or even Ken Park. It doesn't quite hit the extreme visually as Larry Clark's films but it heads in that direction unintentionally.
I don't know if Campos directed this work masterfully or if he fluked it - this was his first and only feature film currently released - he does have another one coming out this year called SIMON KILLER but it has no release date and it looks very left of field, I only imagine a very small art house release if not straight to DVD. Shame - I want this guy to go from strength to strength because he is on the way to becoming a Larry Clark of Van Sant.
His camera shots of subtlety and minimalism were impressive and the use of phone cameras, handicams and unique angles really told the story in a YouTube generation kind of way.
The rest of the cast barely deserve a mention - Miller carries this whole film. It is not that the other actors are bad but Miller is just a presence to be reckoned with and at the same time someone I would run from immediately. Now this film is SLOW as I have said and a lot of people hate it for this - if you want a Transformers kind of action film that doesn't require thinking then run from this but if you want something unique and interesting and a bit weird then this is for you. If you liked Elephant you may like this one. It is out on DVD and for me is worth a nice 9 out of 10 psychotic serial killing Ezra Millers
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