An immortal being, thousands of
years old, containing the DNA of all its past evolutionary organisms. A monstrosity of stingers, beaks, tentacles,
and claws unexplainable by science. The
creature lurks among us in secret, draining the blood of its victims—whether
beast or human—like a vampire. Spring is
about this grotesque abomination…
...finding true love.
Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead
are two of the decade’s most innovatively impressive directors. Their debut feature-length film Resolution is
a wonderful, multi-layered story tackling down-to-earth themes of addiction,
depression, and suicide within a thrilling Lovecraftian horror. Whereas Resolution features a traditional
approach to eldritch abominations, the co-directors's next feature film Spring
(the very film that introduced me to the directors) throws a curveball to
tradition by taking a cosmic horror style being and placing it into a
potent romance. The horror-romance
combination is already an uncommon pairing, but Spring doesn’t stop
there—additionally focused on a young man’s journey of self-discovery. Oh, and there’s comedy—genuinely funny humor
ranging from dark comedy to fish-out-of-water situations.
This bizarre blend of genres sounds
like a hodgepodge mess in the making, yet make no mistake, Spring is
undoubtedly a profound work of art. Just
like with Resolution, Benson and Moorhead seamlessly blend these genres
together in a compelling, grounded manner.
Spring has beautiful romantic, great chemistry between its leads, some
genuine scares and creatively disturbing imagery, witty comedy gold, and a
beautifully realistic setting (for having such outlandish science fiction
elements) with some very true-to-life characters.
Spring opens on a somber scene of
young adult Evan (Lou Taylor Pucci) sitting beside his terminally ill mother as
they say their final goodbyes. It has
been a rough few years for Evan. While
in college, his father unexpectedly died from a heart attack, while his mother soon became diagnosed with cancer. Evan
came home from college for a couple years to take care of her as her health
gradually faded. Evan now finds himself
alone in the world, working as a bartender under his higher up Mike (Vinny
Curran, who played Chris in Resolution—his character name is perhaps a nod to
Resolution’s costar Peter Cilella’s character).
Evan mourns his mother at the bar by taking shots with his friend, yet
when said friend gets threatened by a violent asshole, Evan's inebriated
emotions get the better of him as he intensely knocks the punk’s teeth out.
As with Resolution, the aftermath
dialogue between Evan, his friend, and Mike feels true-to-life comical:
Evan: Are you telling me that I'm
fired, Mike?
Friend: He's not saying that. Mike,
you wouldn't...
Mike: I'm not saying you're fired.
I'm not saying you're fired…But the boss was here and he said you can't work
here anymore, man. I'm sorry.
Evan: I really don't want to be
unemployed right now, Mike.
Mike: Look, I can bring you back. I
swear to God I can bring you back. I brought S****y Carl back. He stabbed a
goddamn crippled guy in the leg with a fork.
Friend: Right, S****y Carl! He's a
f***in' s***.
Mike: He's a piece of s***!
Yet when the asshole and his
friends begin stalking Evan and the police come looking for him with a warrant,
Evan wisely decides to get out of Dodge and reset himself using the last of his
money. Evan flies to Italy—the place his
dad wanted them to travel to before he died—right during the peak of its
springtime. Shortly after arriving, Evan
gets acquainted with two relatively friendly blokes (Jeremy Gardner as Tom & Jonathan Silvestri as Sam) who he hitchhikes with to
the coast. Now, here’s where the story
takes an unorthodox route. Experience
with traditional storytelling would suggest that these new characters becoming
involved in the protagonist’s travels and taking up the story’s time will end
up being the film’s primary supporting cast, and they are…for about ten
minutes. After a day of rooming together
on the coast, the pair suddenly decide to continue their travels, asking Evan
if he wants to join. Evan declines and
just like that, the two abruptly leave much to both the audience and Evan’s
surprise.
And that’s it. They never appear in the film again, making them
nothing more than minor bit characters—yet they aren’t treated as minor bit
characters, at least not on screen. One
of Spring’s peculiar strengths is giving importance to unimportant characters. Evan and his love interest are the only
consistently present characters for the film’s majority runtime. Everyone else comes and goes as the story
progresses, playing their part and then disappearing. And yet when these side characters are on
screen, the film gives them the complete MVP treatment for their limited
spotlight. The secondary characters are
treated as real humans that have a life outside the focused story. Take the humorous dialogue from one of the
blokes Tom when Evan drives down with them to the coast; “So, geezers just rapping.
And then, I swear to God, one geezer goes... goes up on the mic, right? And he
goes, "Who can f***ing battle me, blud?" All this f***ing bollocks.
"Who gonna battle me?" I said, "Do you know what, f*** this
c***. I'll f***in' have a go." Never rapped in me life, bruv. Never
f***ing rapped in my life. Went up there, mate. Proper smashed him, mate… with
a bottle in the face.”
The dialogue feels natural and
unscripted (and it’s far from the only instance) to the point where I’m curious
if the actors were just told to improvise conversation. The scene is followed by a genuine
heart-to-heart between Tom and Evan; “Birds, eh? F***in' birds. I was, uh... I
was seeing this girl once. She's the love of my f***ing life, pal, you know?
Known her since school, first kiss, all that f***ing s***. Yeah. Talked about
having kids together, the whole lot. And one day, she's in this pub and she
meets this bloke from Ibiza, DJ, something. Got a flat out there. She only
f***ing leaves me and goes and lives with this c*** in Ibiza. Broke my f***ing
heart, mate. Anyway, two years later, I'm in me local supermarket and I f***ing
see her there. She was proper fat. Sunburnt, skin like leather... teeth like
f***ing doggins, it was disgusting. I loved it…. You're lucky I'm here, pal.
'Cause most men don't share their emotions like I do.”
A minor bit character has no right
having such potently raw dialogue, yet here we are. The film’s supporting characters aren’t
merely devices used to move the plot forward (though they do additionally serve
this purpose), they’re three-dimensional people with lives and stories unseen
by the audience. Add on the candid,
realistic dialogue and Spring’s plot ends up feeling like a small piece of a
much larger world.
Resolution’s unorthodox yet
effective blend of drama, horror, and comedy is passed onto Spring in
bounty. The latter genre can be subtly
sharp (quite literally, at times). A
scene pans over an outdoor bar where two background characters are
conversing—no importance what-so-ever to the plot. Yet their very brief time in the limelight
got an unexpected hearty laugh out of me as they ogle over a beautiful lady in
a red dress. The lady (Nadia Hilker)
happens to be the film’s deuteragonist, Evan’s love interest, and the aforementioned
creature of horror—finally making her proper entrance into the story. Evan had previously sported her when first
arriving on the coast—immediately catching his eye. Judging a book by its cover, the woman comes
across as your straightforward, vamp seductress, reinforced when she tries
immediately seducing Evan back to her room when the two first interact. Yet despite his enamored look, Evan is
surprisingly not as easily controlled by his lower brain—leading into an
engagingly entertaining battle of words and wits between the pair:
Evan: We saw each other earlier and
if I stared any longer without saying hi, I'd be the creepy dude gawking. Oh,
s***. English?
Lady: I need a drink.
Evan: Well, come sit with me and my
friends.
Lady: Leave with me.
Evan: Yeah. I have to get this
round first and...
Lady: I'd rather go home with you
now, but if you like boys more...
Evan: Really? Come on. What are you
doing?
Lady: Trying to have fun.
Evan: …Are you a prostitute?
Lady: You want me to be?
Evan: Are you gonna rob me?
Lady: No, you look poor.
Evan: Well, I'm not gonna carry
drugs up my ass for you or your boss. Go out with me tomorrow night.
Lady: No.
Evan: Cause you're a hooker.
Lady: Because I don't date.
Evan: Well, this is a f***ed-up act
you have...I'd still like to grab coffee or something sometime 'cause I think
you're the most attractive person I've ever seen. But that doesn't outweigh
that you might be a mental patient and I gotta make sure you're the kind of
crazy I can deal with.
Lady: You made this so much more
complicated than it needs to be.
Evan: Bottle of wine tomorrow
night?
Lady: walking away No... no!
Evan: Maybe?... Right.
First impressions showcase a unique
and engaging dynamic between these two characters. Evan’s transfixion with this mysterious woman
is his reasoning for staying on the coast—finding work on a local farm to a
stoic widower named Angelo (Francesco Carnelutti). Angelo is a reserved man, saying only what he
believes needs to be said and having a friendly yet distanced relationship with
Evan. The man possesses a great deadpan
sense of humor. In one scene, Angelo
teaches Evan about how to properly remove tree-eating worms from fruit trees
before nonchalantly tossing them into the next-door yard, pleasantly waving at
his oblivious neighbor. Angelo would be
Carnelutti’s second to last role before dying the next year. This outside factor gives his gentle
performance an extra bit of poignant potency, particularly with his final
scene.
It’s here Spring gets to its
story’s meat (both literally and figuratively) as Evan’s pursuit of his
infatuation, and their upcoming relationship, becomes the film’s central
focus. Evan finds the woman again
visiting a local museum and strikes up some banter. The woman plays some snarky hard-to-get, but
Evan’s adorkable persistence seems to charm her enough to go get drinks with
him. The woman introduces herself as
Louise, living on the coast to research evolutionary genetics. Louise is snarky and quick-witted in her
words, yet also shows a sweet disposition—playfully making faces at a curious
child running around them. Her accent
fluctuates during conversations, an aspect she alludes to being from traveling
all around the world—revealing later that she can speak a multitude of
different languages including dead ones.
The pair end up going back to Louise’s place and getting romantic, with
Louise being completely disconcerted with using protection, even throwing away
the condom Even tries putting on.
It’s around this encounter that the
film’s atmosphere begins building these ominous horror vibes during
transitions. Right before spotting
Louise for a second time, the screen lingers on a shot of a spider wrapping up
a fly. Later on, as the two go
to get drinks, the scene focuses on a tomb in the museum—the soundtrack
intensely building in ambiance. The
approach is reminiscent to Resolution, where otherwise nice bonding scenes get
transitioned by sinister foreshadowing.
Yet whereas Resolution’s style plays it subtle until the end, Spring is
quick with letting the audience in on its secrets, even when Evan is left
unaware. Flowers are seen spontaneously
blossoming in the foreground as the pair begin passionately making out. As Evan sleeps, Louise is shown to have
become a shell of her former self—her skin now pasty pale with veins protruding
across her face. She startlingly awakes
now with sharp fangs and hobbles outside in an uncanny manner—her body looking
like a corpse being moved by puppet strings—before devouring a nearby cat,
draining it of all its blood and returning to her normal appearance.
It initially appears to be a case
of vampirism, reinforced by Louise’s skin burning when sunlight hits it. Yet not everything adds up to said conclusion,
such as the flowers spontaneously growing—an ability vampires are not known
for. Other factors the audience is let
in on—while Evan is still left oblivious—include Louise’s multi-colored eyes,
that she hides with colored contacts, and her leg turning green during a dinner
date. This intriguing mystery gives the
film that wonderful, multi-layered story like with Resolution as it follows Evan’s romantic pursuit at
the forefront and Louise’s gruesome secrets behind-the-scenes. Louise continues seeing Evan, making various excuses
throughout their dates for her secrets—such as not being able to go to the
beach during the daytime because her medication causes irritated in the sun, and
needing to spontaneously shower when her leg starts to protrude. The latter scene shows Louise sticking a
needle into the area—seemingly reversing the process while leaving a mess of
blood and puss in her bathroom.
While on another date, Louise
inquiries about Evan’s family, though the young man continuously deflects from
the question. Upset that Evan won't
discuss his backstory, Louise leaves the area and goes to the bay with a
beautiful nighttime setting—sitting on the water’s edge between two crevices as
the moon illuminates the waters below:
Louise: Look, I went to the f***ing beach
with you.
Evan: I'm sorry. I think you're
overreacting, but I'm sorry.
Louise: And I think you're being annoying,
but maybe I was just being crazy.
Evan: Do you want to hear about my
family?
Louise: Yes, I do. Yes.
Evan: It's a f***ed-up story.
Louise: So, we're sleeping together and
I'm, like, making you meals, but you can't tell me anything?
Evan: The only family I had was my mom
and dad. My dad died suddenly of a heart attack. My mom was diagnosed with
cancer a few months after that. I came home from college a couple years ago to
take care of her and she died last week.
Louise: ...Wow, I mean, that's horrible.
Evan: No s***. Not exactly great dinner
conversation.
Louise: Are you okay?
Evan: showing legit concern …Do I seem
all right?
Louise: smiles I like you. Were you better
before?
Evan: I think I'm all right.
Louise: starts laughing You've got the same
backstory as Batman! This is so cool. Are you mad?
Evan: I mean, I've got nothing to avenge
if I become a masked vigilan…
Louise: Oh, shut up. I mean how sometimes
even if you don't believe in a higher power, you get mad at one.
Evan: Yeah, I'm mad at something for
doing that to them, making me put my life on hold while I worked at the same
s***ty bar I grew up thinking I never want to end up at.
I love the dialogue here, every bit
of it. I love how Louise immediately
backs off Evan after hearing his backstory.
I love how she responds by stating the obvious—caught off-guard by the
overly depressing information and trying to quickly figure out what to
say. I love Evan’s understandably pissed
off response, having been pushed to reveal a very vulnerable piece of himself,
and I love how Louise understands his anger and lashing out. And I really love how when Louise asks if
he's okay, rather than saying some variant of he's fine or not fine, Evan asks
Louise if she thinks he seems alright. Evan is revealing his cards on the table here—showing Louise his true
inner concerns. To expose himself so
openly is a true sign of trust here for Louise, and she responds with a
touching display of comfort and support—lightening the mood with comedy,
pushing him to further express his frustrations, and then performing the greatest thing one could ever do for a man: laying him on her lap and
scratching his head. Louise even reveals
to Evan her different eye colors after Evan asks her to reveal something as
well—though from what the audience knows, this is the least interesting aspect
she could disclose.
LINK TO PART 2!!!
LINK TO PART 2!!!
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