Toronto, Canada-went up the hill Concerns the characters named Jack and Jill, and no, it never recovers from that boring fact.
A pair of vicky crisps and Stranger Things Alum Dacre Montgomery, Samuel Van Grinsven’s sophomore feature in a drama about pain, regret, neglect, brutality and letting go—premiering Sept. 5. Toronto International Film Festival-This is part ghost story, part abuse nightmare, and part psychosexual haunted thriller. Although it boasts committed performances from its leads, its impact is so abundant that it drowns out its few, haphazardly moving moments. And despite having one of the best lovemaking scenes in recent memory—a quasi-adulterous gender-bending head-spinner—the film is too often the epitome of hypocrisy.
In the foothills of New Zealand’s high mountains, Jack (Montgomery) arrives at a remote modernist house for his mother Elizabeth’s funeral – all wood-panelled walls, concrete floors and minimal decorations. who abandoned him when he was very young. Jack doesn’t know anyone here, but the initial glance he shares with his Aunt Helen (Sarah Peirce) reveals that she remembers him well and isn’t entirely thrilled with his recovery. As an explanation for his presence, Jack informs Helen that he was invited by his mother’s wife, Jill (Cripps). In yet another strange twist, Jill doesn’t remember calling Jack, and furthermore, doesn’t even know he exists until he shows up that day.
Regardless of this inexplicable situation, Jill asks Jack to stay in her and Elizabeth’s house, which is as sparse and cold as the surrounding misty landscape.
Ghost imagery is everywhere Went up a hillFrom shots that are partially or completely out of focus, to images of silhouettes behind murky glass or through the still surface of a lake, and the otherworldly mood is intensified by a soundtrack full of ominous musical cues, profane moans and rhythmic breathing. This environment is the ideal place to communicate with the dead, and Jack and Jill do just that, the latter quickly informing East that, while Elizabeth has passed away, she is still present in spectral form—and, it turns out. , she can hold his body when she sleeps.
Neither Jack nor Jill can get over the death of Elizabeth, who it is soon revealed hates her sister Helen – and pushes her away as a result, much to Helen’s grief. More crucially, she committed suicide by walking into a nearby icy lake with rocks stuffed in her pocket.
The inability to move on means that both Jack and Jill see Elizabeth’s spirit, and they are hunted throughout. went up the hill. This both frightens and fascinates them, and in terms of external distortions, it peaks at the beginning, with Elizabeth using her gay male body to make love with her lesbian partner Jill in her son Jack. Set against a black background and filmed in slow motion, this bonkers coupling visually recalls Caravaggio, while the panorama of Jack walking through a nocturnal field of tall grass from behind has a decidedly evocative quality. In both cases, Van Grinsven’s painting is striking, and all the more so for feeling tactile and surreal at the same time.
unfortunately, went up the hill Don’t boast extra wacko flourishes. Rather, narratively and aesthetically, Cripps and Montgomery look at each other (and from a distance) with pain and terror in their eyes, while speaking in hushed tones about their nature. Circumstances Jack also makes a handful of phone calls to his never-before-seen boyfriend Ben (Arlo Greene), who is not happy about being abandoned by Jack once again. Loss and isolation are omnipresent, as is dichotomy, with Van Grinsven routinely isolating his protagonists (and other objects) within his tightly symmetrical frames, be it Elizabeth’s casket (which has a diagonal line across its lid) or a background with isolated mirrors. , Another Blake) in which Jack and Jill are spied on.
went up the hill Formally organized to death, his style is so self-conscious that it drains the life out of the proceedings. Cripps and Montgomery are as bereaved, tormented and unhinged as Van Grinsven and Jory Anast’s script demands. Yet the action is so look-at-me depressing that it makes their intensity borderline silly; In terms of unrelenting directorial posturing, Jill throws a mini-tantrum in her foyer before storming off or suddenly bursts into hysterical wails on the floor, making less than unintentionally funny moves.
Cripps is such a fine actress that it’s a shame to see her try so hard with this subpar material. Not helping matters, she and Montgomery don’t have much chemistry at all, undermining their status as soulmates suffering from a reluctance to leave the past (and its traumas and scars) behind.
The vague flashbacks (or are they?) of Jack’s separation from Elizabeth abound went up the hillAn air of mystery. When Jack and Jill realize that Elizabeth wants to do whatever it takes to keep Jill around Jack, but if they don’t comply with her wishes to stay in the house and commit to her, the film temporarily goes out of its mood. , she will engage in the kind of evil that originally cost her custody of her son.
Domestic violence is—to use a metaphor borrowed from the film itself, as Jill chooses to weave on her loom—one of the many threads in this story, and Elizabeth’s cruelty provides some suspenseful shocks. Sadly, it’s only a half-hearted gesture, with Van Grinsven finally reverting to his preferred mode of operation.
As a humorous ghost story about heartache and loneliness, went up the hill Lightly remembers John Hoggs Eternal daughterThe difference is that Van Grinsven’s supernatural glory is unduly exaggerated and, therefore, unreliable. That, during the climax, Jack literally falls down would be more serious if not for the film’s earlier thinking. However, it is the final nail in the coffin for this misguided saga of nasty ghosts and people who don’t know how to put them to rest.
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