Beast of War
Shockingly enough, there are still a few fresh takes on the killer shark story, and the Australian film Beast of War gives us one of the stronger examples of that in quite some time. From director Kiah Roache-Turner (Wyrmwood, Sting), the film is set in the height of World War II, when a company of newly trained soldiers is sent to sea and their ship is quickly sunk in the middle of nowhere in the Timor Sea with little help of rescue. A small handful of survivors manage to get aboard a fairly sizable—about 20-sq.-ft.—bit of the ship, and they even manage to secure some weapons and other supplies left floating in the water. And just when they start to feel secure, that’s when the first shark attack comes and snatches someone dangling a little bit off the makeshift raft.
Before the men leave on their first mission, we get to see them training and discover there are some issues among their ranks, especially between Leo (Mark Coles Smith), a kind-hearted Aboriginal who has had a long and traumatic past with the sea since childhood, and the arrogant, racist Des (Sam Delich), who never misses a chance to put Leo down. Naturally, both men end up on the raft, where Leo shows he’s the most capable of survival but Des’s only talent seems to be looking out for himself. The film is an intense, often terrifying waiting game that handles the shark attacks in a unique, surreal way that makes great use of putting just the head of the shark (because that’s where, you know, the teeth are) in frame with colors that you wouldn’t think are found underwater.
Roache-Turner shows us both the strengths and the weaknesses of his characters and how some of them find ways to incorporate even their shortcomings into survival tactics, while those who think that puffing out their chest and acting brave can get you killed quickly. Beast of War is such a special combination of an emotionally driven character study and a patient but relentless animal-attack movie. The result is something more complex and impressive than anyone will be expecting.
The film is scheduled to be released in theaters on October 10.
The Plague
From first-time writer/director Charlie Polinger comes one of the most disturbing and honest stories of coming-of-age and bullying (and how one can sometimes usher in the other) I’ve ever seen. Debuting at this year’s Un Certain Regard section at the Cannes Film Festival, The Plague is the story of a group of boys at a water polo camp in the summer of 2003. They mess around and poke fun at each other as boys do, so when new kid Ben (Everett Blunck) arrives amid a team of old friends, he desperately wants to fit in. A slight speech impediment doesn’t help him fit in, but when he discovers there’s another player, Eli (Kenny Rasmussen), who has a noticeable skin condition that the other boys simply call the Plague, he feels he can bond with them by tormenting Eli.
It doesn’t help that Eli is socially awkward to begin with and that the team’s coach (Joel Edgerton) doesn’t seem to pay the slightest bit of attention to what the kids do out of the pool. When Eli sits down at a lunch table, everyone scatters for fear of catching his "disease," which they all know is nonsense...but it gives them something to do. The main instigator is a boy named Jake (a remarkable performance by Kayo Martin), who can shift from kind and friendly to an absolute bastard in the blink of an eye. Ben does feel bad for Eli and attempts to even talk to him (at a distance) just to be friendly, but he’s also hyper aware not to be too kind when others are watching.
Ben is so paranoid of getting caught, he starts to see lesions on this own body; but there’s a very good chance he’s the only one seeing his own version of the plague, since no one else even mentions it. With hints of Lord of the Flies and even Carrie, The Plague captures the lives of pre-teens much too believably, and it will likely fill you with stress and shatter your confidence about how cool or popular you might have thought you were in junior high. There are horror elements here, but the things that scare Ben are very real and remind you that kids can be very big little shits with very little effort. Some of these boys have already learned lessons in toxic masculinity, and it’ll likely only get worse as they get older. This is the type of film that makes you equal parts eager and scared to see what this new filmmaker will do next.
The film is scheduled to be released in a limited run on December 24.
If you enjoyed this post, please consider supporting Third Coast Review’s arts and culture coverage by making a donation. Choose the amount that works best for you, and know it goes directly to support our writers and contributors.
