Filmikaze!

By: Antonio Campos (director, screenplay)

Starring: Ezra Miller, Jeremy Allen White, Michael Stuhlbarg, Addison Timlin, Rosemarie Dewitt, Gary Wilmes, Christopher McCann

A Internet-addicted prep-school student captures the drug overdose of two girls.

It was difficult to know what to make of Afterschool at first. There’s no doubt that it’s avant garde, but avant garde isn’t a guarantee of a film being good or even that artistic. Initially I was a little concerned that it might to fall victim to its own ego, and I definitely think it could give that impression to certain people, but there was something about it that kept me riveted against the odds.

There were a few things about this film that I really appreciated from a stylistic and compositional perspective. The cinematography is extremely restricted: most of the time, the camera remains still while characters move in and out of the frame, often cut off or visually unbalanced. I was fully prepared to find this pretentious, and I genuinely think that in most circumstances it would be. There was a sharp visual aesthetic here, though; each scene manages to be compelling without seeming contrived, which is extremely difficult to do with this sort of extremely stylized mise-en-scène. Furthermore, I was absolutely in love with the cool aloofness the style afforded the overall tone, and the way it supported the narrative. This isn’t about being arty, or even about edgy realism, it’s about delving into the possibly sociopathic psyche of the central character. The more I think about the filmmaking techniques in this film, the more I’m in love with it. It’s just so refreshing to watch an avant garde film with genuine thought put into the emotional impact of blocking, rather than choices made simply because they look cool or arty.

It was also really wonderful to see Michael Stuhlbarg again, as I had never seen any of his work before A Serious Man. Ezra Miller shines in the lead role, his deadpan delivery subtle and chilling. I can’t imagine better casting, his face beautiful, pale and indifferent, like a doll.

Afterschool isn’t going to be everyone’s cup of tea, but I thought it was absolutely brilliant.