The horror stories for the monsters are about humans

Continuing my trip up The Guardian's Top 50 Films of 2021

=#17 : The Humans

Stephen Karam’s Tony-winning play makes the leap to film with ease. A masterly drama that is an extraordinarily well acted, uncomfortably intimate look at a family at Thanksgiving.

OK, before start on the film, let's address the "equal seventeenth" thing - what is The Guardian up to?  Well, I've done some investigation and I can now reveal that I have absolutely no idea - but I can further reveal that I'm going to further reveal something even more shocking in the next entry, which is going to cause you to question your very existence.  If that's not going to stop you sleeping for the next however-long-it-takes-me-to-watch-the-next-film, then I don't know what it is.

So, on to less cryptic matters - what am I expecting from this?  Well - I know it's a very generic criticism, but I don't generally like films based on plays.  They either don't do enough to translate off the stage or they do far too much and turn the whole thing into a mess.  And the presence of a family raises concerns there's going to be a lot of talking about the past and learning lessons.  But, I'm trying to go into this with an open mind (although I'd have to say the title isn't exactly the most engaging either).

And, well - 20 minutes in and I'd have to say I've seen more exciting starts to a film.  I have, however, seen all the minute details of the largest, but emptiest apartment in New York - and the family who are meeting up there for no obvious reason.  I've got absolutely no idea what's going to happen in the rest of the film though...

And well, for the most part, very little does actually happen - I did learn that they're meeting up for Thanksgiving, but that's hardly groundbreaking news for an American family.  The film is always given you hints that more is going to happen, possibly of a supernatural bent.  You rarely see what's happening outside the apartment - it's always through frosted or dirty glass and there's always a hint of something strange going on, but there's generally also a perfectly rational explanation, but the film doesn't necessarily want you thinking that.  There are also lots of things spilt or dropped throughout the film - it's obviously intentional, but there's no clear reason for it.  

The film does come out with a mini-bombshell towards the end, but it's very much not of a supernatural bent - it's exactly the kind of familial trauma that I was worrying was going to turn up.  But then - hold on, is it supernatural after all?  Well - to be honest, I'm not really sure.  What use am I, eh?  I think the whole think is supposed to be a study in trauma, but (as you can probably guess) I'm not entirely sure.  There is a nice scene where they're all sat round the table discussing what they have to be thankful for which all felt very natural, but the trauma did all leave me a little cold.

It certainly is well acted - Beanie Feldstein (how did I not know she was Jonah Hill's sister?), Stephen Yeun (who we'll be seeing again soon) and Amy Schumer shine for me but everyone does their thing well.  The apartment is as much of a star as any of the actors - it's a strangely laid out place which features a lot of very long corridors.  And it really is massive - I struggle to imagine anyone could afford to live in such a place in New York, even if it's not exactly luxurious.    We also get to see ALL the electric appliances, pipes, taps, stains and cracks in the apartment - no square inch of that place is left unexplored.

The camera angles used are often very unusual, as are the lighting choices and together they result in some interesting visual effects.    The sounds involved are also interesting and there are also some very low frequencies at times - my sub-woofer enjoyed the exercise it was given.  At times, it did all feel like an exercise in film theory but, if anything, it was those aspects that interested me more than the story.  It was an interesting watch at times, but not something I could wholeheartedly recommend.

At the time of writing, it's available to stream on Netflix or to rent at any of the usual places - it's nice to look at, but there's not a lot more to it for me.

=#17 - Not quite a light-hearted romp
#16 - One you need to be in the mood for