Humane

Screened on VOD.

While I still have hope for the career of Gia Coppola - I loved her first feature, 2013's Palo Alto - her career has yet to take off to the level of her sister Sofia. Not in the sense of box office numbers, it's just the quality has slipped in her films since that debut. But it was darn good and there's a lot of promise there as I see it, so I still look forward to checking out what she's up to. Frankly I don't care much about daddy Francis, as good as he is. Though I do look forward to his "epic" and apparently final film, Megalopolis (or Heaven's Gate, or Ishtar*, we shall see), otherwise, I've never "looked forward" to one of his films.

Gia is who came to mind immediately as I watched this, the debut feature from Caitlin Cronenberg, daughter to acclaimed Canadian horror auteur, David Cronenberg. Like her brother Brandon, director of my top film of 2023 Infinity Pool, her father's very influential work has rubbed off on the kids as well, at least in terms of genre leanings. Here though, it doesn't feel natural. It doesn't feel like it's in her blood. Perhaps the same is the case for their sibling Cassandra, who has a career currently of an assistant director, including work on the excellent 2000 Bret Easton Ellis adaptation, American Psycho. But what felt natural about Infinity Pool, feels very forced here.

The film is technically well done from what I remember (happy to be disputed), but overall it's just ... well, here's the twist. It doesn't seem, from IMDB and Letterboxd, that Caitlin was involved with the script. That honor goes to Michael Sparaga, whose film CV isn't much to write home about. So, I'm ready to give Caitlin another shot, as perhaps it's her own creation, like Brandon who wrote and directed his full, 3-film filmography, that she will excel with.

*Unfairly maligned. Mostly. Regardless, Elaine May is great.