The Plague gives us both the exciting film making debut of Polinger and confirmation that Blunck may be one of the best actors of Gen Alpha. Following up on his incredible role in Griffin in Summer, Blunck goes in a completely different direction here with equally impressive results. And Polinger manages to find a unique visual language to tell his powerful, if not revolutionary, story of bullying in a way that makes it feel viscerally raw.
The Plague is a movie that will upset you. It offers no resolution and no solution. It presents us with a very real world situation of destructive male behavior and gives us no example of hope. Our central character is a complicit victim. The perpetrator faces no consequence that promises any sort of change (we even see him very slightly face his own source of bullying). The adult establishment is perpetually inert and ineffective in responding. Another victim is unable to respond in any manner. And the bystanders are all happy to go along with and support the system which continues the abuse. The Plague is almost nihilistic in its portrait of toxic masculinity.
In contrast to this it is a beautifully shot film. From the opening sequence on Polinger shows us he knows what he is doing. He focuses on underwater views which are both beautiful and unnerving. It creates an uncanny sort of feeling which sets everything off just so. His thesis is quite a condemnation and he crafts it so lovingly. It is such a powerful juxtaposition that culminates in a moment that can be read equally as surrender and escape. Is our protagonist Ben collapsing in on himself in sheer desperation or liberating himself from the curse he's been under. So much remains rightfully unanswered. His physical manifestations of "the plague" are never explained. How much of it is in his head, how much is psychosomatic, how much is a narrative representation of his self-hatred?
To call The Plague an "impressive" debut is reductive. This is a declaration of a film maker arriving. And Blunck is an actor just getting started.
The Plague
Starring: Everett Blunck, Kayo Martin, Kenny Rasmussen, Joel Edgerton
Writer/Director: Charlie Polinger
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