Encounter (2021)

With films like Sound of Metal and Mogul Mowgli Ahmed has become one of my favourite actors working right now. Encounter continues this streak of his strong performances in interesting films. It is a creatively filmed take on an important story. I appreciate genre films that find ways into real world issues, ways that help us explore these issues in ways straight forward dramas do not. Encounter may not technically be science fiction but it uses the tools of the genre to tell this story of a struggling man who kidnaps his children and finds the difficult balance between helping us see what he's struggling with while laying out how dangerous he is. 

Often dangerous men see themselves as being right despite all the world around them opposing them. They blame their spouses, or the system, or their "replacements" for the problems they are having and lash out into the world with their frustrations. Men are often conditioned to react this way to opposition. What makes Encounter so interesting is the way it uses an alien invasion plot to get explore this. 

Director Pearce films his story in a way that is both beautiful (his use of colour and darkness is incredible to watch) but incredibly unnerving. The film starts by getting underneath our skin. We are uncomfortable from the beginning. We are immersed in Malik's world. The film then systematically deconstructs this before our eyes, showing us the ways his delusions hurt him and those around him, until we are even more unnerved by his behaviour and view of the world. While this kind of delusion is possible and does happen, leading people to act in dangerous ways, most often it's a more subtle skewed vision of the world that leads men to act in ways that hurt themselves and their families. Encounter is a very engaging examination of all that coming together. 

But the film goes beyond even that. It's critiques of American racism and the American justice system are palpable too without the film feeling "preachy" or hitting us over the head with it. 

And Encounter is a powerful watch. As I said Ahmed delivers another knock out performance, complicated and unnerving. He is both scary and sympathetic. Young actor Chauhan is very strong in the role of his tween son who is juggling an incredible amount of conflicting emotions.  As the film reaches it climax, the two actors together help make its ending feel earned and honest and quite heartbreaking. 

The film has an inevitably tragic ending but it earns how it gets there. It will give you quite a bit to think about and be sad about.  

Encounter

Starring: Riz Ahmed, Octavia Spencer, Lucian-River Chauhan, Aditya Geddada, Misha Coll, Rory Cochrane, Janina Gavankar

Director: Michael Pearce

Writers: Joe Barton, Michael Pearce