Film Review - Society

Film Review:

Society

"A matter of breeding Milo."

IN our times of economic instability, politics that is swinging globally towards fascism and a rampant pandemic, the slogan "eat the rich" - and all that it connotes - seems more and more relevant. In 1989 when Bill Whitney (Billy Warlock) bites into an apple at the start of Society, he finds it infested with worms. Little does he know where it'll take him...

High Society

BILL'S convinced he is adopted, that his blue blooded parents and sister are not his real family, and that there is something strange going on. He's your typical jock framed in a very saved-by-the-bell high school drama - star football player and soon to be year president. The girls want him and the boys from the other big clique resent him. His world is dumped on its head when his sister's ex (Tim Bartell) turns up at a date and plays him a tape recording of what appears to be an incest orgy,  seemingly confirming his paranoia around his familial situation.

Much of the movie happens in a bright, flatly lit manner much befitting of a daytime American soap opera. It's been compared to Ferris Bueller gone wrong. It's a high school drama in the most insubstantial of ways, portraying the petty irrelevance of a glamourised teenage life with a sense of absurd importance. Everything, however, is off. Part of this, admittedly, is just a clumsy script and some bad acting - at points it works quite nicely and feels intentional, other times less so.

Underdeveloped

AS a protagonist, Bill leaves rather a lot to be desired. The bare bones are there - his motivation and paranoia are well defined by the movie, and he has a number of relationships that have potential for development. Said development is lacking. Severely lacking. At a number of points, both love interest Clarissa and best friend Milo go out of their way to either do things for Bill or to get his attention, and it's never properly established why exactly. The movie is in love with Bill, and demands very little proactivity or anything -actually- interesting from him. Milo spends a lot of the movie stalking Bill and pranking him, in order to provide transparent red herrings for the audience and be there in case the plot needs him.

In general, the plot's touch with characters isn't great. Neither does it have a firm grasp of structure: it feels like it cuts out a lot of the first act and fails to establish the characters paranoias properly. At the start of the movie, he tells his therapist his issues - we don't ever see it or feel it. The final act is also about a third of the movie (although this turns out to really be a blessing in disguise). The narrative structure, the dialogue and character work, the plotting - it's all rather on the shaky side.  

Beautiful People

Society draws many obvious comparisons - the uncanny hidden darkness of the world of Blue Velvet, the shallow awfulness of American Psycho, the paranoia coupled with a blandly pretty lick of paint of Stepford Wives. Recent Oscar winner Parasite flickers at the edges of vision. In a certain sense, it is a profoundly unoriginal - a social satire but how the rich seem weird and gross? Seen it, been there. It's definitely been done better.

Everyone in this movie except Billy, Milo and Clarissa is absolutely awful or grotesque in any manner of ways. Maybe the sister is introduced as not an unlikeable character, but before long she's loathsome too. The movie is transparent and blundering almost in how much its clear we should dislike its slimy and smarmy cast of characters, lacking the guts of something like American Psycho to even follow a main character who is among the worst examples. This is particularly clear with Billy's girlfriend at the start of the movie, a vapid harpy who he discards for the seductive and mysterious Clarissa, and the movie doesn't bat an eyelid. This is meant to make him seem more real, not less.

Dancing With the Audience

EARLY on, Society asks the audience a question - is Bill crazy, or is something untoward going on? Well, the film is very poor, from the outset, at really cementing that ambiguity.Society's script lacks the elegance and narrative slight of hand to really pull off that tension.

More than that, thematically it wouldn't make sense were the movie to be all a psychological fugue state on Bill's part. Society, from early on, is very clear that it is satirising the life and attitudes and entitlement of the rich. During the mad finale, one of the major characters even draws direct comparisons with the Roman Empire, evoking the likes of Caligula. The film is always straddling the line of farce and once it reaches its explosive finale, it commits. Hoo boy, does it commit.

All's Well That Ends Well

If this review has been rather negative so far, it's because Society isn't exactly great until the finale. As aforementioned, the structure of the movie is totally unbalanced, and roughly a third of the movie is taken up by the final act. This is a good thing. This is a very good thing.

Director Brian Yuzna was, prior to Society, best know for his work with the now deceased Stuart Gordon (very Scottish name that one). Gordon is best known for Re-animator and Into the Void (or possibly some cult film called Honey, I Shrunk the Kids), both of which are big silly extravangzas of ridiculous special effects and Lovecraft inspired visuals. Society sets this up with moments of incredibly idiosyncratic body horror that almost feel like they really didn't happen. This is an unusual bit of filming subtlety, and it pays off dividends with the bombastic and absurd conclusion. The sunny soap opera visuals of the earlier film when compared to what happens later? It's beyond absurd and is 100% what makes the movie worth watching.

Society is one hell of a ride that's worth it at the end - there is some fun and funny stuff along the way, and the movie does move at a decent pace, but maaaaan. Quite the ending.