Spontaneous
Director: Brian Duffield
Writer: Brian Duffield and Aaron Starner
Starring: Katherine Langford (tragic teen novel adaptations are just her thing), Charlie Plummer (see the previous comment about teen tragedies), Yvonne Orji, Hayley Law, Piper Perabo, Bob Huebel
Reason for watching: I keep hearing good things about this and I better actually watch something on Amazon Prime every once in a while if Jane and I are gonna keep paying for it
Number of times I’ve watched it: first time viewing
***
Original concepts for teenage movies are something rare to come by. But you make up a concept about high school seniors blowing up randomly, and you can say that my interest is piqued. It has set up for a dark comedy type of setup that could really get the blood moving. And for a while, it does keep you engaged and laughing until the tragedy hits a little too close to home for our protagonist. And normally that kind of drastic change of tone would ruin a movie for me, but it didn’t this time. So let’s talk about it.
After members of her senior class start spontaneously combusting, Mara (Katherine Langford) finds herself trapped in a world where up is down, right is wrong, and no one knows what is going on. She does manage to meet and fall in love with fellow high school senior Dylan (Charlie Plummer). As more and more of their classmates start erupting in a spray of blood, theories about why everything is happening begin to fly. Said theories ranging from scientific to purely superstitious. Yet as the deaths begin to mount, the fact is this matter becomes too personal for anyone to really get a comprehensive grip on why anything is happening.
I am going to have to get into spoiler territory in order for me to truly convey my thoughts on the themes of this movie so we won’t go there yet. But I can tell you I appreciate the snarky and down-to-earth style of Langford’s acting. Like it or not, she was one of the only good parts of 13 Reasons Why when she still had a consistent part on the show. She gets to play in that playground a little bit more here. While I have no idea what else she is capable of at this point, I think we have enough evidence to say she’s a capable actress. Plummer also does well as being a dream boyfriend. He’s supportive, friendly, funny, and the right amount of prince charming. Again, there’s a promising career for that guy somewhere down the line.
One small criticism: some of the teenagers really do feel like stereotypes with the slappy happy jock, the drug dealer, and the high school princess, but you have to have background characters somewhere. And they do seem to capture just how ridiculous high schoolers can be sometimes. The special effects used during the death scenes are well done as well as the gruesomeness feels authentic as does the reactions from the witnesses any time a student combustion happens.
Now I’m going into spoiler commentary now. So if you don’t want this spoiled for you time to skip to the end or go read another post or check facebook for the gazillionth time.
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Eventually, Dylan explodes and becomes one of the final students who dies tragically. What makes it even worse is that Mara was standing right in front of him when it happens. It’s a traumatic moment that feels like a trainwreck in slow motion. You know what’s coming, but you can’t stop it. We watch as Mara’s mental health slip as she falls into alcohol to numb the pain. There’s no desire left for her to do anything at all, much less school or figure out her future. The movie started to drag a little at this point. It felt like a better version of that scene from New Moon where Bella is sitting in a chair for 3 months straight because Edward dumped her. Still, it drags the movie to a HALT. But when Mara musters up the courage to go to a sad senior prom mixed with graduation, she confesses to everyone that she believes herself to be the cause of the deaths. A few other students cut her off with their own thoughts as to why each of them is the reason for the loss of their classmates. Explanations span from overly religious or unrealistic expectations on one’s self.
After I finished the movie, this part didn’t really make sense to me. I thought perhaps it was just another joke and playing the students for idiots who can point and laugh at. But no. I don’t think that’s what it means anymore. Every student’s bizarre explanation and the higher authorities who run tests on the students like the US government have no answers for what’s happening. And I think that’s meant to say that no one has a reason or a predictor for why terrible things happen. They just happen sometimes. Blaming yourself or someone else is ridiculous because in the end that will never change the outcome or loss of life. We have to just recognize at times that there is no real or solid answer for why something terrible happened, and our best mental health choice when these terrible things happen is to mourn the loss and continue on with life. It’s good to remember people who we have lost, but spending what precious little time we have on this earth over-analyzing past mistakes is a fruitless effort.
8/10