"The film opens with a stunning submerged shot of a pool glittering like a starfield, setting the tone for a brutal, animal-like hierarchy among the boys."
"Ben, desperate to fit in, meekly falls in with Jake's psyops, despite the coach's insistence that he should just be himself."
"The first hour of The Plague is fantastic, echoing juvenile initiation rites and bursts of wantonness, while observing the boys like a nature documentary."
"The film flirts with body horror, suggesting that the plague could be psychosomatic, but ultimately succumbs to predictable beats."
Set in a boys' water polo training camp in 2003, the film delves into the harsh social hierarchy among the kids, characterized by bullying and hazing. Ben, a newcomer, struggles to fit in with the dominant group led by Jake, while avoiding the stigma attached to Eli, a boy labeled as afflicted by a fictitious disease. The film combines visual sharpness with a keen ear for youthful dialogue, touching on various absurd topics. However, it eventually falls into predictable patterns and reveals its influences too overtly.
Read at www.theguardian.com
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]