Film review: Lurker (plus ticket giveaway)

Nothing is more interesting to Hollywood than how normal people are obsessed with their lifestyle. Tell a filmmaker to create a story about famous artists through their point of view, and you get a comedy. Through the point of view of a fan, and you get a horror film. Lurker, written and directed by Alex Russel, isn’t a horror film, but it has the mechanics of one. It’s a crime thriller where the crime is more ideological than legal, even when eventually a crime is committed, the crux of the matter is only obsession. That old chestnut that’s central to many dramas.

Matthew (Théodore Pellerin) is a young nobody when one day the fashion shop he works for is visited by Oliver (Archie Madeweke), an up-and-coming young artist making the rounds in the underground and about to explode in the mainstream. Matthew catches Oliver’s attention by changing the song playing in the store to one the artist was influenced by. Matthew pretends not knowing who Oliver is, that is clear from the start. This a ploy, a way for him to worm his way into a lifestyle he strives for. The whole thing is a career move.

Matthew is invited in to join Oliver’s posse in the guise of someone who doesn’t care about his stardom and understands his references. But he contrasts with the rest of the team. They look at him suspiciously and treat him like a freshman in university bullied by the sophomore students. But Matthew prevails and becomes the group’s videographer, working on a documentary to be released in Oliver’s first record.

And here’s where the horror comes. As the influence of Oliver grows, so does his jealousy of anyone know who threatens to steal his thunder. Case in point his friend Jaime (Sunny Suljic) who meets everyone in a party and seemingly starts hanging out with the team and is even accepted by the rest of the posse. Matthew struggles with the lack of control, which leads to more erratic behaviours and one moment where someone gets seriously hurt.

Though he started his career writing for the hit shows The Bear and Beef, Russell here looks more influenced by the films made by the short-lived production company Borderline Films, especially the films of Sean Durkin, Antonio Campos and Alex Mond. Slow-burning films with a compelling premise that are more interested in analysing the psychological complexities of their subjects. They have a 70s look to them, like Hal Ashby via Sofia Coppola. Decidedly Los Angeles (even when they’re not in California) and filled with late millennial ennui. It’s interesting as Durkin, moved to bigger ventures, making the jump to A24 last year with The White Claw that now the unofficial collective’s work is a reference to new emerging artists in the indie scene.

But while the influence is evident, Russell finds his own vision. This is a hard story to tackle as first feature. It has elements of different genres without fully giving in to any of them, and yet it flows at an enjoyable and thought-provoking pace. The performances Russell pulls out of Pellerin and Madeweke are some of the best this year. Madeweke manages to build on a type of character he played in Saltburn, and Pellerin just feels like he’s coming from an early-Polanski nightmare.

The second half of the story clinches closely to the psychological analysis of pursuit of fame to be both dehumanising and irrelevant. That it’s only a way to feed unto the egos of the people involved. None of that is new, but Russell tries to analyse it without the shock and awe of something like Sam Levinson’s work. Matthew’s final plan is a long montage that points at all the insidiousness fame brings, not for the love of art but for the self-gratification of the artist. Maybe it’s a cynical point of view, the ending clearly points at the depressing idea that compassion is lost in the pursuit of recognition, but there’s no other way to tell this story.

Verdict: 4 out of 5
For anyone who sees fame as soulless and dehumanising. For a first feature this is a solid effort that manages to analyse the psychology behind inflated egos, and it sticks to landing.

Ticket giveaway – Nuremberg

LSJ and Madman Entertainment have 5 passes to give for the upcoming historic war court drama, Nuremberg.

The Allies, led by the unyielding chief prosecutor, Robert H. Jackson (Michael Shannon), have the task of ensuring the Nazi regime answers for the unveiled horrors of the Holocaust while a US Army psychiatrist (Rami Malek) is locked in a dramatic psychological duel with former Reichsmarschall Herman Göring (Russell Crowe). In cinemas on 4 December. Watch the trailer here.

For a chance to win one of the passes, email your LawID and postal address to journal@lawsociety.com.au with the subject line NUREMBERG before December 1 end of day. Good luck.