films 002. Sky Peals.

2023. dir. Moin Hussain.
Viewed in 35mm at the Garden cinema.

This is one of those films in which ‘nothing happens’, as a friend put it — in the realm of movies like Aftersun. It follows Adam, a fast food worker, during the days and weeks following his father’s death. In energy it resonated with me more strongly than most of its kind: for thematic loneliness and isolation, liminal settings galore, and of course the sci-fi inclusions. The visuals are grey and gorgeous — suburban grunge, moody skies and neon lights. Its perspective called to mind Dostoevsky’s White Nights and Mishima’s Beautiful Star, the former for its painful portrayal of desperation and emptiness, all shameful clarity, the latter for premise, pace, stillness, and space.

I’d probably class the film as slice-of-life, though it does push realism psychologically, exploring the ease with which the isolated among us can get lost in interiority and become discordant with the world — in Adam’s case literally alienated. I think it was effective, though I personally would’ve loved for it to have delved a little deeper; Adam’s belief that he was an extraterrestrial and his overall psychological trajectory were subtly brushed up against rather than pushed to boundaries.