Iconoclastic auteur Concord Korine delivers one other tripped-out feat of film gamer insanity with Child Invasion, which follows final 12 months’s AGGRO DR1FT down an identical rabbit gap (one that features a lot of digital rabbits this time) wherein violence, mayhem, masks and McMansions come clashing collectively within the Florida solar.
Whereas DR1FT was a freewheeling murderer flick whose pictures have been processed and reprocessed till they appeared like drug-addled nightmares, Invasion applies a unique aesthetic however a comparable narrative method, breaking the limitations between cinema and video video games till we not know if we’re watching one or the opposite. And simply in case you didn’t get that, onscreen titles come up in some unspecified time in the future saying: “This isn’t a film. It is a sport. That is actual life. There isn’t any actual life.” All clear now?
Child Invasion
The Backside Line
Medication are beneficial.
Venue: Venice Movie Competition (Out of Competitors)
Director: Concord Korine
1 hour 20 minutes
Anybody going into Korine’s newest anticipating to sit down by way of an journey story about infants invading Miami Seashore needs to be forewarned: There aren’t any precise infants right here, however relatively a gang of closely armed burglars utilizing digital child masks to disguise themselves. The catch is that they’re enjoying a online game on the identical time, so their actual crimes earn them bonus factors within the digital world and money in the actual world.
If that’s nonetheless complicated, no worries. Korine couldn’t care much less concerning the viewer getting every part. What’s necessary is the immersive expertise Child Invasion presents. There are layers upon layers of pictures: a live-streamed commentary monitor, CGI bunnies and all types of loopy gamer icons, a slew of textual content in Japanese. The visuals are backed by closely atmospheric sound design and a heart-rate-accelerating rating from British EDM producer Burial.
It’s fascinating to behold for, say, the primary 10 minutes, however like DR1FT the movie quickly turns into numbingly repetitive. It’s one factor to play a online game, which is kind of an lively expertise, however sitting down and watching one is altogether extra passive, and albeit fairly boring. That stated, tens of millions of individuals now watch different folks enjoying video video games on Twitch or YouTube, so Korine is clearly onto one thing right here.
Whereas there’s no precise script in Child Invasion, the movie may be damaged down into three sequences, bookended by an interview with a sport designer who explains how her final creation — referred to as both Child Invasion or Child Invaders — grew to become a phenomenon IRL. From there, we observe a gang of gamers, belonging to a bigger on-line group referred to as Duck Mobb, who get locked and loaded with all types of assault rifles, then head out in a scary white van to wreak havoc.
The remainder of the film consists of two lengthy dwelling invasion scenes, each set in huge Florida mansions that the invaders progressively turns into billionaire bloodbaths. Not that the motion is overtly violent: Plenty of weapons are wielded however by no means fired, and the baby-masked robbers spend about as a lot time scaring householders and grabbing their money as they do galivanting round, taking selfies and consuming platters of contemporary fruit.
There’s an underlying commentary right here concerning the poor stealing from the ultra-rich, which was already a theme in Korine’s Spring Breakers and turns into far more flagrant this time. The second theft, which takes place in a whopping mega-mansion replete with indoor basketball court docket, a colossal out of doors swimming pool (the most important personal one in South Florida — I appeared it up) and one of many extra vulgar inside adorning schemes in current reminiscence, feels virtually justified whenever you witness the sheer quantity of wealth and vainness on show.
Korine takes nice pleasure in having his band of merry players destroy these areas, leaving blood-soaked our bodies on the bottom as they rack up factors on-line. However their enjoyable is just not essentially addictive, and what felt contemporary and new at first doesn’t maintain up for the size of a characteristic. Child Invasion is finally much less a sport, or a film, or none or each, than a kind of taking place — one which Korine orchestrates along with his regular visible aptitude.
Sure pictures within the movie are downright mesmerizing. However accrued over 80 minutes, they have an inclination to lose their endurance. Most of Child Invasion was shot with what appear like physique cams, providing a fisheye lens-view of the chaos. Different photographs are completed with dwelling surveillance cameras — which, by the way in which: Why do none of those Florida billionaires have respectable safety methods or panic rooms?
There may be a lot going down on display that it’s unattainable to catch each element, to not point out observe a voiceover saying random issues like: “The rabbit knew he had been blessed” and “He remembered what it was wish to be one with the wind.” Is all of it poetry or only a put-on? Once more, Child Invasion is a little bit of each, and viewers are more likely to both vibe out or tune out.