A24
In the realm of ‘indie’ movies there are a subcategory of films that are ‘foreign indie’ movies, which are the same sort of genres except with unique cultural signifiers of the countries of origins. Many of these indie movies focus on sad, overly ‘real’ ideas like death and depression, but the better versions of these pepper their salty tears with a touch of sugar at least.
When you include the genre of ‘coming-of-age’, it often touches on bittersweet notions, as the very idea of coming-of-age is leaving childhood behind. Whether or not that works for the audience is really up to the eye of the beholder, and sometimes there are hints of ideas beyond the surface.
Close comes from Belgian director Lukas Dhont, co-written with Angelo Tijssens, and starts us off in a dreamlike state with the tale of two incredibly close best friends. Right over the cusp of childhood, there’s a world that’s entirely internal to them, at least at first. We follow Eden Dambrine as Léo and Gustav De Waele as Rémi as the movie watches them interact in a practiced, very comfortable way, the two having grown up as neighbors in an idyllic Belgian countryside.
The two are so close they sleep over at each other’s houses, which isn’t at all unusual for best friends — but they’re also very physically affectionate and comfortable with each other, often sleeping near or on top of each other. Whether or not there’s anything romantic or not is left to the audience to decide, as perhaps the boys don’t even know themselves.
All’s well and good until the two start at school and things begin to fall apart. Some kids assume the two are a couple because of their closeness, not necessarily in any cruel way, but this bothers Léo. Whether or not it’s because it’s true or false is again impossible to say, but things get even more strained when some bullying kids actually throw out homophobic insults and slurs.
Léo pulls away from Rémi, who isn’t really bothered by the implications (again which could mean whatever you want it mean), and is mainly hurt by his friend’s now coldness. Things only get worse and worse, and then the movie takes a particularly tragic twist.
After that it’s about how the survivors try to handle (or fail to handle) their grief as the dream of the film turns twisted and sad. But life continues to go on, and the movie, blip of tragedy aside, focuses itself on the interiority of these characters and the aftermath in their ‘real’ world.
It’s a beautifully shot film, with very strong performances from the two young actors playing best friends, with Eden Dambrine being tasked to handle some particularly heavy and complex moments. The inherent sadness of the movie means I cannot imagine many people outside the more niche ‘foreign indie’ film crowd could possibly be interested, but it is an effective example of that type of film.
The movie may not have struck the emotional chords with me it wanted to, but the notes were all there and well composed. Sometimes you watch these dreamlike movies and in the end, it feels good just to wake up.
Close has been nominated for Best International Feature Film for the 95th Academy Awards.
Close has a run time of 1 hour 45 minutes and is rated PG-13 for thematic material involving suicide and brief strong language.
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