‘Alpha’ is a Thoughtful Effort from Julia Ducournau
Those who expected another Raw or Titane may be disappointed while watching Julia Ducournau’s latest movie, Alpha. This film takes a more subdued approach than the character-centric insanity pieces that immediately propelled the French filmmaker to critical acclaim. With only three features under her belt, Ducournau has already established herself as one of the most compelling genre artists working today. Especially coming off the heels of her historic Palme d’Or win for Titane, as only the second female director to receive the award.
The story in Julia Ducournau’s Alpha
Compared to the near-overwhelming praise of her last feature, Alpha received a relatively muted approach during its world premiere at La Croisette last year. Instead of trying to shock or, more aptly, provoke, Ducournau focuses her story on more intimate territories. Her 128-minute film tracks the familial relationship Alpha (Mélissa Boros) has with her mother (Golshifteh Farahani) following her heroin-addicted uncle Amin’s (Tahar Rahim) return to the family after many years of absence.
The movie is unflinchingly difficult to watch, not because Ducournau leans harder into New French Extremity sensibilities, but in how open she is at showcasing the irrational fears provoked by germophobia in the hands of children. At an unspecified point, a deadly bloodborne disease has been ravaging society, slowly turning its infected patients into marble, until they can no longer breathe.
No one knows how this illness has manifested or how it’s actively being transmitted, other than through close contact and needles. That’s why, after Alpha gets a tattoo that has unfortunately become infected, the people around her panic at the mere sight of blood gushing around her arm. Worse yet, instead of showing any form of compassion, her classmates abuse her to the point where the protagonist begins to develop anxiety attacks around potentially having contracted the disease.
Alpha’s mother works at a hospital, which has run out of beds and begins to turn riddled people away because they don’t have the capacity to treat or even care for their patients. So much internal (and external) tension occurs in these sequences, set in the past, where the mother tries her best to give people care but is unable to provide for anyone, waiting for the decayed patients to pass away.
Ducournau’s lensing, with aid from cinematographer Ruben Impens, is in total proximity to the characters and their bodies, way more than her previous two films. When she lingers on Amin’s track marks, a drug addict who unfortunately keeps succumbing to a fix, the feeling it imbues crawls deep under our skin.
Alpha contains a unique visual language, but frustrating storytelling
Ducournau isn’t afraid of persisting much longer with these images than we’re accustomed to and making them the central point of Alpha’s visual language. They become disquietingly uncomfortable when we learn more about Amin’s past and what caused his eventual separation from Alpha’s life. These digitally shot frames (of an actively textured and developed color palette) are also contrasted with the more emulsified look of past scenes, which are in constant communication with what is currently ongoing, despite a surface that seems to point in the opposite direction.
The main problem with Ducournau’s script (which could explain why audiences are put off by the film) is how nothing is developed past the introductory point. There are so many unwieldy ideas presented within her two-hour runtime, specifically on the perception of disease after the HIV crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic (the “virus” is apparently a parable to AIDS, but this goes nowhere), yet none are fleshed out. The only one that gets a modicum of development is the filmmaker’s perception of germophobia and paranoid parents who will stop at nothing to ensure no one falls ill. They go so far as to isolate themselves from the rest of the world if it means not contracting the disease.
For Alpha, the disease in question has now been mythologized in her mind. Contracting it would be perceived as a failure, following in her drug addict brother’s footsteps of making one bad decision after another. Revealing more would mean spoiling key plot points Ducournau likely doesn’t want to be revealed, but it won’t take long for you to figure out the direction Alpha is heading towards. Whereas Raw and Titane used the element of surprise to continually take their characters in unexpected directions, Alpha’s scenario is more conventional and less impressive.
Golshifteh Farahani and Tahar Rahim are incredible
However, this doesn’t stop Ducournau from centering her story on three characters and allowing Golshifteh Farahani and Tahar Rahim’s performances to be marked by active humanity. Mélissa Boros, unfortunately, succumbs to histrionics in her breakout role, undermining the tone Ducournau wanted to convey. This is especially clear when Farahani and Rahim are on their own and give more impactful turns by respecting Ducournau’s directorial approach. Farahani knew exactly how to perceive the unnamed mother and brought much-needed complexity to a character that is sadly underdeveloped in the filmmaker’s screenplay.
Amin has the most development, but his trajectory is clear from the moment he appears in the present day, which makes the resulting dramatic twist feel cheap rather than impactful. Still, Alpha can’t be entirely dismissed, even if it’s clearly Ducournau’s weakest effort. She throws a lot (perhaps too much) at the screen and juxtaposes many images with strange needle drops. Tame Impala’s “Let It Happen,” in particular, feels criminal. But the movie is still incredibly singular in its handling of disease. She’s boldly unafraid to pull back the curtain on the harsh realities patients and family members face in the wake of illness, and sparks a compelling conversation that few want to have.
It might not be as aesthetically and thematically strong as Raw or Titane, yet one wonders why NEON is burying it. There’s enough there to warrant our attention and, by extension, respect, even if the finished product may be imperfect. That said, I’ll take any movie overflowing with messy, undercooked ideas with incredibly confident images over most of the handholding, facile cinema audiences seem to eat up (hello, Project Hail Mary).
Alpha is one of those films that you’ll look forward to mull over for some time, despite its obvious flaws staring in front of your face. After Titane, my favorite movie of 2021, I couldn’t wait to see what Ducournau would do next. While it may not be as strong as her Palme d’Or-winning film, I still eagerly await her subsequent project. Her talents are entirely her own. Whatever she does after Alpha’s mixed reception will probably be even more intriguing than when she was on the top of the world.
Also check out: 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple Is A Quieter, Gnarlier Second Chapter
