Mark Reviews Movies: BAD AXE

Bad Axe, IFC Films

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Review by Mark Dujsik | November 17, 2022

Filmed over the course of 2020, David Siev's documentary Bad Axe is an intimate portrait of a family living in the same house and trying to keep a business alive during the pandemic. This is a time of so much uncertainty, and for Siev, that feeling eventually extends to the very purpose of making this film, as well as the potential consequences of making it publicly available.

The narrative begins in March in the small, eponymous town in Michigan, where the filmmaker has come from his current home in New York City as COVID-19 cases begin to rise around the world. With nothing much to do, Siev starts filming and doesn't stop.

Also returning to this house are the director's sisters Jaclyn and Raquel (A third sister is also present, but she seems camera-shy or unwilling to put her life out there as much as the other two). The former has a job in Ann Arbor, working remotely while she's taking up residence in her childhood home, and a husband named Michael, who has also come to help out. Raquel is in her final year of college and wasn't sure what she'd be doing after school. She's especially unclear what she'll do now after completing her courses, which are all online because of the pandemic.

The siblings' parents are Chun, a refugee from Cambodia whose mother and five siblings escaped the dictatorship of Pol Pot, and Rachel, the daughter of Mexican immigrants. When they were first married, the two opened a donut shop in this town. It has since changed into a family restaurant. When the state government begins closing non-essential businesses and putting restrictions on how restaurants can operate, the Sievs' diner has to adapt to a takeout/delivery model. With the children worried about their parents coming into contact with others and possibly catching the virus, the family's younger generation takes over the day-to-day running of the establishment.

There's very little sense that the director has a larger point in mind or even any intention of making a narrative out of his family's pandemic-related time together. While that might sound like a criticism, it's actually a strength here. Siev, the filmmaker, simply observes as his siblings balance work, school, their personal lives, and trying to keep themselves, each other, and their parents safe during this time. Since the family doesn't seem to think his project is anything much more than something to keep him occupied (and because they don't really have a choice, living under the same roof together), Siev has pretty much open access to his relatives' lives. They're quite honest on camera and don't try to hide the tensions that are escalating.

Of primary interest is the ongoing clash between Jaclyn and Chun. Both of them are strong in their convictions, more than a bit stubborn, and very vocal whenever their ideas, choices, and activities are challenged. Jaclyn isn't afraid to scold her mother and father for continuing to show up at the restaurant, although the way she nearly breaks down into tears when explaining to her father that nothing would matter anymore if he were die shows just how deep the love is among this family. Among other things, that Chun stops going to the restaurant after that confrontation gives us a good sense of him, too.

Siev's mostly fly-on-the-wall approach gives us a real sense of being witness to the family's everyday struggles, regular fears, and strained but undeniable connections under the pressures of a health crisis, financial worries, and mounting difference of opinion about how to deal with the changing and divisive political climate. That last part brings with even more tensions among the family and within the town, while also forcing Siev to deal with the real-world ramifications of making and trying to fund/promote a movie.

Bad Axe is populated by mostly conservative people, most of whom voted for the President at the time of filming in the previous election and have every intention of doing the same again in the upcoming one. Running a business in this place, the parents are of the belief that remaining silent and apolitical in public is essential to good business sense. At home, Chun is vocal, though, about his concerns, having come from a country where hatred and authoritarianism had such deadly results on a massive scale. He and Rachel debate just how far they should take some public political stance, if at all, with their adult children, who become more outspoken and participate in a protest in the aftermath of the murder of George Floyd.

Through all of this, Siev remains an observer and out of the frame for the most part, and we watch as members of a local hate group insult his sister, as email and online comments start to decry even a hint of politics coming from the restaurant's social media accounts, and someone calls the place with an implicit death threat. That last incident comes in response to an online fundraising campaign that filmmaker set up for the very film we're watching. While there's a sickening sense of tension as the family begins to fear for their lives, it also means the director has to determine if his film is still going to be a "love letter" to this town and, if so, how it could or will be that under such circumstances.

The way Siev wrestles with that notion, as well as how his film could impact the people he loves, is fascinating. Mostly, though, Bad Axe serves as a first-hand account of an uncertain moment in time and a frank but loving depiction of a family trying to survive it.

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