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TYREL
Director: Sebastián Silva Cast: Jason Mitchell, Christopher Abbott, Caleb Landry Jones, Michael Cera, Nicolas Arze, Michael Zegen, Philip Ettinger, Roddy Bottum, Ann Dowd, Reg E. Cathey MPAA
Rating: Running Time: 1:26 Release Date: 12/5/18 (limited) |
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Review by Mark Dujsik | December 4, 2018 It's almost guaranteed that all of us have, at one point in our lives at least, felt out of place and/or unwelcome. Tyrel captures that feeling with a discomforting degree of accuracy, and then it keeps presenting it over and over. At a certain point, we start to wonder if writer/director Sebastián Silva has any real goal with this movie, other than to make us uncomfortable. To be sure, there's a lot more happening here, but for some reason, Silva himself seems uncomfortable to actually explore the primary reason for the main character's feeling of isolation, anxiety, and wanting to get away from his surroundings. The major reason is right on the surface: Tyler (Jason Mitchell) is black, and everyone around him, from his good friend Johnny (Christopher Abbott) to everyone he meets—and who, initially, get his name wrong (hence the title)—over the next few days in a remote house in the middle of nowhere, is white. The tension is significant at first, especially since Johnny's other friends aren't exactly enlightened on such matters. The first night at the house, after a significant amount of drinking (something that doesn't stop for the entirety of the stay), the group plays a game of impersonating famous people and accents, pulled from a hat. Tyler pulls a "black accent," and the response from the others is one of trying to downplay the insinuation or seeking Tyler's approval. All of this builds and builds, with Pete (Caleb Landry Jones), the man whose birthday the group is celebrating, barely hiding his antagonism toward Tyler and Alan (Michael Cera), the rich one of the group, becoming fast friends with Tyler, simply because he's the only one who acknowledges that the new guy might be feeling a bit odd. Once the dynamics of the characters and the potential racial tensions have been established, though, Silva mostly ignores them for an extended night of alcohol-fueled paranoia, anger, and desperation to get away from these people. Silva is mostly going for an atmosphere unease, and he accomplishes that with some queasy hand-held camera work, jarring editing, and the use of a distorted lens. We feel Tyler's sense of entrapment in this place and with these people, but Tyrel always seems on the verge of saying more about the specifics of his situation. It never does. Copyright © 2018 by Mark Dujsik. All rights reserved. |
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