GOLDEN GRAHAMS

Editor-at-Large Jamie Graham unearths underrated classics…

THIS MONTH Spontaneous

In the age of streaming, so many movies are dumped straight online with little or no fanfare. Most are average or rubbish, but some are good or even great. When the latter is the case, one of two things happen: 1) absolutely nothing, the film sinking in a sea of content; or 2) a buzz begins on social media, with excitable word of mouth swivelling eyeballs in the movie’s direction. It happened with romcom Set It Up on Netflix, and sciencefiction mystery The Vast of Night on Prime Video. And as I write this, it’s happening with writer/director Brian Duffield’s sophomore feature No One Will Save You on Disney+.

I’m delighted to see it, for this low-budget sci-fi horror movie overcomes its limited resources and recycled ideas with plenty of visual imagination and oodles of filmmaking verve. It deserves the attention, and will ensure Duffield is granted bigger budgets in future, in line with his abilities.

Some people labelled No One Will Save You a calling card, and it would be just that had Duffield not already made one in the form of Spontaneous, an ace comedy drama about high-school kids combusting. ‘Katelyn exploded,’ says our sardonic heroine and narrator Mara (Katherine Langford) to best friend Tess (Riverdale’s Hayley Law). ‘What? Like, a bomb?’ asks Tess. ‘Like a… balloon,’ replies Mara, one of many smart, funny lines in a movie that brims with brio as it mixes gallows humour, emotion and satire. A dazzling debut, it deserved the same buzz afforded to No One Will Save You, but instead it sank.

Katelyn’s kaboom is the first of 31 such inexplicable explosions that decimate the senior class of Covington High. Usually they’re days or weeks apart, and happen when everyone least expects it, with a classroom, car or football field suddenly plastered in blood and bone. But in one instance there are multiple explosions, one after the other, as the kids charge shrieking through the corridors. The high-school shootings metaphor is clear, but other meanings can be pinned: terrorism, existential nihilism, venereal disease, Gen Z anxiety at Trump’s election. The movie is based on Aaron Starmer’s 2016 novel but came out in 2020, so COVID offers a cough from the sidelines as the kids are quarantined. Duffield also points his finger at the attending circus, from phony memorials and posturing politicians to clueless policing and religious fanatics who blame the teens themselves for this terrifying outbreak. Pharmaceutical companies look to monetise a cure.

‘The world is a cruel piece of shit and nothing makes sense,’ says Mara’s voiceover, but the kids – scared, grieving, soundtracked by neo-emo music – do what they can to live what little life they might have left. For Mara, this includes falling in love for the first time, and her blossoming relationship with movie nerd Dylan (Charlie Plummer) is a joy to behold.

Who knows, maybe more viewers will experience Spontaneous’ many delights now that No One Will Save You is making waves, though I still don’t see it getting many mentions on social media. Or maybe you’ll rent it after reading this column? Think 10 Things I Hate about You through the lens of Chuck Palahniuk. ‘You’re cool… and original,’ Dylan tells Mara, explaining why he fell for her so hard. The same can be said of this movie.

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