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The Survivalist, 2015
In a near-future post-apocalypse, a man (Martin McCann) ekes out a decent existence in the woods, living off of what he can hunt and a small garden. His routine is upended when a young woman named Milja (Mia Goth) and her mother Kathryn (Olwen Fouere) arrive looking for supplies. Despite his better judgment, the man allows the women to stay, but his growing feelings for Mija threaten his carefully curated strategies for survival.
Strong performances and a focused theme elevate some familiar tropes.
This film is a good example of taking some overly-used tropes and showing them in their best light. Watching a beautiful woman arrive at the door of the detached survivalist, watching him fall into lust and quickly love, watching the uneasy triangle between the survivalist, Milja, and her mother----all of it feels like exactly the story beats you imagined when you read the plot synopsis. The surprises in this film come from the directing choices and the moments of slowing down for little moments.
The theme of this movie is simple, but it’s effectively portrayed from the first frame to the last. In short, connection and love and trust are vulnerabilities, but they are also what gives meaning to life. Allowing Milja and Kathryn into his life is a risk (of starvation if not from increased visibility to scavenger groups), but increasingly it’s one that the survivalist seems willing to take. As a viewer, we know that this is certainly a mistake. We don’t need Milja and Kathryn’s overt scheming to let us know that they are, ultimately, more cynical than their host.
The performances from all three of the leads are very strong, and Goth and McCann portray the tentative development of their relationship quite well. We are put inside the survivalist’s head, seeing how even the smallest moments of domestic work---preparing a meal, bathing---take on tense suspense when you don’t trust the person wielding the knife. But in this unlikely courtship, we see another aspect of the man’s inner workings, and something that also affects Milja: trust is attractive. In every moment that the man chooses to trust Milja, and in every moment that she chooses to trust him, they are building something. What starts as something pathetic and transactional (food for sex), develops into something real, yet precarious to the last moment.
Again: none of this is unexpected, but the acting is solid and the style of the film is very engaging. I’m very hit or miss on post-apocalyptic plots---they often don’t do much for me. I really liked a recurring style choice to intercut events with scenes that will happen later linearly. (I’m keeping this vague to avoid spoilers). It creates this dreamy/nightmarish quality where it’s not always clear if what we’re seeing is real, or if it’s what a character is imagining. I actually prefer to think that it’s both: we’re seeing moments that characters have imagined, finally coming to reality, and we are seeing their dread and anticipation knowing that the moment has arrived.
This is overall a solid film that does more with the post-apocalyptic premise than most films in this sub-genre.
The Survivalist, 2015
In a near-future post-apocalypse, a man (Martin McCann) ekes out a decent existence in the woods, living off of what he can hunt and a small garden. His routine is upended when a young woman named Milja (Mia Goth) and her mother Kathryn (Olwen Fouere) arrive looking for supplies. Despite his better judgment, the man allows the women to stay, but his growing feelings for Mija threaten his carefully curated strategies for survival.
Strong performances and a focused theme elevate some familiar tropes.
This film is a good example of taking some overly-used tropes and showing them in their best light. Watching a beautiful woman arrive at the door of the detached survivalist, watching him fall into lust and quickly love, watching the uneasy triangle between the survivalist, Milja, and her mother----all of it feels like exactly the story beats you imagined when you read the plot synopsis. The surprises in this film come from the directing choices and the moments of slowing down for little moments.
The theme of this movie is simple, but it’s effectively portrayed from the first frame to the last. In short, connection and love and trust are vulnerabilities, but they are also what gives meaning to life. Allowing Milja and Kathryn into his life is a risk (of starvation if not from increased visibility to scavenger groups), but increasingly it’s one that the survivalist seems willing to take. As a viewer, we know that this is certainly a mistake. We don’t need Milja and Kathryn’s overt scheming to let us know that they are, ultimately, more cynical than their host.
The performances from all three of the leads are very strong, and Goth and McCann portray the tentative development of their relationship quite well. We are put inside the survivalist’s head, seeing how even the smallest moments of domestic work---preparing a meal, bathing---take on tense suspense when you don’t trust the person wielding the knife. But in this unlikely courtship, we see another aspect of the man’s inner workings, and something that also affects Milja: trust is attractive. In every moment that the man chooses to trust Milja, and in every moment that she chooses to trust him, they are building something. What starts as something pathetic and transactional (food for sex), develops into something real, yet precarious to the last moment.
Again: none of this is unexpected, but the acting is solid and the style of the film is very engaging. I’m very hit or miss on post-apocalyptic plots---they often don’t do much for me. I really liked a recurring style choice to intercut events with scenes that will happen later linearly. (I’m keeping this vague to avoid spoilers). It creates this dreamy/nightmarish quality where it’s not always clear if what we’re seeing is real, or if it’s what a character is imagining. I actually prefer to think that it’s both: we’re seeing moments that characters have imagined, finally coming to reality, and we are seeing their dread and anticipation knowing that the moment has arrived.
This is overall a solid film that does more with the post-apocalyptic premise than most films in this sub-genre.