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The Transfiguration, 2016
Teenager Milo (Eric Ruffin) lives in an apartment in a dangerous city building with his older brother, Lewis (Aaron Moten). Both of his parents dead and a social outcast, Milo is relentlessly bullied by the kids his own age, and works to avoid the more dangerous older young men who rule over the building. Obsessed with vampires and believing himself to be one, Milo stays off the radar as much as possible, until the arrival of a girl his age, Sophie (Chloe Levine) shakes things up.
When I took a class in poetry writing in college, one of the pieces of advice we got was to be very careful about starting our own poems with quotes from other poems. Unavoidably, evoking another, better poem will mean that the reader will be comparing your poem to theirs.
This, in some ways, is the trap that The Transfiguartion falls into. Milo believes that he is a vampire, and he is obsessed with their mythology and especially vampire movies. There are explicit references to classics like Nosferatu, Milo raves about Let the Right One In, and Sophie even pitches in with her liking of Twilight and True Blood. This places a heavy contextual weight on the film, especially when it brings up movies like Let the Right One In that focus on a teen vampire and a non-vampire friend.
Now, on the flip side, the constant references (along with the gruesome YouTube videos Milo watches) actually brings a feeling of realism to the way that children and teens try to reconcile their identities. Milo is in the process of constructing his own mythology, one that sometimes matches and sometimes diverts from "classic" vampire mythology. Lacking anyone around who would understand, Milo is seeking out a way to make sense of who he is.
The best aspect of the film is the way that it evokes a kind of teenage misery and ennui. Lewis, Milo's brother, has returned from military service and spends his days on the couch in front of the TV. He has distanced himself from his old friends--the gang that terrorizes and runs the building--but without them he is adrift. Both brothers are alone and lost in their own ways, living on the margins. In fact, the whole film is strangely a world without adults--those who must appear (police, teachers, counselors) are seen from the neck down or even totally off-screen.
Despite some strengths--including good performances and a strongly-evoked setting--the film is lacking some vital oomph. The relationships (Lewis and Milo, Milo and Sophie) are realistic feeling and well done, but they don't really evolve all that much. There's a fun question that hangs around the film: Is Milo really a vampire? And this question is bound up in the way that Milo is trying to reconcile his violent impulses. But much in the way that the relationships don't evolve, this question doesn't get much depth either. For better or worse, the conflict is almost entirely contained within Milo.
There are plenty of teenage vampire films out there. While this one didn't quite cross the line into really good, I did feel that the setting and the psychology of the main character made for an interesting departure. There's something compelling about the combination of an outcast story mixed with racial segregation, poverty, mental illness, and urban decay. I just wish that something more powerful had been done with those elements.
The Transfiguration, 2016
Teenager Milo (Eric Ruffin) lives in an apartment in a dangerous city building with his older brother, Lewis (Aaron Moten). Both of his parents dead and a social outcast, Milo is relentlessly bullied by the kids his own age, and works to avoid the more dangerous older young men who rule over the building. Obsessed with vampires and believing himself to be one, Milo stays off the radar as much as possible, until the arrival of a girl his age, Sophie (Chloe Levine) shakes things up.
When I took a class in poetry writing in college, one of the pieces of advice we got was to be very careful about starting our own poems with quotes from other poems. Unavoidably, evoking another, better poem will mean that the reader will be comparing your poem to theirs.
This, in some ways, is the trap that The Transfiguartion falls into. Milo believes that he is a vampire, and he is obsessed with their mythology and especially vampire movies. There are explicit references to classics like Nosferatu, Milo raves about Let the Right One In, and Sophie even pitches in with her liking of Twilight and True Blood. This places a heavy contextual weight on the film, especially when it brings up movies like Let the Right One In that focus on a teen vampire and a non-vampire friend.
Now, on the flip side, the constant references (along with the gruesome YouTube videos Milo watches) actually brings a feeling of realism to the way that children and teens try to reconcile their identities. Milo is in the process of constructing his own mythology, one that sometimes matches and sometimes diverts from "classic" vampire mythology. Lacking anyone around who would understand, Milo is seeking out a way to make sense of who he is.
The best aspect of the film is the way that it evokes a kind of teenage misery and ennui. Lewis, Milo's brother, has returned from military service and spends his days on the couch in front of the TV. He has distanced himself from his old friends--the gang that terrorizes and runs the building--but without them he is adrift. Both brothers are alone and lost in their own ways, living on the margins. In fact, the whole film is strangely a world without adults--those who must appear (police, teachers, counselors) are seen from the neck down or even totally off-screen.
Despite some strengths--including good performances and a strongly-evoked setting--the film is lacking some vital oomph. The relationships (Lewis and Milo, Milo and Sophie) are realistic feeling and well done, but they don't really evolve all that much. There's a fun question that hangs around the film: Is Milo really a vampire? And this question is bound up in the way that Milo is trying to reconcile his violent impulses. But much in the way that the relationships don't evolve, this question doesn't get much depth either. For better or worse, the conflict is almost entirely contained within Milo.
There are plenty of teenage vampire films out there. While this one didn't quite cross the line into really good, I did feel that the setting and the psychology of the main character made for an interesting departure. There's something compelling about the combination of an outcast story mixed with racial segregation, poverty, mental illness, and urban decay. I just wish that something more powerful had been done with those elements.