Review by
Eric Hillis
Directed by: Billie Piper
Starring: Billie Piper, Leo Bill, David Thewlis, Kerry Fox,
Lily James
Following Karen Gillan's
The Party's Just Beginning, Billie Piper's feature debut as writer/director,
Rare Beasts, is the second movie in as many years to be helmed by a former Doctor
Who companion. Both movies are thematic cousins, featuring millennial
protagonists played by their directors negotiating the tumult of modern
life and romance. But where Gillan seemed to arrive fully formed as a
mature filmmaker with a specific vision, Piper's debut is an unfocussed
mess that leaves the viewer confused as to just what story she's trying
to tell here.
Piper plays Mandy, single mother to Larch (Toby Woolf), a young boy
with behavioural issues (which are played too often for cheap laughs). She
lives at home with her mother (Kerry Fox) and occasionally her
wastrel father (David Thewlis), who seems determined to rekindle
his estranged relationship with Mandy's mother. Mandy has recently begun
dating her coworker Pete (Leo Bill), a religiously devout
misogynist broken from the Jordan Peterson mould.
Scurrying from one haphazard vignette to the next,
Rare Beasts details the tumultuous relationship between
Mandy and Pete, with occasional diversions to explore the similar dynamic
between Mandy's parents. Paul Thomas Anderson would appear to be the
primary influence on Piper, who seems intent on aping the manic approach
and visual style of Punch Drunk Love, right down to the blue suit sported by Pete. The relationship between
Mandy and Pete has something of
Phantom Thread
about it, but unlike the heroine of that film, who gave as good as she
got, Mandy just takes Pete's abuse, which is wrapped up in cod-philosophy
of the sort spouted by conservative YouTube hosts.
When the film begins, Mandy and Pete have just begun seeing one another,
which leaves us musing over how they ever got together in the first place.
Pete is as unattractive an individual as your imagination could conjure,
so what Mandy sees in him is anyone's guess. Piper seems so desperate to
critique men like Pete that she's fashioned him into a one-dimensional
caricature. He's nothing more than a vessel for misogynistic viewpoints,
making it difficult to take him, or the film, seriously. Similarly,
Mandy's father has no interior life beyond being a stand-in for deadbeat
Dads who can't handle responsibility, while her Mum is conversely an
angelic figure. The scenes in Mandy's workplace, some sort of trendy media
outlet, feature men behaving in a manner that would have them suspended on
the spot today, as though the office exists in 1973. In the world of
Rare Beasts, men are misogynistic monsters and women are seraphic victims who put up
with them – there's no nuance, no shades of grey to be found here.
Visually, Rare Beasts is exactly the sort of movie you might
expect from a first time director, all quick cuts and indulgent fantasy
sequences. There's a dance sequence at a wedding that feels like it
belongs at the end of an entirely different movie, rather than popping up
at the halfway point here. A dream sequence involving Mandy and her
teenage self tapdancing on a stage in an attempt to catch her squabbling
parents' attention has "First year of film school" written all over it.
Aside from a late moment of quasi-reconciliation between Mandy's parents,
none of the scenes are given enough time to breath. Piper would probably
say this is intentional, meant to represent the exhausting pace of modern
life, but it doesn't help us get to know her thinly drawn characters.
Piper is aided greatly by the experience of Fox and Thewlis, while Bill
(who you might remember from his hilarious turn as the washing machine
obsessive from
In Fabric) is the standout, managing to make the one-note Pete engaging. The very
fact that her film's ostensible villain is the only element that makes it
worth watching speaks volumes about Piper's struggle to communicate her
message about gender relations. If Piper is to continue behind the camera
she may need to avail of the services of an established writer who can
fashion her ideas into a coherent and rounded narrative.
Rare Beasts is in UK cinemas and on
UK/ROI Digital platforms from May 21st.
