Review by
Eric Hillis
Directed by: Alix Austin, Keir Siewert
Starring: Paige Gilmour, Shane Quigley-Murphy, May Kelly
In the wake of the MeToo movement we've seen some heavy handed
depictions of toxic masculinity in movies, especially those of a genre
bent. But none are as on-the-nose as the allegory deployed in
Alix Austin and Keir Siewert's Kill Your Lover. Here
toxicity is just that, a chemical that takes over a possessive man,
turning him into a literal monster and subsequently infecting his female
partner.
Taking its cues from films like Two for the Road and
Blue Valentine, Kill Your Lover opens at the end of a relationship and
details its downfall through flashbacks. Dakota (Paige Gilmour)
wants out of her relationship with Axel (Shane Quigley-Murphy),
and is in the process of rehearsing a breakup speech with her best
friend Rose (May Kelly) when Axel arrives home unexpectedly early
and overhears Dakota's plans.
When Rose leaves Dakota to hammer the final nail in her relationship's
coffin, Dakota finds Axel suffering from what seems like a particularly
nasty bug. Seeing him in such a sickly state, she decides to hold off on
delivering the hammer blow, but when Axel deteriorates to the point
where an oily black substance appears across his body, she begins to
wish she had left.
Through flashbacks we see how this doomed relationship initially
blossomed despite Dakota and Axel seeming an unlikely fit. Dakota lives
like a teenager, always leaving a mess behind her and proudly displaying
her former lovers in a photo collage on her wall. Axel on the other hand
is a conservative square obsessed with appearances. Dakota enjoys BDSM,
which Axel reluctantly plays along with despite his discomfort. We see
how Dakota gradually loses her identity as Axel asserts his control over
her.
Along with some clever make-up, Gilmour and Quigley-Murphy do a fine
job of portraying the toll Dakota and Axel's relationship has taken on
each other. In the flashbacks there's a gleam in their eyes and they
appear youthful and vital, whereas in the present they seem to have aged
a decade.
For its first 20 minutes or so Kill Your Lover works
moderately well as a relationship drama, but things fall apart when the
body horror elements kick in. The film does nothing interesting with
this idea and it resembles a short that's been padded out to the minimum
qualifying run time of a feature. The second half of the film is a
prolonged physical brawl between Dakota and Axel, who by this point have
morphed into superheroes, or supervillains, depending on your stance,
and it's basically a contained and intimate riff on the sort of
overblown fights that end comic book movies.
The movie clearly wants us to take Dakota's side, but it's difficult to
see her as the innocent party when she comes off as so obnoxious and
immature. We're supposed to think Axel is being unreasonable in
demanding Dakota remove her pictures of former conquests, which seems
like the sort of thing that would be a deal breaker to anyone entering a
new relationship, regardless of their gender. Dakota also seems unclear
as to what exactly her issue is with Axel. One minute she's complaining
about his domineering ways, the next she's moaning that she doesn't know
what he wants from her? Well, which is it?
But perhaps the elephant in the room is that it's impossible to believe
two people from such disparate worlds as Axel and Dakota would be drawn
to one another in the first place for anything more substantial than a
one-night stand. They're the sort of people you'd go out of your way to
avoid, and spending 77 minutes in their company is so gruelling you
struggle to understand how they could have endured each other's presence
for longer than a night.
Kill Your Lover plays at
The Overlook Film Festival
from April 5th and will be distributed by MPI Media Group / Dark
Sky Films.
