Review by
Eric Hillis
Directed by: Zoe Pepper
Starring: Travis Jeffery, Maria Angelico, Michael Hurst, Linda Cropper
Writer/director Zoe Pepper's blackly comic feature
debut Birthright is so of the moment that many viewers may find it a deeply
uncomfortable watch. It satirises our current global housing crisis the
way The War of the Roses skewered the '80s divorce boom, with two parties driving each other
to the brink of madness as they try to get the upper hand.
Kicked out of their rental apartment and with nowhere to go while they
wait for a promised new accommodation to become available in three weeks,
Cory (Travis Jeffery) and his heavily pregnant wife Jasmine (Maria Angelico) arrive at the home of the former's parents, Richard (Michael Hurst) and
Lyn (Linda Cropper). Cory promises their stay will only be for a
couple of nights, but he's secretly hoping he and Jasmine can stick around
for the full three weeks. But when the owners of Cory and Jasmine's
promised new home decide to sell rather than rent, Cory and Jasmine find
themselves stuck with Richard and Lyn indefinitely.
Depending on your age and current life situation, you'll likely choose
sides early on, but Pepper dares to make all four of her characters
unlikeable narcissists. We might identify and sympathise with some of the
parties here, but we certainly can't root for them. The wealthy Richard
and Lyn are the classic boomers who fail to understand the complexities of
the modern world when it comes to things they took for granted, like a
home and a career. We certainly share Cory's frustration when his dad
trots out the tired old guidance to pull himself up by his bootstraps. At
one point Richard speaks of how his father gave him $10,000 as a young
man, which allowed him to buy a house, but he can't understand why his son
can't do the same in 2025 with the same amount of money. At the same time
Cory views his parents solely as the bank of mum and dad, his entitled
attitude allowing him to show up out of the blue and expect a handout.
Both Lyn and Jasmine appear to be freeloaders who have attached themselves
to Richard for his wealth, either directly or secondhand.
The stage is set for a tag team bout in which we relish seeing both awful
teams inflict harm on another. That harm is initially emotional and
psychological, mostly playing out as a battle of wits between Richard and
Cory, the father and son both viewing the other as a disappointment, but
it eventually turns physical. A hideous disco-era leather jacket becomes a
trophy of sorts when Cory digs it out of his dad's closet. Seeing his
useless son clad in the outfit of his youth seems to ignite a spark in
Richard, for whom the jacket symbolises the hard work he put in as a
younger man, and he's damned if Cory is going to steal it from him.
Similarly, Jasmine begins wearing a white blouse discarded by Lyn, who is
clearly disturbed by such an idea but refuses to mention it outright.
Where the men begin to literally brawl, the women use passive aggression
as a weapon. In a scene that will likely unearth uncomfortable memories of
the times we all inevitably disappointed our mothers, Lyn asks Jasmine to
do her makeup, and uses the situation to tell Jasmine just how hurt she
was by not receiving an invite to their wedding, a revelation that will
likely swing the pendulum towards Cory and Jasmine being the bigger pair
of villains here for most viewers.
Pepper impressively keeps things moving at a rapid pace so that when the
climax arrives we accept how over the top the whole scenario becomes. Her
four leads excel in their progression from walking on eggshells to passive
aggression to outright combativeness. The real villain here of course is
modern day capitalism, which no longer guarantees young people that most
human need of a place to call home, so we can't help but seethe with anger
as we laugh along with the desperation of Cory and Jasmine. Just as you
probably shouldn't watch The War of the Roses on a date, if you're one of the many in the unenviable position of
being currently forced to live with your parents, Birthright will make for a decidedly awkward family movie night.
