AS DULL AS ITS SUBJECTS
Necktie Youth, scripted and directed by Sibs Shongwe-La Mer and shot in black and white, follows aimless 20-something acquaintances from upper-middle-class families in a South African suburb as they hang out, party, get high, and talk and talk and talk about how nobody really cares about anybody else; all of this taking place a year after a mutual friend live-streamed her own suicide. Forty minutes into this eighty-four minute film I had tears in my eyes from boredom.
The young actors do a fine job delivering naturalistic portrayals and improvising scenes, lending most of them an immediate, real-life feel. But in conceptualizing his film, Mr. Shongwe-La Mer falls into a common trap: In his desire to show the lives of apathetic, spiritually wanting individuals who have no real needs or desires and no real drama in their lives, he limits his film’s palate to what these characters have to tell and show us, which isn’t much. The result is a competently made but superficial and dull movie.
photos © Courtesy of Tribeca Film Festival
Necktie Youth
Premium Films
Netherlands / South Africa – 2015 – B&W – 84 min.
North American premiere at Tribeca Film Festival
for screening times, visit https://tribecafilm.com/filmguide/necktie-youth-2015
