The Plague review – water polo camp turns into tween hellscape with impressive stylistic bite

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With Fincher-like intent, director Charlie Polinger scopes out concealed psychological depths in a debut that sees the laws of the jungle play out Set at a boy’s water polo training camp in the summer of 2003, Charlie Polinger’s debut feature plunges beneath the waterline to scope out concealed psychological depths. It may not be news that these kids operate in a brutal, animal-like hierarchy driven by braggadocio, bullying, hazing and gaslighting – but from the stunning initial submerged shot of a pool glittering like a starfield, Polinger brings impressive stylistic bite to this tween hellscape: the kind of trenchant intent you might associate with David Fincher. Latecomer Ben (Everett Blunck) is thrown in at the deep end when he arrives. Desperate to ingratiate himself with the cool crowd lorded over by the impish Jake (Kayo Martin), he aims to avoid the pariah status of house lummox Eli (Kenny Rasmussen), who is supposedly afflicted with a (made-up) disease the brats dub “the pla...
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A Prince review – queer erotic drama of sexual enlightenment through … gardening

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Pierre Creton’s literary film is about the carnal blossoming of a gardener’s apprentice under the tutelage of a series of older men

This latest film from artist, film-maker, and farmer Pierre Creton evokes a tradition in French erotica in which a youthful protagonist has a series of encounters, providing carnal knowledge and sexual enlightenment as well as intellectual revelation. A Prince follows gardener’s apprentice Pierre-Joseph (Antoine Pirotte), whose love for nature leads him into the arms of two older lovers: Alberto (Vincent Barré), his botany school teacher, and Adrien (Pierre Barray), his employer.

Its literary feel is enhanced by the prioritisation of voiceover above dialogue. The characters’ inner monologues speak, often retrospectively, of transgressive erotic experiences and desires. Accounts of incestuous yearnings are laid over scenes of gardening or age-gap lovemaking, all shot in the same strikingly matter-of-fact fashion. The contrast between the provocative voiceover and the naturalistic cinematography is notable in itself, conveying a resistance to the politics of queer assimilation, which courts acceptance from the heterosexual majority.

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