
This week produced another member in the cinematic dynasty of the Cronenbergs with the directorial debut of Caitlin Cronenberg’s film Humane starring Jay Baruchel, Peter Gallagher, and Emily Hampshire. Other viewers expecting more body horror imagery typical of David Cronenberg’s work or Brandon Cronenberg’s should probably lower their hopes of surreal terror. They do have certain thematic connective tissue: this is another genre movie about losing autonomy over your own self.
Michael Sparaga’s script begins with an excellent concept suggesting a civilization where the combination of climate change and population growth necessitated compulsory euthanasia. But then it has virtually no plan about what to do with it, as Cronenberg’s film peters out into a collection of stupid choices by people we do not relate to that are captured in a surprisingly bland way. The most haunting aspect of Humane is the fact that the dystopia it offers is very close to a possible reality. Nevertheless, the film’s specific olfactory sense of a panoramic crisis never works because we do not have a factor that would make us invest our concerns in these particular individuals.
Almost the full story, Humane takes place over a twelve-hour window where the viewers are taken through the lives of the children of a former newscaster and now a wealthy male. Charles York (Peter Gallagher) manages to gather the family while the one hundred percent world population is being annihilated by a limit of less than twenty percent. Who, then was to be murdered? Would conditions outside in public order become chaotic or overflow? Jared (Jay Baruchel), the oldest son of York, is the kind of person who seems to run the show and in this case, makes a fortune as the world crumbles and touts the Tucker Carlson like concept that national euthanasia is the way to go around.
The family reunion takes a weird twist as Charles more or less informs the children that he has made a decision with his current wife Dawnto in this case, Uni Park that they have outlived their usefulness on this planet and a rather sleazy technician named Bob for the purpose of this task. Enrico Colantoni arrives. Now, the shock of that pronouncement is still very much in the air. Sure enough, something goes wrong anyway and the kids will have to make do with finding another person to carry out the order. One can only guess how such activities go, sibling rivalry for instance. A lot of Humane is covered in sibling rivalry, sibling remorse, and sibling rage instead. It’s how the show at times funny feels like an episode of Succession where Democrats need to choose which one of Logan’s children they will take a bullet for.
As a stinker in its totality, this film might be deemed the least distorted. The fact that Humane exists among the few films that can be described as noteworthy because it is said that Cronenberg directed it is quite possibly due to the characters that depict the cutthroat struggle to get out of their ivory tower and back to the topmost position. The social issues that were highlighted in the context of the development of the story in Humane certainly attract interest. But unfortunately, many of them seem to be rather shallow. They resemble childhood fantasies about social injustice but in practice do not have much to demonstrate about it. Jared is the type of guy who is so willing to promote propaganda that he appears on national television, making the lunatic vow that he would give up his own child if required. So, what sorts of consequences would someone like that face while remaining emotionally consistent?
Stealing the film Baruchel gives yet another stand-out performance (he always does) playing an anthropologist who has had enough of human nature and now knows how to stay at the top of the food chain.
Colantoni also gets some fun beats as a guy who has seen it all ever since the euthanasia order was authorized, a person who might like his job too much.
Unfortunately, everything else feels a bit pale. Emily Hampshire, Alanna Bale, and Sebastian Chacon feature as the three other York children and none of them appear to be anything other than two dimensional, a death knell for a film that seeks to use individual characters within the span of a single location. Hampshire’s an obvious sociopath who probably thinks the 20% number should be increased by four to eight times, while Bale is practically invisible. Chacon, being the adopted York child, goes on to threaten to provide an exciting dimension to the contention which is squandered for a twist.
This could be more excused if, for instance, Humane does not have a weak visual language. Cronenberg does get a bit cheeky with the close-ups of the bloody stuff towards the end as well, but much of this film is, in a shocking turn of events, quite boring and badly production designed. It goes from being unnecessarily dark to odd and high ceiling light bulbs that make it look like an interrogation scene.
As one watches Humane one can come across a few spots of humor or even towards other countries through the lens of the news. There is strong wording throughout the film as a COVID metaphor and the story begins when the head of the family profited from cross-media scares ergonomically launching a thriller with the setting being contained. There’s little in the way of clarity, execution, or resolution. For all intents and purposes, there is nothing humane about how the authors sought to present the narrative in this film. The concept in this case was much broader than the mere content where the concept was presented. So cliche there are always two parts to storytelling justified.
For more movies like Humane Visit 123Movies.