Spontaneous joy in spiky teen horror comedy
Spontaneous (13+, 102 mins) Directed by Brian Duffield Reviewed by James Croot ★★★★
Katelyn Ogden was a lot of things, but she wasn’t particularly explosive. Cute, airy and inoffensive, she might have been quickly becoming the No 1 marijuana customer at Covington High, but that was hardly a reason to ‘‘pop like a zit’’.
So reflects Katelyn’s classmate Mara Carlyle (Katherine Langford), as she tries to make sense of her ‘‘exploding like a balloon’’ in the middle of calculus.
While the incident shocked and stunned the entire school, Jed Hayes (Jared Ager-Foster) was particularly crushed. He was going to ask Katelyn to the prom and had even narrowed down the hotel choices to two. ‘‘She was so openminded,’’ he laments.
Police forensics quickly rule out Katelyn’s demise being selfinflicted, and Mara’s parents are just relieved it wasn’t – as they had suspected – the work of a gunman. ‘‘We’re so glad that you’re OK – and that your classmates are just regular assholes – not evil,’’ Mara’s father Charlie (Rob Huebel) whispers to her.
But Mara is not OK, spiking her pumpkin spice latte with shrooms while digesting not only what has transpired, but also a text from a
secret admirer who claims they’ve had a crush on her for two years.
Fortunately, that doesn’t remain a mystery for long, as Dylan Hovemeyer (Charlie Plummer) unmasks himself when they next encounter one another. Flattered by his interest, she agrees to go with him to the school football team’s next match.
However, it’s there that a second student – Perry Love – ‘‘explodes’’, sparking rumours of a ‘‘Covington Curse’’, forcing the closure of the school and leaving the rest of the senior class fearing who will be next.
‘‘It’s like a [David] Cronenberg
movie,’’ the sparky, spiky, cineliterate Mara notes of her cohort’s predicament early on.
And while there is a certain amount of body horror going on in the premise, along with plenty of allusions to Stephen King’s Carrie, there’s also a so-hip-it-hurts vibe about the dialogue and behaviour of the leads that it also feels like this decade’s Zombieland, or a modern day version of a John Hughes movie (if The Breakfast Club had contained buckets of blood, instead of the Brat Pack).
That extends to the soundtrack, which includes mood-setting and thematic tracks by Leonard Cohen, Wolf Parade, Sufjan Stevens and a classic cut by The Hooters.
Based on Aaron Starmer’s 2016 novel, screenwriter Brian Duffield’s (the brilliant, similarly smart and sassy sci-fi Love and Monsters) directorial debut ups the ante on the film references (everything from E.T. to Traffic, Dr. Strangelove and Back to the Future are discussed in some way) and anti-Republican sentiment as Mara, Dylan and their dwindling number of friends try to understand what’s happening.
And, even though it was shot in early 2018, the film has probably taken on an extra resonance for teens around the globe who have seen their high school experiences ‘‘ruined’’ by a ‘‘plague’’.
There are also narrative and visual flourishes like a brilliantly conceived ‘‘timeline of a crush’’ montage.
But, as with such coming-of-age comedic gems past, like Juno and Easy A, Spontaneous’ secret sauce is its lead. First coming to prominence in 13 Reasons Why and Love, Simon, Australian actor Langford delivers a fabulous performance as the audience’s guide Mara.
At turns defiant, vulnerable, witty and warm, she gives Spontaneous its heart, as well as sets its sometimes anarchic tone.