Writer(s): Lawrence Michael Levine
Starring: Mackenzie Davis, Caitlin FitzGerald, Lawrence Michael Levine, and Khan Baykal
There were some rumblings about Always Shine when it was making its rounds through the festival circuit, where it seemed to be getting plenty of hype; I had forgotten all about it, and pegged it more as a drama, until it showed up to stream on Shudder, a horror-only streaming service. This once again drew my interest back into the project. One night, the wife and I decided to watch a movie, narrowed it down to two options, still couldn't make a final decision, and let a coin toss decide. Always Shine it was.
This is a bizarre little film that seems to owe almost its entire identity to David Lynch's Mulholland Drive, a fitting irony for a film that is so concerned with identity. But whereas that was made by a master director arguably at the top of its craft, Always Shine was made by someone at the opposite end of the spectrum: a director who has only one other feature-length film to their credit. Oh, and it's a woman. Bet you can't name three female directors not named Kathryn Bigelow! This is the kind of mountain women in the film industry face.
Always Shine begins with Beth performing an audition for a horror movie, during which she is informed that there will be a substantial amount of nudity required for her character. She is hesitant, and it is clear that she is not interested in doing that again (we later learn she has gotten naked in virtually every part she has accepted), but she cannot say “no”, and so she accepts. She is actually like this throughout life, a pushover who is incapable of letting out her true feelings; from this we can gather she's been walked on her entire life.
Next, we are introduced to Anna. She is also auditioning for a role in which she is angry that a mechanic did extra work without asking her first, and now wants to charge her an extra $300. In the film's only clever twist, it turns out this is not an audition after all, but her actually in a car shop yelling at the mechanic. From this, we learn that Anna is fierce and confrontational, the exact opposite of Beth.
So, of course, they are good friends who are planning a weekend getaway. They had fallen out of touch with each other a while back, but want to make amends and regain the relationship they once had. Only, it seems something is aloof right from the outset: both girls are insanely awkward around each other, as if they've never met before. I guess this was just to show the length of time that they'd been out of touch, but it's weird that people that were once so close, can devolve into almost instant strangers just a few years later. I mean, it's awkward to the point that I'm surprised one of them doesn't just decide this outing is a bad idea, and back out.
Anyway, through a series of instances, we can tell that Anna is jealous of Beth; herself a struggling actress, she resents Beth for consistently landing roles and getting all the attention from men, and sees her success as a threat. Her hatred continues to reach fever pitch as she learns more and more about her former best friend: Beth resents her because she feels like Anna is a much better actress than her, and actually stalled on giving her agent Anna's portfolio, out of fear that Anna would upstage her. It doesn't take much imagination to figure that Anna will overhear all of this and get angry, which is what happens.
Beth finally decides she's had enough, and chases Anna out into the woods. We never see what happens, but all of a sudden Beth inherits Anna's personality. She cuts and dyes her red hair into blonde, and gets all the attention that she never got before. Anna makes fleeting appearances...or does she? They are quick, almost ghost-like, in which she disappears just as quickly as she arrived. Is it a manifestation of Beth's guilty mind? Or have they really switched personalities?
The entire finale feels ripped out of the David Lynch handbook, complete with deja vu and flashbacks, as the two girls reverse their roles, and the film goes for a dreamlike atmosphere. The events leading up to the end are largely convincing in their gradual intensity, though, thanks mainly to the performances of Mackenzie Davis (as Anna; you may remember her as the nerdy lesbian in the wildly popular Black Mirror episode “San Junipero”) and Caitlin FitzGerald (as Beth), the two best friends. What is less convincing, though, is how they were ever friends to begin with.
This is just an example where too much ambiguity seems to sabotage the results. What starts off as a rather intriguing character study between two friends, abandons reality for its surrealistic ending, and suffers for it. Why be weird when there's no reason to be? A further annoyance is the relationship between the two characters: I mentioned that the actors give it their all, and they really do, but they are let down in the writing department because their characters never feel like more than bitter enemies. Even in the early scenes of them on their way to Big Sur (their destination spot), there is an unspoken tension between them that kind of hinders the rest of the proceedings: If someone is that bizarre from the outset, why would you follow through by voluntary quarantining yourself with them in a beach house somewhere for an entire week? I guess it just goes to show you how complacent Beth is, but it's agonizing for the viewer, who has to watch two annoying characters out-complain one another.
I think director Sonia Takal has a great understanding of pace—it all happens at a believable, perfect clip—but by having everything feel false from the outset doesn't really make us want to invest in any of these characters. They are simply two people who label themselves as friends, but who secretly (to themselves, anyway) feel nothing but deep resentment for the other. The final “twist” into ambiguous dreamlike fantasy atmosphere is rather pointless, and feels artsy for the sake of reviving its--by this point--long-bored audience.
There are a lot of things to like here, just more things to dislike, and that's what makes Almost Shine...well...well-titled in more ways than one.
RATING: 5/10
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