Super
Dark Times *** ½ / *****
Directed
by: Kevin
Phillips.
Written
by: Ben
Collins & Luke Piotrowski.
Starring: Owen
Campbell (Zach), Charlie Tahan (Josh), Elizabeth Cappuccino (Allison), Max
Talisman (Daryl), Sawyer Barth (Charlie), Amy Hargreaves (Karen), Adea Lennox
(Meghan), Ethan Botwick (John Whitcomb).
I have a feeling we’re going to
start seeing more and more movies set in the 1990s – and not only because my
generation is reaching middle age, otherwise known as the time in which we run
everything, and therefore can just indulge in our own adolescent nostalgia.
That’s part of it to be sure – but not the whole part. The real reason is
because that was the last era before cell phones – and now smart phones –
became an ever present reality for everyone. These phones would ruin many a
horror film (which is why they make a big deal of there being no service, or
the battery dying, or it being destroyed) – and many other genre films, including
ones about teenagers. Part of why Super Dark Times – a dark, coming of age
drama works so well, is that it is set in the time without cellphones – hell,
it’s set in a pre-Columbine time period, when it was still possible to be
somewhat innocent – somewhat naïve of just how violent teenagers could be, and
where it wasn’t always possible to be in constant connection to everyone you
know – where you had to deal with calling the house phone of the girl you
liked, and getting past her asshole older brother, etc. What Super Dark Times
excels at is creating an uneasy mood – a mood that would be ruining by a
glowing screen in front of everyone’s face.
The film is about the friendship
between Zach (Owen Campbell) and Josh (Charlie Tahan) – a couple of suburban
high school kids, who are not in the popular crowd, but also not in the loser
crowd – they drift somewhere in between – mainly with each other. They are
close – perhaps too close. One day, they’re hanging out with another couple of
kids – one a few years younger than they are, and one who is in their grade,
but really, really annoying (it’s hinted he may have some sort of learning
disability – but it’s not explored). They are doing the stupid things teenage
boys do – and a tragic accident happens. In the days and weeks that follow,
they seem amazed they have gotten away with it, but also start to drift apart –
Zach trusts Josh less and less, and starts to think perhaps he’s capable of
something even worse, and is dealing with his own guilt about what happened. It
doesn’t help that it becomes clear that the girl Josh has a crush on – Allison (Elizabeth
Cappuccino) actually likes Zach – which drives a deeper wedge between them.
I’m not going to lie and try to
convince you that Super Dark Times is an overly original film – it really isn’t.
The ending is also a mess, as it devolves into cliché, even if it’s undeniably
tense in those closing scenes. This is director Kevin Phillips first film – and
what he excels at is creating mood and atmosphere. The film is set during that
gray time of year known so well to us in Canada – that period in late fall when
it’s freezing cold, but the snow hasn’t quite arrived yet, and every day seems
to be overcast and miserable. It’s the perfect setting for this story, and
Phillips handles it well – making everything seem even grayer, more dour and
colder than usual. He isn’t quite as good with the plot mechanics – which eventually
involve increasing paranoia, and increasing implausibility. He is good with his
young actors though – only one of which – Charlie Tahan – I remember seeing
before (he’s one of the local kids in the underwhelming Netflix series Ozark).
Super Dark Times works because of
its oppressive mood – one that will be familiar with teenagers or those who
remember being teenagers, because that was the mood all the time. The plot
creaks at times, but when the film is focused on teenagers themselves, Super
Dark Times works quite well.
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