RELIC review

When her elderly mother is reported missing, Kay and her daughter Sam (Emily Mortimer and Bella Heathcote) go looking for her at the old family home, finding it empty and in a state of disarray. When Edna (Robyn Nevin) re-appears a couple of days later, seemingly fit, healthy and full of life, she can't recall where she's been or why she left home. Staying to care for her for a few days, Kay and Sam start to hear and see strange things around the house that may offer clues to what is really going on.

At the centre of Relic is three excellent performances from from the three central women. Emily Mortimer, with what to my ear sounds like a pretty spot on Aussie accent, really expresses Kay's resentment towards her mother and her condition, and her own guilt for feeling it. Bella Heathcote's Sam shows a more innocent, possibly naive belief that all will be well and how it used to be when she was younger, not understanding that her grandmother is not quite the same woman as she used to be. As Edna, a fragile, sometimes cantankerous ageing matriarch, Robyn Nevin taps into the character's confusion and despair at the changing of her life, her memory switching from hazy to sharp, almost like she's looking through the different coloured panes in the stained glass window that adorns her front door. The feature debut of Natalie Erika James, this Australian chiller has its fair share of unsettling sights to see, but is also surprising in how tender and moving it can be. The recent high benchmark for disturbing familial horrors is undoubtedly Ari Aster's Hereditary, and although Relic is a very different story at heart and without the overall shock/gore factor of that film, there's a similarly foreboding tone that builds throughout until it envelopes this family and their home.

As Edna increasingly loses her foothold on her life and memories and begins muttering to herself (or someone we can't see) as she carries out her favourite pastime of candle carving (creepy AND gothic), there's a generational divide between Kay and Sam as to what the best course of action is. Whereas Sam is readying herself to upend her life and move in with Edna, Kay is researching care homes, having already put her work life on hold to come look for her. It's here that the film digs into the real human drama that audiences may be able to relate to, having to reckon with that feeling of going into a place or seeing a person you once knew, albeit now in a different state, tapping into fears of our own mortality and of how we might be cared for in our old age.

Instead of loud jump scares and grisly shock tactics to gross you out (aside from the finale which does considerably up the ante in this respect), Relic opts to create its scariest moments by using the creepy, crowded corridors of the house to its advantage, showing glimpses of objects and people in the shadows that reward repeat viewings. Horror fans expecting a Hereditary or Insidious may feel disappointed in the relative lack of truly chilling set-pieces, but this is clearly something that Natalie Erika James and co-writer Christian White were never aiming for, instead crafting a story with a deeper emotional connection to its audience.

As the three generations of women delve deeper into the increasingly rotten core of the house in the final act, the film not only provides a climactic resolution to the horror side of the story, but also a surprisingly touching reflection on ageing, dementia, loss and grief. It's in this area that the film had the potential to be heavy handed or even manipulative of its audience, but thankfully is well handled by James and gives Relic an emotional, visually beautiful and extremely effective conclusion. 

Verdict

4/5

Signature Entertainment presents Relic on Digital HD now and Blu-ray & DVD 18 January 2021.

Blu-ray and iTunes Special Features include:

- London Film Festival 2020 Q&A with Natalie Erika James and Michael Blyth

- Interviews

- Relic shoot time-lapse

- Behind the scenes - "Lost" & "Stunts"

GOOD POSTURE review

The feature directorial debut of Dolly Wells sees an aimless young woman, Lilian (Grace Van Patten), move in with some of her father's friends after a break up. The home of famous author Julia Price (Emily Mortimer), Lillian forms a combative bond with her reclusive benefactor via notes left in her journal that leads her to think Julia might be the perfect subject for a documentary.

Formerly a regular face on British TV screens in the like of The Mighty Boosh, Peep Show and The IT Crowd, not forgetting big screen appearances in the Bridget Jones series, Dolly Wells is perhaps best known for the TV series she co-created and starred in with her long time best friend Emily Mortimer, Doll & Em. Here she takes on the role of writer/director to tell the story of Grace Van Patten's Lilian, enlisting Emily Mortimer as a famously reclusive novelist forced to house this young woman in search of a direction in life.

Grace Van Patten has slowly been building a career as an in demand indie darling, appearing in Noah Baumbach's The Meyerowitz Stories, Adam Leon's Tramps, and from earlier this year, David Robert Mitchell's Under The Silver Lake. Here she's front and centre, appearing in nearly every frame of the film as a spirited Lilian, unsure of what direction to take and waiting to start looking for a new apartment with her father, currently in France with his new girlfriend. There's a risk that some of Lilian's social flaws that lead to the break up of her relationship with Nate (Gary Richardson), like always forgetting to take a towel for after a shower and using other people's toothbrushes, could have been presented as cutesy manic pixie dream girl foibles to be cherished and adored, but the other characters around her, namely Mortimer's Julia and Timm Sharp's dog walker, George, can barely tolerate her presence at the start of the film. Julia even dubs her "the entitled oaf", a title Lilian is keen to prove Julia wrong about.

Good Posture is one of those delightful little indies that makes you realise how inherently cinematic New York is. Filmed in and around the Bed Stuy neighbourhood Dolly Wells now calls home, there's lingering, static shots of the beautiful houses with the steps leading up to the front doors and tracking shots of the local streets and their inhabitants, staring back at the ethereal spectator of the camera. If Lilian isn't in a situation you would want to experience, at least hers is a world you would like to visit.

Having said that, a lot of the action takes place within the four walls and garden of Julia Price's house, with the majority of Julia and Lilian's interactions delivered via snippy notes they leave for each other in Lilian's journal as they argue over dinner (helpfully narrated for us). Mortimer's Julia is an ever present character, but she doesn't actually appear in the film very much, leaving Julia Price to be something of an enigmatic figure mostly hidden behind a closed door, right up until the end of the film. This is partly offset by a device the film has of having real life well known authors such as Zadie Smith, Jonathan Ames and Martin Amis waxing lyrical about their love for (the fictional) Julia Price's work. It's a little jarring at first, but once it's apparent this is footage collected by Lilian and her cameraman Sol (a hilariously on form John Early) for their unauthorised documentary, it makes a lot more narrative sense.

Owing a debt to some of the big hitters of the independent movie scene like Noah Baumbach and Daryl Wein, it's at times a little rough around the edges in its presentation but thanks to its witty, engaging script and hugely likeable cast, Good Posture is able to stand up straight and hold its head up high as a delightfully charming little indie. Expect great things from Wells and Van Patten in the future.

Verdict
4/5

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