Director: Aaron Strand
Writer: Aaron Strand
Stars: Millie Rose Evans, Brent Michal
Synopsis: A passionate young songwriter and her rebellious boyfriend must withdrawal from heroin to keep her conservative parents from sending her to rehab.
The Georgian film scene is becoming more active, with films spanning documentaries and gritty social dramas, including director Aaron Strand’s latest film, Withdrawal; a tale of artistry, love, addiction, and a night of terror that would change everything for our heroes. It tells the story of two disillusioned artists, Viv and Jay, who dream big of making it in New York. But dreams turn into a nightmare when Viv’s wealthy parents stage an intervention, stop her credit cards, and give her an ultimatum, either go clean or be admitted to rehab. That’s when Viv and Jay change the course of events for each other.
The indie feature is a striking and highly ambitious addition to a string of kinetic social realism films like Trainspotting and Requiem for a Dream. If Darren Aronofsky and Danny Boyle were heralded for their work on those two masterpieces about addiction and its inevitable humanist fall from grace, then Strand deserves the highest compliments for continuing what they started, and stripping addiction off the newest trend of dreampop, glittery, glamorization of addiction and drug use (Euphoria, are you listening?). Especially in the artistic sphere, drug use has always been linked with looking cool or finding inspiration, so the attempt to dethrone that idea by giving us a grim dissection of how a life is ruined by that.
It’s a tale as old as time. The relentless pursuit of inspiration and all the dark routes it leads to. Passion spiraling out of control, and artistry done wrong in the hopes of feeling something grander than a provincial life that others are so comfortable living without second-guessing.
The movie wouldn’t work without the two leads, Millie Rose Evans and Brent Michal as Viv and Jay, respectively. Michal has the aura and the charm of a sexy, dark king vampire à la Sam Reid as Lestat in the AMC adaptation of Interview with the Vampire. Michal steals every scene he’s in, and it’s undeniable it’s not just his acting talent, but his charm and sex appeal as the drug-soaked painter Jay, the dichotomous half of the toxic lovestruck pair. Evans, as Viv, on the other hand, does all the heavy lifting. Her sacrificial, dark poetess, musician persona requires a more grounded approach to the performance which she masters. Both actors have great chemistry together and that’s what makes their unbelievably toxic relationship work for the audience.
Strand and Director of Photography Emily Marquet create a drug-hazed, blurry screen that unsettles and immerses the viewer in this psychedelic rush of images. The camera is handheld, chaotic, and unstable. It has a voyeuristic, pink-hued quality to the scenes, especially when we are trapped with the two leads alone in their isolated bubble of lust and getting high. Kudos to indie cinema for holding on to boldness and sexuality on screen, where sex scenes are realistic, raw, and awkward. After recent comments from a certain director that sanitized their latest big budget sex comedy to be devoid of sex scenes, it’s refreshing to see works still faithful to the craft rather than catering to nonexistent audiences. This is all thanks to Strand for handling the subject matter with realistic poignancy without exploitation of the female lead, especially since sex scenes are integral to the progression of the central character’s relationship.
The director doesn’t shy away from the grime and splatter of drug withdrawal, or whatever comes after that. The only takeaway that this review can give him is that his future scripts need more polishing, a bit of creative flair. Strand would reach even more authentic levels of storytelling when paired with the right screenwriter, even if he is aiming for the actors’ improv and naturally flowing dialogue, but that’s a story for another day.
Withdrawal doesn’t try to make a big statement about drug abuse. But if film lovers truly want to watch real cinema, this one is a great opportunity to soak themselves in it.
