Review – Failure! (2023 Pigeon Shrine FrightFest)
Factory owner James is in the eye of a financial hurricane. We are invited to bear real-time witness as his empire crumbles in this single-take Mexican psychodrama that is its own worst enemy.
Alex Kahaum‘s sophomore feature Failure! follows a crucial hour or so in the life of 56-year-old James, a desperate businessman drowning in debt. The wolves scratching at the door are only held at bay by the vultures that circle overhead. Haunted by the legacy of his father and daunted by the demands of his family he opts to take drastic measures in the hope of salvaging dignity from the jaws of deprivation.
Failure! is essentially a single-location film shot in one continuous take. We experience every conversation, phone call, and interaction as James does. This should lead to an immersive and empathetic ride but in all honesty, it is repetitive and frustrating.
It is never a pleasurable venture to take a critical dump on the lawn of grassroots independent cinema. I love risk-taking movies. I adored Kahaum‘s previous feature Forgiveness? for its off-the-wall mania and visceral swagger. Hell, the creative dirty bomb The Outwaters is still my favourite horror picture of the year so far and that’s literally unwatchable in places. But I can not for the life of me fathom why this film felt it needed to be shot in one take. All it achieves is to create a myriad of problems it ultimately can not resolve.
There are many valid reasons to shoot a picture in one take. To evoke urgency, fluidity, and engrossment, to promote realism, authenticity, and a sense of space, or sometimes in the case of Alfonso Cuarรณn just to be an infuriatingly clever bastard. Failure! fills none of these criteria as it sets itself up for a painful uphill struggle against the battering winds of its own imposed parameters.
The camera work is functional in the extreme as it drifts around with a swaying vigor that is genuinely distracting. It does foster an in-the-moment feel however that comes at the cost of panache and style. The action takes place in such a restrictive environment that visual flourishes, inventive angles, and most vitally, some judicious editing could have elevated the whole pace and presence of the movie. Instead, it feels restrictively clinical and half-baked.
With a film as wordy as Failure! you need all the help you can get from your cast to keep it kinetic and Kahaum has indeed assembled a capable and committed set of players. However, the core creative decision that dominates Failure! puts needless pressure on them which proves problematic.
The performances are prone to tonal inconsistencies and emotive missteps that could have been ironed out through retakes. One case in point comes with the portrait of a gay character supposedly in the closet. I’m utterly convinced it was unintentional by both director and the actor but the forced one-take ethos strips it of comic nuance to the point of lazy stereotypical parody.
Ted Raimi gives his all, as we have come to expect from this superb actor, as the father under fire James. Yet, he is visibly mindful of messing up and this makes for an uneven, uncharacteristically muted turn. The real trouble is that every character we encounter, apart from one of James’ daughters Maria, is an indefensibly horrible person. With such a relentless cavalcade of unsavory tosspots with first-world problems, we never really develop any affinity and consequently couldn’t give a damn if any of them end up destitute or even dead.
The financial predicaments facing James are simplistic and underwhelming. His responses to them are thoroughly disproportionate. At times it plays out like a go-to-work-with-dad day where we are compelled to sit in on business meetings we have no background or investment in that periodically erupt into Reservoir Dogs tinged hysteria.
By the time some Breaking Bad nihilism arrives in the shady form of Merrick McCartha’s ruthless entrepreneur Mr. Serge, he is just another composite scumbag with acres of exposition but no tangible skin in the game. The final few frames are bleak and reflective to a whimsical degree, but if I understood them fully it renders a vast swathe of James’ hectic damage limitations curiously moot.
I wanted to like this film, I really did. I’m sure from past experience that there will be rave reviews and plaudits from those who connected with it. For those who seek it out on release be prepared to put your patience pants on.
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WORLD PREMIERE
Crime, Drama, Psychological Thriller | Mexico, 2023 | Cert. TBC | 87 mins | Alief | Dir. Alex Kahuam | Ted Raimi, Merrick McCartha , Noel Douglas Orput, Melissa Diaz
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