Lazareth, 2024.
Written and Directed by Alec Tibaldi.
Starring Ashley Judd, Sarah Pidgeon, Katie Douglas, Asher Angel, Edward Balaban, and Christine Uhebe.
SYNOPSIS:
Lee protects her orphaned nieces Imogen and Maeve from a self-destructing world, raising them in isolation until an outsider threatens their peaceful existence.
Derivative and generic, writer/director Alec Tibaldi’s Lazareth is set in a near future post-apocalyptic world that is seemingly meant to parallel how selfish and crazy people were during that depressing, isolating time. One could also take the comparison a bit broader in that it’s about a reclusive aunt sheltering her two nieces in a woodland home far away from society, commenting on how dangerous the world is for women to exist outside. However one wants to look at it, there isn’t much interesting here, as the film engages in another plot point entirely.
Raising her two nieces following the death of their mother at the hands of whatever this virus is, Ashley Judd’s Lee has taken it upon herself to infuse the home, dubbed Lazareth, with survival rules. Ten years later, it mostly boils down to scavenging the forest for supplies and running a small farm for food, all with Lee serving as the only one occasionally driving into town for other goods and supplies.
The teenage girls Maeve and Imogen (Sarah Pidgeon and Katie Douglas, respectively) are mostly content with this living situation, primarily because they don’t know any better or anything about the outside world before it plummeted into diseased anarchy. There is also a strong chance you can already guess the eye-rolling, clichéd, grand reveal that is meant to recontextualize the story but doesn’t since what is being hidden from some of these characters is painfully obvious.
Anyway, their perspective changes with the arrival of wounded teenager Owen (Asher Angel), who fell into a band of violent thieves following the loss of his mother. Imogen is much more eager to bring him back home and patch him up, partially out of moral decency but largely because boys are a discovery to her, and she is horny. Maeve is the more mature, levelheaded one contemplating what their aunt would think about them disobeying her rules, but you can probably guess what happens anyway. It also doesn’t help that Asher Angel is a blank slate, not given much to do beyond sporting good looks as an object of curious desire.
As for Owen, his former group isn’t happy about his escape, paving the way for a home invasion thriller angle that also goes through the expected motions. Even the prologue narration from Lee setting up this story indisputably feels bland, like it could exist in literally any other apocalyptic tale. Still, the filmmaking is technically sound, and no one is giving an offensively horrendous performance.
Lazareth tools tired genre tropes into something without even traces of a unique hook unless one hasn’t watched any of the pandemic-related films of the past five years. Even if that connection did feel fresh, this is a lumbering, tedious exercise that fails to do much with its intended attempts at social commentary.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★
Robert Kojder is a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association and the Critics Choice Association. He is also the Flickering Myth Reviews Editor. Check here for new reviews, follow my Twitter or Letterboxd, or email me at MetalGearSolid719@gmail.com
