Alpha, 2025.
Written and Directed by Julia Ducournau.
Starring Mélissa Boros, Tahar Rahim, Golshifteh Farahani and Emma Mackey.
SYNOPSIS:
Alpha, 13, is a troubled teenager who lives alone with her mother. Their world comes crashing down the day she comes home from school with a tattoo on her arm.
Julia Ducournau’s astonishing debut Raw and her Palme d’Or-winning sophomore feature Titane have secured her place as an auteur whose work is unmissable, so it’s perhaps disappointing that her third feature, Alpha, feels as flat as it does.
The film follows 13-year-old Alpha (Mélissa Boros), who returns home from a party with a new tattoo that her mother believes might’ve infected her with a deadly virus that’s been spreading in the community. It’s a coming-of-age film with Ducournau’s body-horror wrapping, but it’s also an unsubtle social commentary on how we as people treat the sick.
Much has already been made of the film’s clear parallels to the AIDS crisis. Here, the infected gradually turn to marble, and are faced with uncomfortable stares and whispers everywhere they go. This messaging is all glaringly on-the-nose and potentially even a little outdated, and it’s nowhere near as insightful or as interesting as Ducournau clearly intends it to be.
Much like the filmmaker’s previous work, family plays a significant role in Alpha – Alpha’s relationship with her mother, her uncle, and their relationship with each other as brother and sister. Alpha’s uncle Amin, a long-suffering drug addict, is brought to life with a scene-stealing performance from Tahar Rahim, who’s delivering top-tier work here and, quite frankly, deserves better material.
Alpha’s relationship with Amin is engaging, with his caring and charming nature earning him perhaps a little too much patience from his loved ones, and there are several genuinely moving scenes between the two. But these progress very little and quickly become quite repetitive. Worse still, the film’s constant narrative shifts between flashbacks simply don’t work. The transitions are almost non-existent, and it’s not always clear where in the story we are. The experience leaves its audience a little too confused to be invested.
One can’t help but feel Ducournau misses a trick by never leaving the familial environment, even if only for a brief moment, to take a closer look at the wider effects of the virus on society itself. It might’ve offered more than it does. That’s not to say there aren’t some memorable moments in the film. There are, most notably a scene in which Alpha bleeds in the school pool and is treated by her classmates as some kind of monster.
The marble effects also look incredible, but one can’t help but feel a little disappointed at the total lack of shock and awe in the film. Perhaps we’ve been spoiled by Ducournau’s previous work, but we’ve grown used to seeing things we’ve never seen before from the filmmaker, and by being shaken by the experience. Alpha feels very tame and almost dull in comparison.
It doesn’t help that the film’s colour palette is so grey and tepid, but for a director known for providing such unforgettable experiences, the only thing shocking about Alpha is how incredibly forgettable it really is. It has its moments, but it won’t linger in the memory for longer than it takes for the credits to roll.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★
Dan Barnes
