Oliver Hermanus
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Connections, in both directions
To set the stage for the kind of movie that Moffie is, it made me think it was a combination of Sam Mendes’ Jarhead , Stanley Kubrick’s Full Metal Jacket , and a bit of Tony Scott’s Top Gun .
During training scenes that are reminiscent of Full Metal Jacket, the term is thrown around at any sign of weakness.
The story of a young South African soldier forced to repress his homosexuality while enduring a nightmare of abuse at the hands of a psychotic drill instructor is freshly powerful, and its training scenes bring to mind "Full Metal Jacket," the gold standard when it comes to memorably disturbing scenes of young soldiers becoming men by getting yelled at by older men in positions of power above them.
The obvious touchstone for the movie’s game of two halves storytelling is Kubrick’s Full Metal Jacket and, like that war movie classic, it flags somewhat when it actually gets to the meat of the battlefield.
There are echoes of Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket , but the more lyrical scenes of male camaraderie suggest Claire Denis's Beau Travail .
Hermanus’ young ensemble plays it with sensitivity and skill, but this is a director’s triumph first and foremost: a dogs-of-war hellride of “Full Metal Jacket” intensity, a queer coming-of-age meditation with something of “Moonlight’s” salt-on-skin tenderness, and a scorching evocation of South Africa’s Border War shame with no major precedent in a national cinema still working through its blind spots.
A drama about a gay man (Kai Luke Brummer) enduring service in the South African army in 1981, the latest work from Oliver Hermanus (who made 2011’s Beauty) is an intense picture of a soul under pressure.