John and the Hole (2021)
Directed by Pascual Sisto
While exploring the neighboring woods, 13-year-old John discovers an unfinished bunker — a deep hole in the ground. Seemingly without provocation, he drugs his affluent parents and older sister and drags their unconscious bodies into the bunker, where he holds them captive. As they anxiously wait for John to free them from the hole, the boy returns home, where he can finally do what he wants.
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6 films that influenced John and the Hole
What critics say influenced John and the Hole
Initial critical responses to John and the Hole seem invariably keen to evoke comparison with the 1990 Chris Columbus/John Hughes family classic Home Alone —but such a juxtaposition only confirms the limited lens with which we interpret behaviors but also expectations of cinematic intentions or possibilities.
It’s been described (including by Sisto) as a combination of Michael Haneke and Home Alone , and I can’t improve on that.
The director has jokingly referred to his psychological coming-of-age thriller as a Michael Haneke version of Home Alone , which isn’t far from the truth.
If you can imagine “Home Alone” remade as a pretentious art-house movie where Macaulay Culkin is playing both Kevin and the Wet Bandits simultaneously.
But the most popular victim (or villain, depending on your reading) is Kevin McCallister from Home Alone , whose cartoonish antics strike fear in the hearts of people who think about their real ramifications.
While that kind of childhood fantasy was immortalized by Macaulay Culkin’s exuberant performance in Home Alone , Shotwell’s hollow expression and stony silence during these activities make you wonder if he’s enjoying himself at all.
John’s (Charlie Shotwell) shaggy haircut, white polo shirt and disaffected speech immediately recalls the tennis white-clad psychopaths of Haneke’s Funny Games .
It isn’t only John who has a mind for mischief, with Sisto and writer Nicolás Giacobone push the limits of their premise to the extreme, often filming at an icy remove, bringing the film firmly into the realm of the sociopathic “boys will be boys” genre that Michael Haneke and Yorgos Lanthimos have dabbled in with “Funny Games” and “The Killing of a Sacred Deer,” respectively, and introducing a meta-commentary into the film with a mother-daughter story told in parallel that veers into the absurd.
The film reminded me of "Dogtooth," but boasts its own singular vision.
Like Yorgos Lanthimos’ Dogtooth and other recent films that build human stories off strange, extreme behavior, John and the Hole has the quality of a petri dish placed under a microscope.
It’s obvious these two have taken a liking to the works of Yorgos Lanthimos, specifically a film like Dogtooth , where the characters, and their actions are borderline inhumane.
But like “Dogtooth” or “Benny’s Video,” it works as a kind of suburban surrealism, set in a posh modern home surrounded by woods.
That recognition is bolstered by cinematographer Paul Ozgur’s stark, naturalistic camera, which recalls both Haneke’s unsettling dramas as well as Severin Fiala and Veronika Franz’s Goodnight Mommy , a more intense horror movie about homicidal children in a secluded, wealthy setting.
But it more specifically recalls the 2014 nail-biter by the Austrian auteur’s compatriots Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala, Goodnight Mommy — in the unsettling scenario of a child wresting control from adults in a sleek modern house nestled among tranquil woodlands and in its fixed shots loaded with menace.
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What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: We Need to Talk About Kevin , The Killing of a Sacred Deer and The White Ribbon .
It isn’t only John who has a mind for mischief, with Sisto and writer Nicolás Giacobone push the limits of their premise to the extreme, often filming at an icy remove, bringing the film firmly into the realm of the sociopathic “boys will be boys” genre that Michael Haneke and Yorgos Lanthimos have dabbled in with “Funny Games” and “The Killing of a Sacred Deer,” respectively, and introducing a meta-commentary into the film with a mother-daughter story told in parallel that veers into the absurd.
Where movies such as The Lobster or a film such as David Croenenberg’s Cosmopolis , there may be strange messaging, or narrative structure, yet we can see the point of it all.
But the movie’s a constant visual wonder, with cinematographer Paul Ozgur’s 4:3 aspect ratio tapping into the paranoia lingering over each scene, and the stellar production design by Jacqueline Abraham (whose credits range from “The Lobster” to “Lady Macbeth”) endows each room of the home with an expansive quality that adds to the impression of a self-contained universe defined by John’s curiosity.