When couple Gemma and Tom go house searching, they stumble upon
an idyllic housing neighbourhood that looks as identical as the next house and
as it’s next house. Pulled into the promise of their would-be home being ideal
forever, Gemma and Tom soon learn a lesson in starting the Nuclear Family, as
they soon realize they can’t seem to physically leave the neighbourhood they
just visited.
Lorcan Finnegan’s and Garrett Shanley’s Vivarium is an
immediate allegory for a hetero couple settling down before they’re ready, and
having kids in suburbia amongst the ever-changing housing market. Going through
the motions of raising a family, the cliché of adult hood and parenthood and
your kids becoming the negative parts of you. Your independence is stolen from you when
having a child. Preventing your kids
from watching tv all day. The father getting away from the family and the
mother being the main caretaker thus their relationship moving apart, as the father
-figure becomes traditionally the abusive parent of the two, seeing a child as
a threat to his Manhood.
Lorcan Finnegan’s direction in Vivarium uses Irish sensibilities
and comedic dryness, displaying a grey disposition amongst a clean green
neighbourhood landscape of fake pink clouds, primary blue skies and green spotless
grassy yards. This style creates a biting, sharp templates for the satirical
conversations the film contemplates, between Gemma and Tom; A rejection of
perfection in Suburbia, the young taking over the old, retired being another
word for dead, the idea people raised in suburbs are sent out to inhabit cities
with the same regurgitated values of their broken parents, continuing corporate
structure in a capitalist wheel of profit from assembly line fixtures. Though
these ideas are a little on the nose, they are effective, and the films focus
is intended and poignant on the truth about the societal pressures of housing,
marriage and kids.
Vivarium has touches and attributes of films reminiscent of
David Lynch’s Eraserhead (1977), in the idea of an exaggerated degree of
parenthood, expressing the extreme transformation from not having a child to
having a child and the fear, trials and tribulations of parenthood. All presented
in a comedic yet disturbing and sardonically odd, manic and twisted picture;
much like a Twilight Zone or Black Mirror. As the Vivarium goes on, your feel
the anxiety and anger encroach upon Gemma and Tom as they bicker between each
other like a married couple, and then notice hopelessness and drain become
them.
Imogen Poots and Jesse Eisenberg do perfect work, with Jesse
Eisenberg at his darkest acting yet since The Squid and The Whale (2007) and
The Social Network (2010). And Imogen Poots finally gets to shine in her
original British dialect, as strong as can be in a lead role that takes her
from optimistic, frustrated, strategic, apathetic, determined and defeated in another
great horror adjacent role.
Vivarium is perfect parts dark and satirical, classically telling
a tale about something most of us go through or will go through. The type of
satire that expands the Horror/SciFi genre and makes it better, as well as
being the exact fuel both genres thrive on. Kids aren’t easy, finding the
perfect home isn’t easy and neither is marriage. Lorcan Finnegan’s direction
and Garrett Shanley’s screenplay conjure up the right pin point of what going
through these milestones of society, feel like on the inside. Vivarium reminds
us that genre pictures can never die as they are the glue of films that not
only entertain us, but make us think. Vivarium is a must watch for any genre
fan and especially for anyone trying to buy a house and start a family. 8/10.
- - Maurice
Jones
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