Heartland Film Festival 2019: ‘Philophobia’ is a frank, enthralling look at coming of age
by Trevor Sheffield
For more than 30 years, one of the tenant genres in modern filmmaking has been the high school movie. From American Pie to Superbad, movies in this paradigm expose the glories of late-night parties, wild underaged drinking benders, and how none of the aforementioned acts have any consequences whatsoever for anybody who isn’t a square. The American cinematic landscape has more than its fair share of these debaucherous adventures, but it begs the question: How do people from other countries around the world (and in this case, from across the pond) interpret this endless cycle of super-senior soirées?
Image from IMDbPhilophobia, directed and written by Guy Davies, presents an English take on the high school shenanigans genre that, while clearly reminiscent at times of American contemporaries like Superbad or The Breakfast Club, feels wholly original. Set against a backdrop of densely-wooded greens and small-town English pleasantries, an aspiring writer named Kai (Joshua Glenister) is gearing up for his last week of high school alongside his buddies. He studies for exams, plots his future, and jots down poetry in his head. When he’s not doing that, he’s slinging back beers and blunts with old chums like Megsy (Jack Gouldbourne) on the library roof, plotting the ultimate leavers’ prank, and staring at the girl living across the curb like a deer in headlights. After a fateful encounter with one of the most beautiful girls at school throws our pedantic poet into the hot-seat of romance and intrigue, Kai struggles to keep himself and his love life in one piece.
Without a doubt, the effort put into Philophobia is utterly palpable from an audience’s perspective. The lighting in the film is absolutely impeccable, with some sequences casting an eerie, almost dreamlike ambiance over the quaint, honest world our characters live in. Speaking of these characters, their performances display a genuine sense of camaraderie among the main cast, with Glenister as Kai giving a contemplative yet still emotional take on an ultimately troubled teen. Outside of that, the music (largely comprised of proper score and licensed work) excellently sets the tone for the whole affair, and the use of abstract imagery, in conjunction with the lighting usage, leads to moments that wouldn’t feel out of place in some of the A24 catalog’s brightest gems.
Image from IMDb
That said, for all the praise I’ve given the film, there are a few snags that, while not being dealbreakers in the slightest, are still worth noting. The film is heavily entrenched in the male gaze (literally so when it comes to Kai’s occasional long-stare sessions) and doesn’t really give the core female characters of the story much to do outside of being objects of affection for Kai and his peers. It’s somewhat justified, given how closely we follow Kai throughout the story and the overall laissez-faire attitude the film has towards sex for the most part. Outside of that, Philophobia’s third act has some fairly rough pacing issues, largely due to how much the film sets up and tries to pay off in full over the course of its runtime. That isn’t to say that the movie decides to pay full homage to Return of the King and comes to a conventional ending multiple times before starting back up again, but with the amount of closure the movie is intent on providing to its plot threads, it does start to wear out some.
What else is there to say of Philophobia? The film is a unique take on your typical high school drama, blending together the likes of thrillers like Rear Window with shenanigans that echo movies like American Pie and The Dead Poets Society. However, it still manages to make the whole thing come together as a fairly cohesive and frank look at the uncertainties of growing up, both good and bad. Aside from some slight issues with pacing and characterization, it’s a movie with a spellbinding sense of sincerity in every nook and cranny. If you get the opportunity to catch this one on the big screen, seize it.
