Oscar-nominated drama Close is pure, unadulterated emotional torture, in a good way
that we’re long overdue for something exploring the closeness between young men.
The first half of the A24-produced Belgian film in French and Dutch follows these best friends with a kind of apprehensive intimacy, allowing us to glimpse the incredible beauty of the relationship that can only exist between two people that age. The fierceness, devotion and all-encompassing emotion is hard to capture, though Dhont and cinematographer Frank van den Eeden come very close.But as the boys start secondary school, things start to shift.
After some tense moments – moments where I had to hold my breath because they brought back such intense pubescent memories – there are fights, confrontations and finally all-out screaming matches as the two come to grips over what it means to hold and love and be with someone so intimately in full view of the world, however small that world may be. It is devastating for anyone who can recall how much the pain of losing a friendship can feel at that age.
Dhont forces us to relive those moments as the two struggle to keep their friendship from evolving into something else, something far less loving and open than what it has been and could be. To see something so beautiful become so ugly causes a particular kind of emotional destruction, one Dhont excels at capturing.Courtesy of A24 / Spherebecomes an examination of responsibility, of what we owe the ones we love and the emotional legacy of what we leave behind as we grow up.
Fans of stunning cinematography, thoughtful writing and pure, unadulterated emotional torture will findto be worthy of the Oscar nod. The film certainly guarantees that its 31-year-old director will have a long-lasting career examining the heartbreak of finding and being your most authentic self.
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