Spontaneous (2020)
“Well at least now you can’t say ‘things were much harder back in my day’.” – Mara to her parents.
Spontaneous (2020)
Directed by: Brian Duffield
Written by: Brian Duffield
Starring: Katherine Langford, Charlie Plummer, Hayley Law
Wow. I can honestly say I’ve never seen a movie quite like this before, but that’s what made it such an enjoyable watch. I don’t even know how to categorise the genre on this one, so maybe a ‘dark romance coming-of-age tragicomedy’? Think Perks of Being a Wallflower mixed with Black Sheep. It's got a little bit of everything, but for a movie with such a ridiculous premise it hits all the right notes – it’ll get you right in the feels one minute then go back to light-hearted high school rom-com the next.
Based on the book of the same name by Aaron Starmer, Spontaneous follows best friends and high-school seniors Mara Carlyle (Langford, of 13 Reasons Why fame) and Tess McNulty (Law, a Riverdale alum). When students in their high school inexplicably start to explode (spontaneously combust), fellow classmate Dylan (Plummer) admits to having a crush on Mara, and the two have to negotiate a high school romance while classmates continue to die.
The plot sounds absolutely ridiculous – kids randomly start exploding for no reason – and it is, but it’s really just a quirky vehicle to explore a number of key themes in the film. First, the most obvious metaphor of the movie – you can die at any time, so live life to the fullest. Sounds corny, and it is, but it’s definitely prevalent social commentary on the youth of today, who have to curate even the smallest aspect of their online presence in fear of being ridiculed. Watching a fellow student explode is the kick-starter for Dylan in the film, with the realisation that life is fleeting helping him overcome his fear of public scrutiny and ask Mara out. This in turn triggers Mara and Dylan’s bucket-list-romance, a major aspect of the second theme: relationships.
As with any good high-school drama, relationships are explored ad-nauseam; Mara and Tess (besties), Mara and Dylan (boyfriend/girlfriend), Tess and Dylan (new boyfriend vs threatened best friend) Mara and her parents, Mara and her teachers (authoritarian figures vs youth). This is all explored through Mara’s perspective, who is presented as your regular high school teen – she’s pretty, but not popular, she’s smart, but not a nerd. She marches to the beat of her own drum. Basically, she’s that fictional cool character that very few people are in real life, but provides the audience with a lovable protagonist.
The three main lead actors are brilliant, but in particular Langford and Plummer’s performances are fantastic. They sling one-liners back and forth with ease and are the quintessential ‘high school couple’ – innocent yet confident, relatable yet quirky. I’ve only seen Plummer once before in a minor role, but he was electric in this – one to watch. (Just found out Plummer was the runner up to Tom Holland for the role of Spider-Man, yikes, that’s gotta hurt…). As an added bonus, the character of Dylan is really well written, as he doles out plenty of pop culture references throughout for fellow cinephiles to enjoy.
As more and more of their peers begin to die, the third theme rears its ugly head – dealing with loss. The final third of the film is dedicated to this, so I won’t go into too much detail here, but it gets pretty heavy, with a clear tone shift from the rest of the movie. Duffield tries to keep it more light-hearted in parts (with a very funny passage exploring what happens to the ’My Family’ stickers on people’s cars when a family member dies), but the final third is a real punch in the face. There’s a lot of extrapolation about the futility of life, and the fact that life is never fair (“None of you deserved this but deserve’s got nothing to do with it”), and it’s all tastefully done…but it’s the worst part of the movie. The pace of this final third drags and takes away from the fast-paced upbeat first hour.
So what about the exploding kids? It’s by far the craziest part of the movie, but it’s heaps of fun! Once the precedent has been set (a classmate explodes in the first 20 seconds of the film), you never know who and when somebody is going to explode. Similar to Game of Thrones, no one is safe. It’s not presented as some disgusting horror trope either - most explosions are off-camera, so you just see the blood spatters and the aftermath. It’s a good wrinkle to what would otherwise be ‘just another high-school movie’. But don’t worry, you’ll still get your ‘high school stereotypes’ fix, with Duffield sure to include all your favourite scenes; a night at a party, eating at the local diner, prom night, a football game, and the obligatory fight with parents.
As a bit of a tangent here, is there a better setting for a movie than a high-school? A wedding maybe, but the list of great high school movies is pretty iconic: 10 Things I Hate About You, Mean Girls, Superbad, The Breakfast Club, Clueless, Coach Carter, School of Rock, Grease, Donnie Darko.
In summary, everybody should watch Spontaneous. It’s a little bit different, and the last third of the movie drags a bit, but the acting is superb and the concept is a bunch of fun. Turn the phone off, grab some Malteasers and rent/stream/torrent this for a fun night in.
Rating: 7/10