#SundanceWithScribe: Pascual Sisto makes a decent debut!

A film originally set to premiere at Cannes in 2020 has finally had its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival and was a selection for the festival’s US Dramatic Competition selection. ‘John and the Hole’ directed by visual artist Pascual Sisto, is a coming-of-age psychological thriller about a 13-year-old, John (Charlie Shotwell) who holds his family captive in a bunker, which is mostly like a hole.

The film has a cast that is truly worthy of recognition starring Taissa Farmiga as John’s older sister Laurie and Michael C. Hall and Jennifer Ehle as his parents as they are left in the cold and hungry as John lives out his fantasy. Based on the plot audiences would be expecting to see a graphic thriller, however, it isn’t. It tells a story of a psychopath but to nowhere as great extremes.

It shows Charlie as he lives a life of freedom without his parents telling him what to do and has zero intentions of harming his family at all.

He tries to live this ‘Home Alone’ lifestyle minus the shenanigans in that particular film.

Charlie is on his own by taking on responsibilities and exploring the life of being an independent adult. He attends his tennis lessons, practices his driving skills, plays video games, takes money out from the ATM, eats chicken nuggets, makes moves on his mother’s friend, and tries to see death with a friend through intentional drowning. Clearly not the best activity to be doing with a friend.

As previously stated the noteworthy cast does not stand out like Shotwell. The parents are not fully developed and most of the time their performances feel a little forgettable. Shotwell owns his performance as a teenager who is just creepy as an emotionless, odd teenager but yet the film is an interesting watch to see what John does next. There isn’t enough to make audiences root for him.

Oscar-winner of ‘Birdman’ co-writer Nicolás Giacobone adapted the screenplay from his short story ‘El Pozo’. However, there is little tension and very little evolves as the story progresses. The film can also be seen as a fable when the film follows a mother and 12-year-old daughter that is unrelated to the narrative and just felt like a distraction to watch. So, is the film a fairy tale?

Sisto’s film has clear inspiration from Michael Haneke, Yorgos Lanthimos films, and Lynne Ramsay’s ‘We Need to Talk About Kevin’. However, there isn’t much where Sisto can make it his own. The film’s cinematography is also worthy of acknowledgment making you feel like you are trapped in a box as the cinematographer, Paul Özgür uses wide shots and even intense close-ups with a long lens while being trapped in a very stylized home as a privileged child lives his life. The film does have a strong first and second act, but eventually once the third act hits it falls flat at the end as it does not build up to anything with an ending conclusion feeling there is very little to take away.

‘John and the Hole’ may not belong in a ditch, but for Pascual Sisto, it was just a decent debut.

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