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Alpha Is a Striking Mess of a Movie
Julia Ducournau’s follow-up to Titane is eerie, disturbing, and not terribly coherent.
Ducournau stormed on the scene with her 2016 debut, Raw, a fantastically feral coming-of-age film that was all the better for the ways that its disparate elements — cannibalism, a sexual awakening, a sisterly rivalry, and veterinary-school hazing — didn’t click together perfectly. Amin, played by Tahar Rahim, is the uncle whom 13-year-old Alpha (Mélissa Boros, who has an old-soul face) barely remembers, because the last time he was in her life, she was just a child connecting the abscesses on his arm with a marker, as if finding constellations among the signs of his addiction. But in his teasing and his jackal-sly energy (Rahim’s performance is a fascinating mix of charismatic and off-putting), Amin also provides company that Alpha rarely has, especially once she becomes a pariah at school because everyone is afraid she’ll infect them.
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