Sep 14

Sep 14 TIFF 2021 film review: 'The Humans'

*Image courtesy of the Toronto International Film Festival.*

The slice-of-life family drama 'The Humans' (screening during the 46th Toronto International Film Festival) is a piercing snapshot of a modern family's anxieties and a thoughtful rumination of the American Dream.

In short: At Thanksgiving, the Blake clan gathers at the run-down Manhattan apartment in Chinatown of Brigid and her boyfriend Richard. Stars Beanie Feldstein, Richard Jenkins, Jayne Houdyshell, Amy Schumer, Steven Yeun and June Squibb.

None of the Blake family members are feeling particularly festive going into the Thanksgiving dinner. Brigid's father Erik (Jenkins) anxiously takes note of the apartment's decrepit failings. Brigid's sister Aimee (Schumer) tries to put on a good-humored face, despite her own career and health concerns. Mother Deirdre (Houdyshell) is weighed down by caring for Erik’s Alzheimer’s-afflicted mother (Squibb), hesitant to tell her daughters a stressful secret. All the while polite boyfriend Richard (Yeun) is just trying to keep the mood light while Brigid (Feldstein) defends her choice to leave her hometown for Manhattan.

The aged, pre-war era starter apartment is the film's uncredited cast member. Its unnatural creaking, discouraging water stains and bizarre layout is the perfect backdrop for this strained, imperfect family Thanksgiving. It's actually appropriate the crackling fireplace - the only wholesome-looking aspect of the apartment - is a fake hearth from a small projector. Like the weary and deteriorating apartment itself, 'The Humans' finds a family worn down by time and personal setbacks.

'The Humans' is just a creepy, overbearing string-heavy score away from being a full-blown horror film. Doors slowly creak open on their own and unearthly sounds emanate from the walls, as if priming the audience that some monster could jump out at any moment. If horror, as a genre, is simply a reflection of contemporary anxieties, then this film's deliberately unsettling atmosphere speaks to modern anxieties about the future. Every Blake family member mentions some frustration rooted in financial insecurity - from mounting debt to resentment that years of on-the-job experience pays less than having some fancy degree. Erik wryly remarks that "it should cost less to be alive." It's worth noting the only character seemingly unburdened with an undercurrent of daunting stress ... is also the one character with a financial nest egg.

The film's unsettling atmosphere also taps into the family's general discomfort with their lives - and their dread of having inevitable conversations. There's a distinct sense that any levity of the evening only exists because it's Thanksgiving and the Blakes think 'being festive' is simply another holiday tradition. At one point Brigid asks which shade of paint is best for the walls - but like a fresh coat of paint atop the decaying walls, their forced levity is a thin veneer glossing over stresses in their life they're trying to forget (if only for one night).

A stellar ensemble cast imparts a tragic, lived in relatability to the Blake family, from their playful teasing to their strained family dynamics. 'The Humans' feels like an authentic drop-in on the Blake family for just one particular evening - catching a moment with a cast of characters who share a familial chemistry, and as Amiee notes, they live with a "stoic sadness." The script is rife with cutting remarks, understated sadness and surprising moments of genuine warmth.

Too many other "family drama" flicks culminate in some bombastic screaming match moment - but 'The Humans' rejects such lazy melodrama in favor of pervasive existential dread. Erik and Deirdre lament their daughter's lack of faith - yet none of the Blake family members are exactly prospering. Erik's precarious day-to-day existence has him on edge to the point where small bumps in the dark disturb his frayed nerves. Although the movie plays with horror conventions, its most frightening message is that anyone in the modern middle class can all-too-easily find themselves struggling in economic uncertainty, feeling as if they're stumbling around in the dark and unsure of what is just around the next corner.

Final verdict: 'The Humans' is a masterful distillation of the tenuous instability of life in America today - and how these fractal strains distress family relations.