Struck, a low-budget indie film brought to us by filmmakers Alexander Milo Bischof and Michael Couvaras, tells a recognisable story, but within the sheltered and all-encompassing world of a group of teenage friends.
Their naivete and narrow mindedness provides an interesting element to the drama, as we become entangled, as they are, in their web of friendships, rumours, and gossip that feels like everything at that age.
Jenny and Kate are best friends and get together to talk about their respective crushes, snippets of gossip from the latest party, things they’ve heard about other girls, anything they may deem worthy to pass on to the other. These typically teenage interactions are so recognisable, and with the gift of hindsight it is almost painful to watch and listen to what they sound like as an outsider.
At their age, of course, utmost importance is placed upon these banal matters. Whilst Kate is more soft and sensitive, more reluctant to be quite so damning about her contemporaries, Jenny has that ‘queen bee’ confidence that clearly hides a deeper insecurity, which shows in her inability to admit her true feelings for her love interest, Steve.
Steve and Jamie’s interactions take much the same form. Walking and talking, about girls mainly, and all things intrinsic to the high school social scene. Steve, like Kate, seems to have more going on below the surface; both of them seem to harbour some kind of knowledge beyond their years, while their best friends are the louder, more boisterous and seemingly carefree characters. When cracks begin to show in their relationships, and dark secrets begin to unravel, the characters are forced to question everything they believed, and are faced with realities far beyond anything they have known before.
The events unfold in a breathtaking, exquisite woodland surroundings, with autumn leaves covering the ground, and the grey light of the dreary sky. Such a setting adds to the claustrophobic feeling that is so much part of this film, the importance of this world that these people live in. There is hardly any sense of an outside world, no sense of problems that are not their own, which is so true to the typical teenage psyche.
The filmmakers create something impressive with clearly limited resources. The actors tackle quite challenging subject matter admirably, with their shortcomings in the more demanding scenes more than made up for in the conversational moments between friends. The rapport between them is so believable, one has to remind themselves that they aren’t just watching a couple of school friends chatting. Struck showcases some promising actors, beautiful cinematography and a haunting score, and definitely a piece of writing that is thought provoking and interesting.
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