Normal is Still Boring
Click to viewThe large family of a man dying of cancer prepare for his birthday in 2024's Totem. Writer/director Lila Aviles endeavours to capture life perched on the edge of terrible change but the finished film fears intimacy with its audience leading to something academic and cute.
The story's primarily told through the eyes of a little girl named Sol played by a decent enough child actor named Naima Senties. With long static shots of mundane activities in the lead up to the birthday party, Aviles tries to convey a sense of real life but, perhaps becoming bored with this, she tries to punch up the film with a series of odd little surprises like the grandfather's artificial voice and a visiting medium who scams one of the young women of the household. Sol reacts to normal situations well enough but she never exhibits the sense of dread Aviles is trying to establish. It seems as though Aviles was aware of this and tried a stunt in the climax of the film that's slightly off-putting but does not succeed in its goal of conveying the impact of the father's impending death.
What might have improved this film? Maybe a sense of how the father fit into the family's life in happier times. Mostly we just watch the women making cakes and gossiping or scolding the kids. The kids are cute, which perks things up here and there, but no one at the reins of this movie had the goods to convey the intended sense of gravity.
Totem is available on The Criterion Channel.