Netflix has just released their finest original content when it comes to their feature films. Jeremy Saulnier’s Hold the Dark starring Jeffery Wright, Alexander Skarsgard, Riley Keough, and James Badge Dale is a transgressive and pulverizing tale into the heart of darkness.
The film plays as if it is an adult fable, a woman whose husband is currently serving overseas, contacts an expert on wolves to track down and kill the pack that took her son.
The tracker played marvelously by Wright, discovers more than he bargained for and pulls back the curtain on a bleak and mystic series of events that leaves far more horrific questions than answers.
Jeremy Saulnier’s fourth feature film is undoubtedly his finest, creating a world in the reclusive Alaskan wilderness that is as beautiful as it is dangerous. Cinematographer Mangus Nordenhof Jonck photographs the visually breathtaking Alaska yet keeps it mysterious and forbidden.
Jonck balances heavy violence and overt beauty wickedly well. Saulnier mainstay, production designer Ryan Warren Smith crafts a world of dilapidation that is not only removed but muted from society.
The film is difficult to tackle, the narrative brings the audience to dark places that are not easily connected. It is a dark and hellish ride that requires more than one viewing, yet the trick is, the film is so brutal and introspective, that some may not return.
The picture is propelled by action and movement, there is little dialogue that helps navigate the story, but what is said si extremely important and causes the audience to pay even more attention to the film.
It is incredibly rare to get a film like this, one that is so raw and unforgiving of its characters. It is dark, it is moving, and it is a one of kind picture that could have only been so carefully crafted from a filmmaker with the sensibilities of Jeremey Saulnier.
Review by Frank Mengarelli
Hold the Dark
Summary
Netflix unveils Jeremey Saulnier’s latest film, which jumps to the top of their catalog as their finest feature film to date. It is dark, it is unforgiving, and it is fantastic.
