"Better Things" is a multi narrative drama depicting everyday life in small town England.
Although it would be categorised in the "Drama" section of Amazon.co.uk or be filed under a similar label in a film guide, Better Things feels more like a series of observations. Set in the Cotswolds, Duane Hopkins' debut feature looks at a group of teenagers' lives as they indulge in hard drug abuse. When describing a film about drug usage amongst young people, phrases such as "battling with addiction" come into one's mind. But this sombre piece of work does not show teens "battling" against addiction. If there is a battle to be had, they are fighting on the side of the drugs. However, as a whole, Hopkins' beautifully crafted narration steers the viewer away from thoughts of something as certain and defined as "battling" or fighting against a psychological force. Instead we get a painful, and sometimes hard to watch, depiction of a group of youths steadily sinking into a dangerous way of life. Everything is presented so calmly, lulling the audience into a state where, although not ready to support the activities they are seeing, they are able to sympathise with how addictive the process of drug taking can be. The peaceful, dream-like effect the film has on the viewer feels like a drug itself, taking you into this world and making it hard to forget.
Hopkins' film manages to stay the right side of the tricky line between observing dangerous behaviour and condoning it. The injecting or smoking is never glamorised, but the viewer is not fed an "anti-drugs" message either. No morals or messages are explicitly laid out because it is not necessary to do so. The whole lifestyle is portrayed as depressing and unattractive. What's more unsettling is witnessing these young adults continue with their illegal habits even though a girl they knew or had a connection with has died of an overdose.
The reason for the drug taking is not rigorously explored, but once again, through observing the behaviour it becomes clear why it takes place. "Nothing" is the first word uttered in the film, from a young girl, Gail, reading from a novel. We get a selection of shots of the Cotswolds and surrounding area. It is debateable what is meant by "Nothing", but the voiceover of the girl continues with "This was real life. And real life was difficult". This could be a reference to the emptiness of their lives. Life as a middleclass teenager in the Cotswolds is presented as an empty, bleak and depressing world of "nothing". For them there is either nothing to do or nothing to look forward to. Although there is a valid argument that one's youth is just a difficult period in one's life that most just stumble through, Better Things has an answer to that. With a small amount of gentle, melancholy scenes, some elderly residents of the small town go through their lives in much the same state as the younger characters. They do not indulge in Class A drugs, but their lives seem to be caught up in the same hypnotic sense of uneasy, inevitable nothingness.
Better Things' lack of conventional narrative but notable beauty is reminiscent of James Bidgood's Pink Narcissus. Although regarded by some as nothing more than a work of erotica, this startling film also uses the idea of being caught up in a distorted world. Although the world in Pink Narcissus is someone's personal fantasy as opposed to a drug-fuelled haze, it toys with the idea of getting away from reality to find oneself. In either of the two, the viewer's attention and interest is not held by dramatic dialogue or action sequences. The overall effect is submergence in visual poetry; a near-hypnotic experience that leaves a strong impression long after viewing. Other more recent examples of "visual poetry" used to tell a feature film could be Steve McQueen's Hunger and Joe Lawlor & Christine Molloy's excellent 2009 feature Helen. Although these are more similar in their filming style than their stories, both let the viewer soak up the imagery, letting the plot unfold at its own pace.
Duane Hopkins' short films, which he made some years before Better Things, do not carry the same lyrical, visual quality, but do demonstrate the director's intuitive and effective skill at using little or even no sound. There are periods in Better Things when dialogue is not heard for long periods of time, and all that is coming through the speakers is either amplified ambient sound or complete silence. This is not seen so much in his first short, Field, but is effectively demonstrated in Love Me or Leave Me Alone.
It is a great shame that Better Things, after picked up by Soda Pictures, had a rather limited cinema run. For a period of time, after playing to acclaim at the Critic's Week at Cannes, it looked as though the film wasn't going to receive a screening in London at all. Luckily it finally found its home at the ICA. The novelist and journalist Richard T Kelly, writing about Better Things, claims "Talents such as his [Hopkins] are rare, and must be celebrated, with maximum passion". But limited distribution makes this hard to do, so I earnestly hope that whatever Hopkins turns his hand to next gets a larger exhibition. I feel he is a talent to watch, and lends strength and an original voice to our film industry. If the critical success of this film propels his future projects into a more prominent spotlight, I hope he doesn't lose his insightful edge. Better Things does not give the viewer a reward for their patience in the form of a happy ending, but there is a glimmer of optimism. It is the painful, bleaker sides of life Hopkins focuses on, but he always retains a core of human warmth. After all, Better Things does look at a collection of love stories, whether these are between the drug-addicted teenagers or the troubled elderly couple, and it is this humanity that makes the overall effect sobering, potent and boldly beautiful.
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The debut feature of British director Duane Hopkins is a multi-narrative, intergenerational portrait of the residents of a rural community in the Cotswolds. The film portrays the lives of a group of young people as they struggle to come to terms with the difficulties of growing up in a world of limited opportunities, while their parents and grandparents try to hold their families and their own relationships together.
A handful of characters in a small British town deal with love, disappointment and temptation in this independent drama.
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