Review of BLAME! (2017) by Dan B — 25 Apr 2017

Though I wouldn't call this my genre, Blame turned out to be downright spell binding. I saw this at the Tribeca Film Festival, where there was plenty of hubbub about the movie and youthful director/actress/writer Quinn Shepherd.

I hoped to be entertained, but instead was mesmerized completely. This movie would have worked just at the level of a great ensemble acting piece, because every one of Blame's actors and actresses was spot on.

Somehow these high school characters and their teacher ALL achieved that mixture of good and evil, or at least evil and charisma, that marks a complete portrayal. The movie was great simply as high school drama, with steamy basement partying and cheerleading scene, and was completely compelling as a "forbidden fruit" student/teacher story where no-one is exactly at fault.

But the additional genius is the play within a play, where scenes from The Crucible are brought to life in cool and artful ways in a New jersey high school auditorium. There's plenty going on here, beyond entertaining from start to finish--go see it.