Joey Magidson
Almost regardless of how Backrooms turned out, the fact that it’s a professionally made film from someone as young as Kane Parsons makes it a work deserving of some praise. That it, on a visual level, is actually rather impressive, is even more worthy of praise. The thing is, as a whole production, the movie comes up a bit lacking. Now, it has me very curious about Parsons and eager to see more from him, but for a debut feature, it comes up just a little short.
Backrooms is, at least visually, quite striking. The issues mostly reside with the dialogue and narrative, though the actors aren’t as well supported as you’d like. What begins as an unsettling and mysterious work eventually becomes ponderous and self-serious, ultimately collapsing on itself when it should be blowing your mind. These are first film type of problems, so it’s clear Parsons will be on an upward trajectory with his career. Still, it means this flick is only a taste of what he can offer.
After a prologue introduces us to the liminal space that will hope to terrify, we meet Clark (Chiwetel Ejiofor) and Mary (Renate Reinsve). Clark is living at his furniture showroom, after having been kicked out by his wife. Mary is his therapist. One day, while trying to figure out his high electric bills, Clark discovers an infinite space within the walls of his subbasement. Like a misremembered version of an office, it’s full of oddities and seems to go on forever. Clark begins exploring the space, and when he tells Mary about it, she initially doesn’t believe him. Then, after she receives a mysterious message from him, she opts to go to the store and see what’s up.
Once Mary arrives, the two end up reunited in the space, where they are not alone, either. As Mary interrogates Clark about the situation and the latter reveals some very strange things to the former, there’s a sense that something else is also going on. Then, one more reveal expands things in a way that may blow some minds, but left yours truly deeply disappointed.
Both Chiwetel Ejiofor and Renate Reinsve have been nominated for Academy Award. Parsons landing them was a real coup, no doubt. Unfortunately, he doesn’t fully have a handle on how to get the best out of them, resulting in very inconsistent performances. I think both are splendid at their craft, without question, but here, it does not especially shine through. Mark Duplass is wasted in a thankless role, while supporting players include Finn Bennett and Lukita Maxwell as Clark’s employees, plus a handful more.
Director Kane Parsons has a striking visual eye, especially for such a young filmmaker. The production design here is genuinely impressive, too. Unfortunately, Parsons doesn’t yet have a handle on directing actors, as these performances are inconsistent, while his pacing is rather slack. Writer Will Soodik is unable to come up with much in the way of believable dialogue, instead having the characters sound like they’re in service of the plot, as opposed to the other way around. There’s so little to these characters that they never feel three dimensional, just vessels for Parsons and Soodik, while the world they build out as Backrooms wraps up its third act is fairly unsatisfying. Parsons and Soodik are trying to explore memory and the nature of what we remember about trauma, but the only real success here is with the vibes and visuals. Even then, there’s a sense of diminishing returns, which can be attributed to the nearly two hour running time. Parsons has likely got a great film in him, but this isn’t that. Still, being able to shepherd this to completion is worthy of some acknowledgment, even if it ultimately wasn’t for me.
Backrooms is an interesting failure to me, and yet, I’m actually pretty excited to see what Kane Parsons does next. He likely has a hell of a career ahead of him, so this will ultimately just be a launching pad for him. I’ll be very curious to look back in a few years and see how his work then compares to this one. I suspect it’ll blow this out of the water.
SCORE: ★★1/2
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