Summary
An impeccably cast character piece from a duo of debut feature filmmakers. Ophidiophobiacs need not apply.
When Olivia Colman was accepting her Oscar earlier this year for The Favourite, we were all thinking the same thing. What if she was part of a community of snake handlers? Specifically, one run by Walter Goggins. With Britt Poulton and Dan Madison Savage’s THEM THAT FOLLOW, which debuted at Sundance in January, that dream finally comes to fruition.
Somewhere in the Appalachians, Mara (Alice Englert) is the daughter of Pastor Lemuel Childs (Walton Goggins), the leader of a remote community of Pentecostal serpent handlers. As Mara prepares for her wedding under the supervision of the wonderfully named Hope Slaughter (Olivia Colman), several secrets emerge that test her faith and make her question her teachings.
In Poulton and Savage’s screenplay, the tension comes from two sources. Early in the film it is evident that Mara believes that she might be pregnant. Betrothed to another man, it’s evident that her affair is not of this union, immediately showing us the first cracks in the perfect façade of faith. The second half of the film adds an addition strand of drama when a character of little faith is bitten by a snake, and there is a conflict between faith and humanitarian responsibility.
THEM THAT FOLLOW is first and foremost a character play, and first-time feature filmmakers Poulton and Savage have assembled a staggeringly good cast. Olivia Colman is, of course, excellent. But you knew that. Australia’s Alice Englert, perhaps known best for Top of the Lake and Beautiful Creatures, gives a star-making turn as Mara. Walter Goggins is captivating as a cult leader, never giving into the temptation of overplaying his hand.
Brett Jutkiewicz’s photography – shot in Youngstown, Ohio – makes full use of the wide frame. From the opening scene, where the camera lingers on a maternity den of snakes, it’s almost as though we are being enveloped by another world entirely. So powerful is this technique, that any time we spend outside the community feels more alien than in it.
It is quite often the case in films depicting Appalachia that they wallow in poverty porn or cast their characters as a kind of shorthand for America’s underclass. Poulton and Savage are careful not to judge, and instead show a number of families who happen to have a deep faith that is displayed in a way that may seem unusual to the outside. A strong signs of things to come from some new voices in America cinema.
2019 | US | DIR: Britt Poulton, Dan Madison Savage | WRITER: Britt Poulton, Dan Madison Savage | CAST: Olivia Colman, Kaitlyn Dever, Alice Englert, Jim Gaffigan, Walton Goggins, Thomas Mann, Lewis Pullman | DISTRIBUTOR: Sony Pictures Releasing, Melbourne International Film Festival (AUS) | RUNNING TIME: 92 minutes | RELEASE DATE: 1 – 18 August 2019 (MIFF)
