Chucks (Gerhard Ertl, Sabine Hiebler 2015): Austria

Review by Zachary T. Parker. Viewed at the Santa Barbara Film Festival, 2016.

Chucks plays with fire in a narrative about Mae (Anna Posch), a malcontent teen, falling in love with Paul (Markus Subramaniam), a man suffering not only from AIDS, but also Hepatitis C. After being caught by the police spray painting train cars, Mae is sent to do community service at an AIDS clinic. Being generally off putting to her boss, her co-workers, and nearly every single patient, Mae is smoking in a stairwell when Paul trips over her, spilling the books he was carrying all over the hallway. She begrudgingly helps him pick them up and steals one of the books, believing her action unnoticed. The next day, Paul brings her another book and this begins a friendship that eventually evolves, with Mae uncaring about Paul’s conditions. In what could have been a terribly played-out love story, Chucks’ enthralling and well crafted narrative is told through striking cinematography, with a killer soundtrack to boot.

There is a balance throughout the film in displaying Mae’s dissident behavior, a balance which few films have really ever captured. It is neither apologetic nor preachy, juxtaposing nights spent drinking with mornings waking up in a park hungover, being watched by awed children. Her fellow troublemakers are shown to be as judgemental as her mother, a continuing trend that results in a whirlwind of social rejection which Mae ultimately cares very little for, interested purely in Paul, who doesn’t seem to be driven away by her antics. This creates a certain suspense for the audience, as we learn early on in the film that Paul is dying.

The film also plays with the nature of relationships, beginning with Paul and Mae. Paul is significantly older than her, but we immediately find that his interest is not due to some sort of perverse nature, but rather that Mae is the only person in his life that seems interested in spending time with him. Paul has been abandoned by everyone he loves, both family and friends, due to the nature of his disease. But Mae, seen by society as an uncaring, maladjusted teen, instantly connects with him, regardless of any harm that may come to herself.

An excellent film, Chucks is both a coming of age narrative and a love story, providing new life and a breath of freshness to both of the genres.