AFI FEST 2020: Rival
afi fest 2020Standing as not just his sophomore feature but also as Marcus Lenz's return to the directors chair after 16-years, Rival is one of the most genuinely surprising films of the year. The film opens with a young boy named Roman (Yelizar Nazarenko) living his life and enjoying childhood with his mother (Mariia Bruni). Even if the two struggle with money and they live in Germany working illegally and sharing a house with a strange old man named Gert (Udo Samel), they have each other. Then his mother falls ill, and a tragic series of dominos is set off, leaving Roman helpless and to his own devices.
If there is one thing to praise within Rival it is its emotional competence. This is a film that holds the audience in the palm of its hand. Starting with joy to get the audience behind its characters only to the devolve into a spider web of sadness and tension, the film, when moving, really does suck the audience in and will leave them sitting on the edge of their seats. Not only is this accomplished by the power of the screenplay and filmmaking, but also largely due to the performances. Specifically, credit needs to be given to that of Yelizar Nazarenko. The young actor excels in this role, even carrying the film at times. The emotional range and understanding he shows surpasses that of plenty of adult actors working today and speaks to his talents as an actor, which will only grow more and more over time. It would be criminal for Rival not to serve as a jumping off point for the young actor who clearly proves himself here.
Though these elements are all delivering a near masterful quality of work and the film seemingly has all the pieces needed to become a masterpiece, there is a clear element missing – a proper pace. Rival is a film that, despite having a clean 96-minute runtime, drags incredibly at points, largely due to the pacing of the plot. The film starts off slow, introducing the characters and their situations in a very casual and meandering sense. This is completely fine and naturally allows the audience to create bonds with the characters which will further enhance the power of the film later on, but the film simply spends way too long in this set up. It isn't until far too late in the film where things finally happen, and once everything starts breaking down, it becomes clear that it could have used 10 more minutes to really flesh the plot out and let the emotions breath.
This time easily could have been taken from the start of the film, as the pacing was so poor that many audiences will check out for large chunks of the film. The final act should be thrilling and shocking enough to pull most audience members back in, however, this undeniably hurts the overall viewing experience of the film and really holds it back from being a full on masterpiece. Rival has every piece of the puzzle but ultimately doesn't have the craft to put it all together. With that said, it at least proves that each element of the film can work to a great level on their own and it is obvious that, if given a stronger paced screenplay, there easily could be a masterpiece on the horizon for these filmmakers and actors.
