‘Crocodile Tears’: London Review

Dir/scr: Tumpal Tampubolon. Indonesia/France/Singapore/Germany. 2024. 98mins

Mom at all times is aware of finest in Crocodile Tears. Tumpal Tampubolon’s low-key debut function charts the unhealthy relationship between a younger man and his overbearing mom, step by step shifting from household drama into extra supernatural territory. The central dynamic and the setting of a crocodile farm add intrigue to a slow-burning, typically cluttered combine that ought to appeal to consideration from festivals monitoring rising expertise from Indonesia following its Toronto Centrepiece debut and subsequent London berth.

Favours restraint over extra, atmospherics over explanations

Tampulbolon’s brief The Sea Calls For Me (2021), winner of Finest Asian Brief Movie at Busan, dealt partly with lonely boys and absent fathers. There are comparable themes in his first function, which is about on a down-at-heel crocodile farm in West Java run by Mama (Marissa Anita) and her son Johan (Yusuf Mahardika). The slithering multitudes of crocodiles present loads of visible alternatives for cinematographer Teck Siang Lim who reveals them thrashing round, clambering over one another, mouths agape, earlier than gorging down the entire chickens hurled of their path.

Tampubolon appears enthralled by these crocodile eyes: close-ups present them  flicking open just like the shutter of a digital camera lens and evening scenes gleam with dozens of eyes watching at nighttime. It appears apparent that the crocodiles will play an important half within the story however initially the main focus is on the uncomfortable bond between mom and son. Working collectively, the duo are the whole lot to one another. Mama showers her boy with kisses, calls for shoulder massages and holds him shut in her arms as they share a mattress. There aren’t any boundaries and no privateness. The query of what occurred to Johan’s father is one which runs all through the movie, sparking hypothesis and rumours.

Mahardika and Anita successfully seize that awkward mom/son bond by way of physique language and appears. Johan appears uncomfortable in his pores and skin; squirming, defensive, making an attempt to maintain calm within the face of exasperation and sexual frustration. Mama sports activities a glance of everlasting reproach, particularly when she washes Johan’s stained underwear.

The catalyst for change is Johan’s assembly with Arumi (Zulfa Maharani) and the candy romance that slowly develops between them. She is an orphan, working in an area karaoke bar and has not one of the shut household ties that bind Johan. Because the couple develop nearer, Mama begins to see the risk in Arumi. The viewer can solely ponder what attracts Arumi to maneuver to the crocodile farm when any wise soul would possibly run a mile in the other way.

The symbolism of the crocodiles turns into ever extra apparent as we be taught that they’re susceptible to consuming their very own eggs. The movie stays intriguing as we’re inspired to think about how Mama will reply to her son’s strikes in direction of independence, and to think about what half the highly effective jaws and gnashing enamel of the crocodiles will play in her response. Mama appears to have an inexplicable symbiotic reference to a cherished white crocodile that has an enclosure to itself. A rumble of distant thunder on the soundtrack is all it takes to sign occasions are coming to a head and, because the plot unfolds, the movie strays into the territory of Jordan Peele’s Get Out (2017). 

Crocodile Tears has all the weather for shlocky B-movie fare however Tampubolon retains his concentrate on the central relationship, favouring restraint over extra, atmospherics over explanations.  The final word reveal in regards to the true nature of the white crocodile should still be a stretch too far for some viewers.