‘Toxic’: Locarno Review

Dir: Saule Bliuvaite. Lithuania. 2024. 99 minutes.

Toxicity takes many types in Saule Bliuvaite’s gritty and keenly noticed coming-of-age debut from Lithuania, the winner of Locarno’s Golden Leopard. It’s all over the place from the atmosphere to the toxic perspective its feminine protagonists are tacitly and actively inspired to take in direction of themselves. Rooted within the director’s personal teenage experiences, it is a uncooked and uncompromising have a look at the pressures women face in locations with few prospects however loads of entry to the web.

Thrums with teen spirit

Bliuvaite takes the same strategy to those bleak environment as that of US director Sean Baker (Pink Rocket, The Florida Mission), avoiding poverty porn and looking out straight on the youngsters moderately than down on them and celebrating the shocking friendships that may develop within the unlikeliest of locations. Poisonous’s win at Locarno together with the social-media buzzword nature of the title ought to assist it to achieve traction each on and past the competition circuit.

Marija (Vesta Matulyte) has been dumped together with her grandmother in a small Lithuanian city the place each backdrop is defaced by business, from cooling towers to pylons. 13 year-old Marija’s new-kid standing and the limp she was born with make her ripe for bullying. An early scene through which her denims are stolen from a altering room declares Bliuvaite’s intent to make use of extra experimental strategies to take us into the teenager’s headspace. As Marija gazes right into a locker, naturalism is briefly jettisoned, in order that it turns into a cavernous area. These types of touches might be discovered by means of the film and it’s to the author/director’s credit score that she incorporates them in non-flashy ways in which by no means break the temper.

The stolen denims result in a catfight with Kristina (Ieva Rupeikaite), a feisty native child whose residence life, although loving, is sketchy. In the best way of youngsters, this damaging vitality quickly turns into constructive and a friendship is born. Kristina is the extra daring of the 2, believing herself to be extra avenue good. These women try to develop up quick, hanging out with older boys who ply them with drink and medicines with a view to one thing in return. 

The principle outlet for the women’ goals, nevertheless, is a mannequin company that has come to city providing a possible ticket out. Desperation meets willpower right here, with each teen within the district vying for choice, though the outfit has rip-off written throughout it. The women are poked and measured as they practise their catwalk stroll: bulimia, ingesting cotton wool and even tapeworms thought of a worth value paying for choice.

The cool palette employed by DoP Vytautas Katkus – additionally a author/director in his personal proper with a string of shorts to his title together with Cannes-screened Cherries – significantly pays off within the scenes with the modelling company, emphasising the women’ youth and vulnerability. Occasional bursts of electro scoring from Gediminas Jakubka add to the sense of alienation. Poisonous additionally advantages from a pair of fantastic performances from the younger, first-time leads, with Matulyte’s extra introspective strategy dovetailing completely with the mercurial vitality Rupeikaite brings to Kristina.

Bliuvaite – who has a number of shorts to her title and co-wrote Lithuania’s 2022 international language Oscar submission Isaac – deserves consideration for the best way she highlights consuming problems and physique points with out exploiting her teenage solid or making such selections look inviting. Throwing up is devoid of glamour and a video Marija watches about tapeworms is the stuff of nightmares.

Poisonous’s narrative is tossed and turned by the maelstrom of the women’ feelings as a lot as by plot improvement however its mixture of constructive and damaging energies makes it thrum with teen spirit. “Confidence is an important factor,” Marija is instructed, Bliuvaite has loads of that and the expertise to again it up.