3 weeks ago
The instrumentality has yet to beryllium invented that tin necktie up each nan loose ends successful Kantemir Balagov’s 3rd feature, a puzzling family play group successful nan small, tight-knit organization of Circassians successful New Jersey. Such is nan friendly quality of Balagov’s movie that there’s nary existent denotation of really ample this diaspora is, aliases wherever these group travel from and why; instead, Butterfly Jam zooms successful connected a vulnerable father-son narration that touches connected acquainted issues of masculinity successful situation but ne'er seems to return them anyplace new.
The astir astonishing facet is nan casting of Barry Keoghan, 33, arsenic Azik, nan begetter of a stocky 16-year-old, having precocious played dada to a younger kid successful Andrea Arnold’s Bird (2024). Mathematically, it’s surely wrong nan realm of anticipation — particularly fixed Azik’s immaturity and recklessness — and it gets things disconnected to a bully start. Indeed, it each originates pinch nan decease of a father, arsenic 1 of nan film’s halfway characters, look unseen, arrives astatine nan location of a master mourner.
We past cartwheel backmost successful clip to a paper crippled being hosted astatine nan diner wherever Azik works. A mysterious gun-wielding alien interrupts, announcing a robbery, but it’s a mendacious commencement — this nary gangster, conscionable nan return of Azik’s goofy, prodigal friend Marat (Harry Melling), who is promptly wrestled to nan crushed successful a play conflict pinch Azik’s heavy-set teenage boy Temir (Talha Akdogan). The adjacent morning, Azik’s sister Zalya (Riley Keough) arrives to find nan spot a mess, castigating Azik for bringing his “low life” friends astir and giving him an hr to make nan diner look respectable again.
The acheronian lighting and hand-held camera propose a genre film, but, though guns fig prominently, there’s not really overmuch grounds of a vicinity criminal underworld, for illustration nan kinds glimpsed successful Mean Streets or moreover John Cassavetes’ Shadows, 2 films Butterfly Jam would look to tie connected rather heavily. But Azik and his relative don’t look to person those kinds of aspirations; Azik wants to beryllium a celebrated chef, known for his delens (a murphy and food pie), while Marat conscionable wants to make money, which is what prompts him to bargain a secondhand candyfloss instrumentality (of each things).
Azik’s opportunity seems to travel pinch nan return of Aslan, an aged friend who is dabbling successful nan edifice business successful Newark. Aslan becomes obsessed pinch Azik’s delens to nan constituent of dreaming astir them, and nan opportunity arises to go Aslan’s prima chef. Azik is torn, however; though he doesn’t really show it to her, Azik is loyal to his heavy pregnant sister, whose partner we ne'er really see. Temir, conscionable connected nan cusp of adulthood himself, watches his father’s timorousness play retired pinch a substance of disappointment and disgust. “You’re weak,” he tells Azik, who, aft all, is nan benignant of begetter that takes his boy to spot a hooker arsenic a typical dainty for winning a wrestling match.
Butterfly Jam is packed pinch detail, mostly astir Circassian cuisine. We besides study a spot a batch of wrestling, wherever Temir becomes friends pinch a young woman whose concealed shame is that she has acne connected her backmost and neck. But this freewheeling attack hits a stone conscionable aft nan hour-mark, wherever nan norm of Chekhov’s weapon is put to use, but truthful obliquely that it leaves nan movie floundering successful its past half-hour stretch. Add to this a stray pelican, which Azik has someway kidnapped from nan formation arsenic a dainty for his sister, and a movie that began promisingly and precisely ends successful an detonation of baffling non-sequiturs.
Keoghan tries his champion pinch nan material, but there’s not really overmuch he tin do pinch it. True, there’s a melancholy aerial of under-achievement successful his capacity that explains Azik’s obsession pinch giving a sanction to his sister’s unborn babe and his vicarious pridefulness successful Temir’s sporting achievements. But, for illustration each different characteristic — surely not Riley Keough’s wafer-thin Zalya — Azik ne'er really comes alive. The title is simply a hint to nan bewilderness astir to follow; Azik has a talent for jam-making (“I tin make a jam retired of anything,” he boasts) and has whipped up a tasty sphere from butterflies. What does this mean? Who knows. Answers connected a postcard, please, only 1 introduction per household.
Title: Butterfly Jam
Festival: Cannes (Directors’ Fortnight)
Director/Screenwriter: Kantemir Balagov
Cast: Barry Keoghan, Talha Akdogan, Riley Keough, Harry Melling, Jaliyah Richards
Sales: Goodfellas
Running time: 1 hr 42 mins
