Directed By Ethan Berger

Starring – Alex Wolff, Bo Mitchell, Halle Bailey

The Plot – A campus thriller that plunges into the dangerous world of college fraternities and blind adherence to tradition. Alex Wolff stars as Tom, a scholarship student desperate to break free from his working-class background who is charmed by the prestigious KNA fraternity’s promises of high social status and alumni connections that open doors. But upon beginning a romance with Annabelle (Bailey), a classmate outside of his social circle, and the manipulative schemes of his fraternity president (Lewis Pullman) unfolding during the hazing of new members, Tom finds himself ensnared in a perilous game of ambition and loyalty.

Rated R for drug use, sexual material and adult language

The Line | Official RedBand Trailer | Utopia (youtube.com)

POSITIVES

Not a single year goes by that we don’t hear about some hazing gone wrong incident with a college fraternity, and in Berger’s feature length directorial debut, we come to interpret the raunchiness and privilege that continuously hangs overhead at these American institutions that drives such tragedies, with little to no responsible supervision overlooking the ins and outs of the operations. Frat movies are typically enveloped as raunchy comedies, so it’s a bit refreshing that Berger takes a far more responsible approach in dissecting the crude and psychological instability within these brotherhoods that raise future leaders of tomorrow to enact the same cruelty on a grander scale, all with an overhanging tension of combustible elements continuously rubbing together that will undoubtedly blow at any minute. While Berger’s screenwriting leaves plenty to be desired, his direction is simply quite stunning, pitting his characters through a moral litmus test that all but demands how far they would go for tradition, history, and especially power, with tensely manufactured drama that simmers in a boil of discontent and confrontation, until it finally gives way to a third act climax that any logical audience member could see coming from a mile away. The predictability of this element certainly doesn’t compromise the impact of its delivery, as the film is at its very best when these men are forced to confront vulnerabilities amid an unpredictable future, for the first time in their lives, proving how flimsy and compromising their aforementioned brotherhood remains in tact when the chips continue to fall, which Berger illustrates with the kind of uncompromising urgency of the most scintillating slow burn thrillers. The atmosphere is also conjured accordingly with the production’s decision to shoot on film within naturally lighted settings, emitting an ominously grim and uncomfortable tone to the contrast of other films that constantly had me on edge. To be honest, the visuals of the trailer is what initially drew me into this film, and cinematographer Stefan Weinberger doesn’t disappoint, capitalizing on the seedy atmospheric fog within the kind of established setting where characters feel like they’re always lurking in the shadows, with occasional face obscuring by dark and shadows that adds a bit of an ironic spin to the duality that these guys succumb to while under the influence of self-important power. There’s also an unusual kind of freneticism to the editing techniques that rub so many of these days together, crafting an undistinguished grip on reality that many within the kind of inner circle depicted in the film can relate to. ‘The Line’ is also enhanced by a fresh-faced ensemble who each seem to inspire something unorthodox to their respective histories, primarily Alex Wolff, Lewis Pullman, and Austin Abrams, who were the shared highlight of the movie for me. Pullman doesn’t get a lot of time to flourish, but his mesmerizing influence can definitely be felt powerfully and provocatively when he asserts his dominance over the brothers, with imposing dead pan stares that burn holes through his opposition. Likewise, Abrams brings an oozing arrogance that effortlessly and simultaneously gets under the skin of his egotistical brothers and the audience alike, driving many of the internal conflicts, and Wolff bottles a rage and intensity that topples at just the right moments in the depths of his various deliveries, feeling like the one character who might have a chance to be a good person, but one still psychologically conflicted by the thirst for belonging that drive his shallow priorities.

NEGATIVES

There’s much to admire and appreciate about ‘The Line’, but it’s heavily flawed by a surface level screenplay that tries so hard to be confrontational, but ultimately falls flats at the moments that define it the loudest. Part of the problem feels like a lot may have been left out on the cutting room floor of the movie’s finished cut, as arcs are continuously introduced before going nowhere, while others simply flash forward past a confrontation to blur many of the pivotal details. The former could go for unnecessarily setting the movie in 2014, with no greater discussion within the time frame, or even the film’s climax, where documented privilege is overstepped for convenience, and it leaves the audience with more questions than answers in a resolution that was abruptly rushed and sloppily executed, with an ending that will inevitably divide audiences who demand the justice out of films that they rarely get in real life. As for the unpursued arcs, the romance between Wolff and Bailey feels like the biggest example of missed opportunities within the movie’s creativity, especially with no palpable chemistry between the actors to have us begging for more time spent with them. The romance is obviously incorporated to open Tom up to seeing the debauchery and classlessness that is his brotherhood fraternity, and while his feelings do eventually change on our way to the movie’s climax, it doesn’t feel earned in three stand alone scenes shared with Annabelle, in which she hates him in the first one, then sleeps with him by the third. This lack of female presence will undoubtedly unnerve certain audiences, and I think they have an argument, especially since the script does so little to balance what’s great about Annabelle versus the empowering intoxication of his dominant atmosphere. The film also has some surprises in the depths of its expansive ensemble, but there’s more wasted opportunities than meaningful ones, especially with some appearances by noteworthy film veterans who were nothing more than glorified cameos. I will choose to keep those ones tight-lipped for anyone who seeks this movie out, and instead focus on the dearly missed Angus Cloud, who revels in a thankless role so flatly inconsequential that it’s a shame it serves as a his last on-screen appearance in a movie, before his untimely passing. To be fair, Cloud is credited as eighth in the pecking order of the ensemble, but he’s essentially background noise driving much of the momentum to the movie’s conflicts, cementing an unappealing opportunity to show tremendous range that quite literally anyone could’ve portrayed. Finally, I’m not sure if it was an aspect of my theater or the mixing for the movie’s production, but I found some of the dialogue to be quite muffled during certain overbearing times featuring more than a couple of characters in frame. If it’s an aspect of emulating the authenticity of a room, then disregard, but the scenes in question seemingly involved some of the major developments that I would’ve needed to rewind if watching it at home, made all the tougher with thick southern drawls from characters that distort clarity on their own.

OVERALL
‘The Line’ is a slow-burn cautionary tale about the unchecked realities of toxic masculinity, made passable by Berger’s framing for tension that maintains interests throughout a litany of arcs that are shallowly surface level. Despite valiant efforts from a fresh-faced ensemble and unfiltered access into the red flags of American fraternities, the film never reaches its truest potential in giving audiences something substantially or thematically to chew on that is worth the time spent with these polarizing personalities, made suspect by an absence of outsider female influence that would’ve further elaborated the divide from reality that these men have already crossed.

My Grade: 6/10 or C