Graves Next to Each Other: Spring

By: Lance

Spring, directed by Aaron Moorhead & Justin Benson, is a multi-genre masterpiece. It’s all a movie can be: romantic, scary, comical, mysterious, intelligent, and graphic. This deeply moving piece surprised the hell out of me. Seeing Spring makes me proud of cinema. Enough praise, let’s go back to the beginning.

It all starts when Evan (Lou Taylor Pucci), a young American, loses his mother to cancer. Now left without any remaining relatives, Evan takes a trip to Italy alone to escape his troubles back home. He meets two outgoing British travelers, Tom (Nick Nevern) and Sam (Jonathan Silvestri), at a hostel. The three of them party for days. One afternoon, Evan spots a gorgeous local woman wearing a red dress. Unable to peel his eyes away from her, he musters the courage to talk to her at a bar. However, she doesn’t seem to want conversation from him; she’s looking to skip straight to sex. This proposal is too European for Evan’s blood so he continues to ask her to go out on a date with him until she somewhat agrees and leaves. Her name, which we find out later, is Louise (the sublime Nadia Hilker).

Evan’s new purpose is to stick around Italy for a chance to be with Louise, a student-scientist. He quickly finds a job and a room to stay in. He’s hired as a helper by a farmer called Angelo (Francesco Carnelutti), who has also lost someone close to him. Within less than a week, Evan falls in love with Louise. But Louise has been hiding something from Evan and the rest of the world that, once revealed, could destroy their relationship. It’s a secret so big that, at first, you won’t believe it.

Don’t worry, there’s not a Crying Game-like twist to be found here. Just like that 1992 film, Spring is so good it’s Oscar-worthy. It contains so many lovely little moments and elegant musings on life. It’s in my bones to be cynical of on-screen couples because how do we know their love will last past the end credits? At one point, Louise and Evan talk about love and how it can lead to having “graves next to each other.” I really adored Evan & Louise and actually believed their love could go that far. As much as Spring presents a well-told romance, it also brings it hard in the horror department. I jumped in some spots (and I never jump) and was severely grossed out by things my eyes could not un-see. Fans of H.P. Lovecraft can get their supernatural freak on. The cinematography is fantastic. Moorhead, double-timing it as the DOP, glides his camera with precision through the streets. Through his lens, Italy is a beautiful, dark, and twisted place full of creepy crawlies and an ominous sense of danger.

I applaud Benson’s script as well. The third act goes to places very unexpected and wonderful. He writes an incredible history for Louise. It’s rare to see female characters so developed. Usually in “boy-meets-girl” tales it’s all about the boy and his feelings but here, one really gets to spend time with Louise witnessing her struggles and understanding her own, personal agenda. Pucci and Hilker have great chemistry together. It’s mostly because they’re fine actors but they also owe a debt to their playful dialogue and intimate scenes. Situations located by the beach, in a museum, or in an apartment are realistic and memorable.

I will definitely remember to put Spring at the top of my year-end best films of 2015 list. I only wish I could have first seen it in an Alamo Drafthouse theatre (Drafthouse films is the distributor) so I could have the rewarding experience while watching it on the big screen. It’s currently available on-demand from FilmBuff. A movie for every season, Spring is sweet, strange, shocking, and superb.