Bridgend (2015)

I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

Thanatos is the drive to death and has often been referred to in recent literature in reference to humanity's drive to self annihilation, faced with seemingly overwhelming social,economic and environmental issues.Bridgend is its own way taps into this notion. It focuses on a group of young people who seem to have reached the end of hope and view death as their only "accomplishment" in life. Death has a tribal quality, its something that is worshiped as a group and dedication proved by taking life threatening risks, before the final act itself. The quality of acting is good and the visuals whilst austere, are well rendered and do help infuse the film with a sombre atmosphere. Where this film falls down, for me, is in its story department. Its really difficult to understand what its point is? Indeed, in some respects, it seems rather rhetorical in a rather sad and depressing, way. In any case, I'll leave it to you to judge the overall worth of this film. Its not for me but that's not to say you might not find something of meaning in its message. Seven out of ten from me.

How did this film came to be? My guess is Rønde must have heard about these actual suicides and thought to himself: 'this sounds like it came straight from a film.' I get that. It's mysterious, it's horrific. So potentially good film material, right? Well, not always.One of the biggest questions I have is: what is the film about?When doing a film about these factual suicides it roughly comes down to two choices the filmmaker has:A: try to come up with a believable answer to why these suicides are happening B: don't try to explain, but simply make the viewers feel the distress of not knowing why these terrible things are happening.On Bridgend, they kind of tried to do both. We get some leads as to why these kids are ending their lives (bad parenting, peer pressure, supposedly boring village culture) but all these explanations go a bit 'meh' as the film progresses.So are we to assume that Rønde does not want to explain why these suicides are happening? That's fine. But what is the film about, if it's not to shed light on the 'why'? Is it about how much despair the suicides cause in the lives of the parents? We barely see the parents in the film, and when we do they just seem uninterested. Perhaps it is a mystery film about the police trying to solve the unsolvable, and that some things just can't be explained? I would have loved that, but in order to feel that someone in the film must at least try to explain it (and then fail).Dave, the father of our protagonist Sara, is a detective. He would be in the perfect position to be 'the eyes of the audience.' He is trying to discover why these kids kill themselves, just as we are when we are watching the film. Dave's introduced, we learn he's a detective, so we think he's going to do some snooping around: trying to get a grip on the situation these kids, and his daughter, are in. But that doesn't happen. His profession ads absolutely nothing to the story. He's as passive as all the other adults are in town. Now I hear what you might be thinking: 'The film is about the passive community and failed police system that is unable to stop these suicides because they are just so darn...passive.' Valid point and would be interesting, but I don't believe that because i feel the focus is too much on these kids to be about the community. For now, let's agree to disagree.OK, things are getting complicated, so for now i'll go with this one: Sara is our protagonist so let's assume the film is about her transformation. She comes to town all fresh and positive, and ends up hanging herself. Now that is a very interesting premise. It would be really interesting to see her transformation in a believable way. But yet, when she hanged herself in the final moments of the film, I could only think of the popular 'that escalated quickly' meme. Here we come to one of the points I disliked the most about the film: the characters.All of the characters in this film lack one thing: likability. To be fair: Sara starts of likable enough. She feels the same thing as the viewer: she also thinks screaming the name of your dead friend while taking your clothes of in a forest is a bit weird so, we sympathize with her. After that however, the film went down hill for me. We have some 'bonding' scenes, which are supposed to make Sara grow close to the group. Yet they felt so, so awkward. All they do is drink, scream, and fight topless. For me, those things don't feel like bonding activities, so it's hard for me to believe that Sara wants to stick around (not to mention Sara almost gets raped twice by her friends). Nothing significant happens that would actually make Sara feel connected to the group. Every single one of these kids just got on my nerves, and then, in a flash, Sara is one of them. Now I know these are things that happen in real life. So am I not 'getting it' because I'm not a violent, depressed teenager? Well isn't the point of film that you can identify with people that are way different from you? If made properly, I could have felt like I could have been one of those kids. (I mean: I felt bad for Gollem, and he was a deformed hobbit.) But the kids just felt in no way relatable. They were flat characters. Their only emotion was being angry and rebellious.That's the second biggest flaw of this film: the lack of contrast. Everything is dark: the kids, the parents, the images and the soundtrack. Dark things happening to dark people with dark music in the background. They tried to put 'happy' scenes in with Sara and Jamie, but even those felt kinda depressing. This must be said: most of the actual cinematography was brilliantly done and the acting was superb at times. There just wasn't much to act other than 'I'm angry and depressed.' So maybet I don't like gloomy films? 'Drive' by Nicolas Wending Refn was gloomy as hell, and I would personally never stomp somebody's head in with my foot, but when Ryan Gosling did it, I felt horrified yet also sorry for him. Why? Because he also had positive attributes I could relate to. He was human, even when he did inhuman things. No matter how dark or gritty your film is, we need to at least be able to feel related to one person in the film, otherwise we are just going to be sitting there in the dark thinking: what are these crazy people doing now?

Got to be honest, I did not get what was going on. I'm thinking perhaps I'm just too old to understand what's going on in the minds of teenagers, though at the same time, I do remember times as a teenager when I left like just letting go. The movie is based on actual events. A small town in the south of Whales that has had a high suicide rate among teenagers from 2007- 2012 and no explanation was given for why this was happening as the teens killed themselves without giving one. It looks like the filmmakers are trying to make as real of a narrative as possible to what was going on in the town. Exploring the day to day lives of these kids as they attempt to live their lives to the fullest until one day they just decide they don't want to anymore.I did like the look of the movie, and how it flowed. The main character, Sara was great to look at, I loved her interactions with other characters such as Thomas and Jamie, it was beautiful to watch and felt very natural, just a bunch of kids connecting. Also felt the music greatly added to the film. Bridgend really feels like the filmmakers are running the events through their heads to find an answer themselves to what's going on but never do. Bridgeend works without a plot, which does not work for me. The movie is met for a certain type of person and I'm definitely not that person it's trying to reach and I just have to except that. I did like the cinematography the art direction and the acting, but the concepts do not reach me and because of that I needed the answer these kids could not find.

Between the years of 2007 and 2012, 79 suicides have been reported in Bridgend County Borough in Wales. This horrible real life even is the source for the story of "Bridgend". Media has been part of the blame for many of the suicide, for bringing them to attention in the wrong way. Apparently "Bridgend" has been banned in the county, but I don't know if these are rumors. It's understandable if a lot of people find that a movie like this is distasteful, and perhaps made too soon. I am not here to judge the production of the movie, but I will be giving my two cents about the movie itself below.From what I can gather, the story of "Bridgend" is not too far detached from the reality. It's set in Bridgend County, where many mysterious suicides among young have taken place. We follow a young woman who moves to Bridgend with her father. He's a cop and is quickly getting familiarized with the horrific situation that the town finds itself in. Sara is a shy and quiet girl, but somehow she gets drawn into the gang of youngsters that are directly associated with the kids that have been committing suicides.One thing that is striking about reality and the movie, is that the reasons behind the suicides are unknown. The movie portrays a small town with kids that have nothing to do - so they enjoy themselves with alcohol, vandalism, and hanging out with each other. Now and then, they are one person short as a suicide has taken place. It can be speculated upon that there's a cult mentality behind everything, and that seems to be the most believable reason. The exact why's are not ventured into at depth, but with the style of the movie that makes it all the more powerful.Somewhere between a profound art-house film and a social drama, "Bridgend" can jump from being realistically bleak to visually stunning in just seconds. It's not that the movie is in any way trying to bend reality like, say, Lars von Trier. Rather, it gives us a moment to breathe and let us gather our thoughts. After all, the movie does not romanticize the situation it is based on. It's sad movie about something that is hard to accept, and we feel completely helpless (as we are). I can still understand those that see "Bridgend" as further glamorization of the events, but the heart and soul of the movie seems to be to show us the horrible realities that many of us are unaware of.This is not a movie to watch if you want something light-hearted. There are no moments of relief here. If you expect a movie that will make you dream about the freedoms of teenagers, then you are on the wrong end of the spectrum. The movie takes you on a dark journey into a group of people who seem destined to commit suicide. That's the reality and that's the truth of what this is. The movie leaves you alone with your thoughts. Is it a good movie? Absolutely. I think many of you will understand this movie and will gather from it exactly what the filmmakers hoped for.