Fest Track On Sirk TV Film Review: PORCUPINE [Nashville Film Festival 2021 - Virtual]

Characters adrift are sometimes reflections of their experiences but usually textures of their childhood. In "Porcupine" [US Indies], Jena Malone plasy Audrey, a girl searching for meaning but drifting from one life to another. She is not self destructive or unintelligent...she simply finds herself in a rut that she has to readjust to escape. While her reasoning for her approach to life and work is not completely clear, it is perfectly conceivable. She wants more. She dreams for more. She has ambition. She wants to be connected but there is a space between. This is apparent early on with her relationship with her mother which is mostly only hinted at. The bigger conceit of the film is that she sees an ad about adults being adopted by families. It is an extraneously almost metaphorical approach but in many ways reflective of connection at its bae level. While this is more often than not a reflection of elder care or just wanting that human back and forth, the family that Audrey ends up bonding is anything but perfect but relevant in its own way. Her foil of sorts is Robert Hunger-Bühler as Otto, a retired German NASA engineer who has problems with emotions, cannot connect with his kids, does everything a certain regimented way as well as looks at life through purely traditional values. He wants to be more but can't.

While both characters could be played combatively, they are both undeniably broken, unwilling in their own ways to change who they are but longing to. A moment Malone has with her father when she returns home solidifies this...and is one of the more heartbreaking moments of the film. The building of a treehouse for Otto's children since he never completed it is also one of those wonderful details. As the film moves along there are these quiet moments between Malone and Hunfer-Bueler which are understated and yet existential. Some of the scenes are radically underplayed and yet very powerful. One moment when Otto gives Aubrey a music box is both tender and sad because of its context as well as its explanation. It recurs at Aubrey's van and even at a hospital where the distance is just too far between them and yet that connection is near the surface. Even the last moment of the film reflects this. These two characters, like his mother, his wife, her father...they are all spinning in time and landing where they may, rusting either heavily or not at all, like leaves in the wind. B

By Tim Wassberg