Movie Review: 'The Plague' Dives Deep into Adolescent Angst

If bullying is a social pathology, Charlie Polinger has its etiology down in detail

With his debut feature The Plague, writer-director Charlie Polinger demonstrates that he is adept at describing the signs and symptoms of adolescent awkwardness and the bullying it draws. He’s also an acute diagnostician of how a certain strain of bully operates: The seeming self-confidence, the effortless sway over others, the razor-sharp way of pinpointing what will inflict the most emotional turmoil with the least effort. (A smirk and dismissive “Okay” do nicely in the right circumstances.) Sadly, neither medicine nor the movies seem to have a cure for this particular pathology.

(Everett Blunck and Joel Edgerton in The Plague. IFC)

Ben (Everett Blunck) is just such an awkward teen, and he finds himself at the uncomfortable fulcrum between the affable manipulations of Jake (Kayo Martin), a pint-sized ginger with outsized charisma and a mean streak to match, and Eli (Kenny Rassmussen), a social outcast with a skin condition (eczema? Psoriasis?) that gets him labeled as someone with “the plague,” a fictional ailment that’s a convenient excuse for the other boys to use when they shy away from him, laughing and yet also cringing, as if he had… well, you get it. Ben’s problem is as recognizable for teenage boys on film as the love triangle is for onscreen teenage girls: If he throws in with Jake and his lot in tormenting Eli, he might (might) have a shot at being one of the guys; if he chooses to further cultivate his growing friendship with Eli (who is strange, but also smart and uncaring of what others think about him), he, too, will be treated like a pariah (but a pariah with a clear conscience).

(Everett Blunck in The Plague. IFC)

Joel Edgerton (who also produces) has a supporting role as a teacher whose authority isn’t quite respected by the boys, and whose riz falls far short of Jake’s. His attempt to cheer up a dejected Ben only results in more tears and deeper confusion. This is a hard turn for a film about hard things (I hate to use the term “trigger,” but this film might do just that for viewers who, like Ben and Eli, were the targets of bullies), but harder still is the question the movie leaves us with: Is there no option apart from going along to get along, leading the pack through othering and cruelty, or simply refusing to participate by marching to the eccentric beat of one’s own drum? If there’s a way to rise above these social mechanics, The Plague doesn’t meet the challenge of demonstrating what it might be. Still, for what it is, the move impresses in its writing, direction, and, especially, in the performances of its youthful cast.

“The Plague” opens in theaters December 24.