Elisabeth Fies directed and wrote the psychological thriller (almost horror in my opinion, just minus the excessive gore) “The Commune”. This movie stars Chauntel Lewis as Jenny, who is a young lady approaching her 16th birthday and embroiled in the bitter custody struggle of her two hippie parents. She lives with her mother, though they treat each other more like equals or sisters, but has to go away for a month at the beginning of the Summer to her father’s commune, where he resides as the resident Shaman.

While at this commune Jenny starts to have weird dreams, and the visions she’s having sometimes leave the viewer to wonder if she is just hallucinating, or suffering from some repressed memories from her past. If you were to follow the latter instinct you’d be pretty much on the nose. The plot in this film is fairly rich and to give away too much of it here would certainly ruin the movie for most people. Needless to say it can be related to on several levels, especially if you are a teenage girl like Jenny is. It explores family issues, first loves, lies, and the depths of human depravity. Interesting isn’t it?

The film is shot really well. The locations and set dressings are rich and vibrant, and definitely have that “lived in” feeling to them. Definite kudos go to director of photography Marc Shap for his ability to really capture the essence of the life Jenny is trapped in. The various ways the DP filmed various sequences in the film like Jenny’s dreams, the security camera footage, and the flashbacks all seem at first glance to be pretty standard fare, but really they’re very unique and visually interesting (the one gripe I had about the security camera footage was the way the aspect ratio of the film swapped back and forth…Also, the absence of the little red blinky “Rec” in the corner to indicate visually what we were seeing through). But that is a minor personal gripe.

This movie help my attention throughout the entire 91 minute run of it. The characters were interesting, rich, deep, and in the end I really cared about what was going to happen. They pretty much give you the ending to the movie right up front. But the journey to get to that point is worth the wait.

“The Commune” – You’ve Been Snobbed!