Alpha 4K 2025

Back in the day, Ms. Julie Ducournau’s films were warmly received at the Cannes Film Festival. Her works received favorable reviews, though debates over such praise continue to this day. In 2016, her film *Raw* stood out as a work that was gritty yet compelling from a social and moral perspective.

A few years later, her film *Titan* sparked a lot of outrage but still took home the *Palme d’Or*. To be honest, I still don’t agree that *Titan* was ranked above the other films that year. It’s bloody, asexual, vulgar, and brutal. But I’ll admit that the film stands out as something foreign, unconventional, and even captivating.

Ducournau is making a loud statement for herself as a controversial figure in the world of cinema. She already has her own flair, style, and way of presenting things. Both films evoke feelings of anxiety and fear, falling just short of the trash genre.

For me, *Alpha* was a project I’d been looking forward to. The synopsis and trailer left me rather unsure of what the final result would be. That was both amusing and intriguing. And now I’ve seen the movie.

Lately, I’ve been coming across movies that either work or they don’t. And it’s extremely rare to come across works that defy categorization. *Alpha* is precisely that rare case.

The story unfolds in the present day, not in the near future, as the director himself claims. For there is nothing here that could indicate a future time frame in the narrative.

A stray uncle with substance abuse issues shows up in the family of a girl named Alpha and her mother. All of this takes place against the backdrop of an infection that turns those who catch it into marble statues. We’re also shown Alpha’s own teenage life: adolescence, first love, school, and mean girls.

And this is where it becomes clear that Ducournau simply didn’t know where to take the story from here. With so much packed into her screenplay, she seems unable to fully develop even a single element to its conclusion. A family drama, a sick brother, a girl going through adolescence, a population infected by an unknown virus...

And what’s the result? Even with two hours of screen time, the director fails to let the audience connect with even a single plotline. There’s no glue to bind it all together into a cohesive whole. And since that’s the case, the problem lies primarily with the screenplay. By throwing everything into the pot, we’ve ended up with something that’s mushy in structure. Everything is overloaded and lacks the further development that would have led the film to a logical conclusion. And that’s a real shame.

After all, the film features a stunning cast that delivers strong performances. There’s the wonderful Farahani, who at times pushes herself to the limit. And Tahar Rahim even lost a full 20 kilograms for the role. That deserves respect. Melissa Boros, whom I hadn’t seen on screen before, is also quite convincing. But what’s the point of all this? Surely it can’t be a waste of effort? And even technically, the film is well-crafted. The very interesting interplay of colors and framing is something the film can boast about.

I’d love to be wrong, but in my opinion, *Alpha* is as overloaded as it gets. Julia Ducournau stepped out of her comfort zone and apparently decided to make a drama with hints of body horror. But the drama here is quite standard, and there’s only a tiny bit of body horror.