Philippe Lesage may not be a household name yet, but the French-Canadian director has built up an impressive filmography over the past decade. Known for intense coming-of-age stories like 2015’s The Demons and the critically acclaimed 2018 drama Genesis, Lesage specializes in honing in on the raw emotions of youth. His latest effort, Who By Fire, finds the director branching out into riskier territory.
The film brings together an eclectic ensemble out in the remote wilderness for what should be a pleasant reunion between old friends. Unfortunately, old grudges die hard. Respected screenwriter Albert (Paul Ahmarani) reunites with his former directing partner Blake Cadieux (Arieh Worthalter), who has retired to a cabin in the Canadian wilds, only to dredge up bad blood.
They’re joined by Albert’s teenage daughter Aliocha (Aurelia Arandi-Longpre) and son Max (Antoine Marchand-Gagnon), as well as Max’s awkward best friend and budding filmmaker Jeff (Noah Parker). Jeff harbors an unrequited crush on the free-spirited Aliocha even as she catches Blake’s roving eye.
Over the course of its hefty 160 minute runtime, Lesage allows tensions to build within the group as unsettling power plays and mind games unsettle the wilderness retreat. Vulnerabilities are exposed and toxic behavior enabled as the characters clash in spectacular fashion. Who By Fire sees Lesage widening his scope to explore the emotional fallout between bitter adult artists along with the next generation pursuing their own creative dreams.
Capturing the Great Outdoors and Inner Turmoil
Cinematographer Balthazar Lab imbues Who By Fire with a striking visual sensibility that heightens the simmering tension of the storyline. Shooting on location in the remote Canadian wilderness, Lab’s camerawork deftly captures both the vast grandeur of the natural landscapes and the creeping claustrophobia that slowly engulfs the characters.
Lab often holds the camera on the characters during lengthy takes, allowing the body language and microexpressions of the ensemble to help build the uneasy atmosphere. As verbal sparring gives way to outright confrontation during the explosive dinner scenes, his roaming camera accentuates the dysfunction. The characters appear trapped even in the wide open spaces, conveying a certain cabin fever.
The lush forest vistas take on an ominous edge as well. When Jeff flees into the woods after his inappropriate advances on Aliocha, he seems to disappear into the ether, swallowed up by the trees. Lab’s framing of the landscape builds palpable danger. A hunting expedition and white water rafting trip later in the film capture the characters totally exposed and at the mercy of the elements.
By visually conveying both the freedom and oppression of the natural world surrounding the troubled characters, Lab’s sharp camerawork in Who By Fire externalizes the quietly raging inner turmoil of the ensemble. It’s a potent display of form meeting function.
Captivating Character Studies Amidst the Chaos
Who By Fire thrives on the strength of its talented ensemble cast. At the center of the dysfunction is the damaged relationship between Paul Ahmarani’s Albert and Arieh Worthalter’s Blake. Once artistic collaborators at the peak of their success, the two men harbor bitterness over perceived betrayals that have curdled their friendship into a toxic mess of ego and resentment.
Ahmarani embodies Albert as a once-acclaimed talent drowned in drink and self-pity, while Worthalter oozes a manipulative charm as egoist auteur Blake. Their verbal sparring electrifies the frequent dinner scenes, boiling over from passive aggression into unfiltered cruelty. Both actors lay themselves bare as the ugly truth of their connection surfaces.
The younger characters prove every bit as compelling while navigating their own interpersonal pitfalls. Aurelia Arandi-Longpre stands out as the free-spirited Aliocha, refusing to be constrained by the agendas of the petty men surrounding her. She deftly parries both the awkward romantic overtures of Noah Parker’s insecure Jeff and the mind games of Blake.
Parker disappears into the role of Jeff, perfectly encapsulating teen angst. From misplaced infatuation to perceived betrayal by his idol Blake, his flawed behavior almost becomes sympathetic thanks to Parker’s performance. The supporting players all excel at their roles within the ensemble, reacting to the increasingly surreal proceedings with bemusement or resigned familiarity.
Who By Fire lives and dies through its characters, and Lesage populates his film with a stellar lineup of talents ready to exhibit the emotional wreckage wrought by stifled dreams and problematic connections.
Probing the Artistic Ego and Human Heart
Who By Fire finds director Philippe Lesage diving deep into some weighty thematic territory even as dysfunctional character dynamics threaten to sink the film’s wilderness sabbatical. Front and center is an exploration of the bonds and rivalries between artists, as seen in the soured relationship between screenwriter Albert and esteemed director Blake.
Their bitter feud exposes the dueling egos and deep-rooted insecurities that can corrupt even the closest collaborators. Yet while the two men posture aggressively to protect their threatened masculinity and artistic identities, the female characters prove far more well-adjusted and empathetic.
This disconnect exposes the persistence of toxic masculine values in the creative world and beyond. Lesage also utilizes the parallel experiences of Jeff and Albert to shine an intergenerational light on issues of unrequited love, mentorship and the burden of expectations. Jeff’s adolescent missteps while pining for the casually aloof Aliocha intentionally echo the deep-seated needs for validation and companionship felt by lonely alcoholic Albert.
By filtering this psychological complexity through a chamber drama staged against the ironic tranquility of the forest retreat, Lesage externalizes the roiling internal passions threatening to boil over inside each character. At a hefty 160 minute runtime, Who By Fire strains to fully deliver on mapping these meaty themes onto the slow dissolve of civility among the ensemble. But the potent ideas resonate nonetheless thanks to Lesage’s firm directorial hand and the stellar performances he elicits.
Simmering Unease in an Idyllic Setting
Philippe Lesage deftly establishes a tone of creeping unease in Who By Fire, undercutting the beauty of the film’s wilderness setting. As Albert’s family joins him to reunite with his old friend Blake Cadieux, the initial atmosphere suggests a pleasant retreat amidst natural splendor. Yet ominous musical cues and framing choices foreground the isolation of Blake’s cabin hideaway, hinting that darker currents run beneath the tranquil surface.
The early scenes lull the viewer into a false sense of security through moments of levity, including a joyful dance party fueled by wine and camaraderie. But Lesage consistently pivots the emotional tenor from lighthearted respite to extreme discomfort. Dinner conversations serve as tinderboxes where casual comments ignite verbal conflagrations between Albert and Blake that lay bare their mutual hostility. Each subsequent war of words builds in viciousness until physical violence erupts late in the film, severing the final threads of civility.
By establishing the contradictions between the beauty and brutality on display at the forest retreat, Lesage methodically fosters suspense throughout Who By Fire’s expansive runtime. DP Balthazar Lab’s cinematography conveys freedom and confinement within the same frames, hinting that the greatest dangers reside within the souls surrounding the dinner tables rather than the unforgiving natural elements waiting outside. It all culminates in an atmosphere thick with emotional decay.
Emotional Fireworks and Primal Suspense
At nearly three hours long, Who By Fire tackles its ambitious themes through a series of visually dynamic and emotionally charged set pieces. Most pivotal are the verbal cage matches that erupt over the recurring communal dinner scenes. Director Philippe Lesage allows the lengthy conversations to organically curdle from idle chatter to outright hostility, with Albert and Blake directing volcanic vitriol at each other across the table. The extraordinary ensemble react in kind, with discomfort mutating into outright horror at the viciousness displayed.
In lighter moments, Lesage turns the characters loose during wild dance parties fueled by wine and rock albums to blow off steam. An infectious scene set to The B-52s “Rock Lobster” finds the entire cast lip-syncing and letting their inhibitions go, if only temporarily. But later sequences during outdoor activities abandon all hint of civilization as hunting expeditions and whitewater rafting trips stage literal trials by earth, air, fire and water. Both grown men and hormonal teens alike revert to primal aggression and fear far from their creature comforts.
Through these vivid highs and lows, Who By Fire generates significant emotional friction. By turns lyrical and harrowing, hilarious and traumatic, Lesage wrings boldly captivating cinema out of stories of dreamers both bitter and hopeful.
A Fiery Achievement Despite Uneven Passages
In the end, Philippe Lesage’s Who By Fire is a seriously ambitious effort that mostly lives up to its mammoth 160 minute runtime through mesmerizing filmmaking and captivating performances. It’s an emotionally dense and visually stunning piece of work. By paralleling the experiences of adults and teens through shared themes of love, connection and the artistic journey, Lesage crafted an impactful multi-generational story.
That said, the film oscillates a bit unevenly between compelling dramatic heights and dull passages. Certain characters like Max fade into the background, while some subplots like Albert’s professional jealousy introduce intriguing ideas without fully tying them together. The connection between Jeff and Albert as respective doppelgängers for a naive artist and embittered has-been plays more like an intellectual concept than emotional reality.
Nonetheless, despite periodic lulls, the overall force of Lesage’s narrative remains gripping as he builds tension to nearly unbearable degrees before releasing it in shocking moments. He also shows incredible patience in allowing scenes to develop naturally, finding poetry in gestures and glances. Backed by stunning camerawork from DP Balthazar Lab and powerhouse performances, Who By Fire succeeds as a visually thrilling meditation on the bonds of family, lovers, and artists alike even when the whole falls slightly short of the sum of its parts. This is bare bones human drama crafted by a filmmaker in peak control of his voice.
The Review
Who By Fire
Who By Fire is an impressive achievement that gets dragged down by an overlong runtime and uneven momentum. Director Philippe Lesage shows incredible command of his craft in service of ambitious themes, and the talented cast rises to the challenge. But a tighter narrative could have sharpened the film's emotional impact.
PROS
- Strong lead and supporting performances
- Gorgeous cinematography captures both beauty and unease of setting
- Ambitious themes related to art, ego, and masculinity
- Palpable tension developed through lengthy takes
- Dynamic emotional range from euphoria to trauma
CONS
- Overlong runtime leads to uneven pacing
- Some underdeveloped subplots and characters
- Ambitious scope makes narrative cohesion a challenge
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