A BANQUET (2021)
Label: Second Sight Films
Region Code: B
Rating: Cert. 15
Duration: 97 Minutes
Audio: English DTS-HD MA 5.1 with Optional Elisha Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (2.39:1)
Director: Ruth Paxton
Cast: Sienna Guillory, Jessica Alexander, Ruby Stokes, Lindsay Duncan
The dread filled A Banquet (2021) centers around a family tinged with trauma after the death of the the family patriarch. We have widowed mother Holly (Sienna Guillory, Resident Evil: Retribution) raising teen daughters Betsey (Jessica Alexander, Into the Deep) and Isabelle (Ruby Stokes, Bridgerton). They seem to get on well enough at the start, but after a mysterious life-altering event at a party during a blood moon leaves Holly unable to eat food her behavior becomes unusual and her relationship with family begins to strain. At first her mother, who is caring but somehow quite clinical in her approach to nurturing, assumes this is the onset of an eating disorder. Strangely, despite not eating Betsey does not loose any weight, but she does stop going to school and hanging out with friends. Keeping to herself in her room she occasionally lapses into fits of manic doom prophecy, as if she's possessed, espousing a cryptic end time time message about the end of days and something to do with stars, and of how she has been chosen by some higher power that has chosen her.
As the months tick by she continues not to eat, the relationship with her mother and younger sibling are incredibly strained and sometimes confrontational. Her visiting grandmother June (Lindsay Duncan, Under The Tuscan Sun) arrives and puts pressure on Holly, who had sort of adopted a just go with it attitude about the whole thing, to not to go-along with Betsey’s behavior, attributing her behavior to mental health issues or an attempt to get attention following her father's death. She also tells Holly the story of the two-mouthed Japanese fairytale creature the futakuchi-onna, which inspires a grotesque Cronenberg-esque nightmare scene that is arguably the only horror-tinged scene here. While the themes are horrific this is much more a psychological meditation of grief, those looking for traditional horror might be let down.
Things continue to be tense, and eventually things unravel to a point that ambiguously reveals what is this dread-filled psychological-melodrama building up to. For me the finale comes to soon and it doesn't quite stick the landing, I thought this female lead film was quite intriguing though, the themes of grief, mental illness, food and body issues, and psychological trauma were quite enticing. The film also looks fantastic, the way that imagery of food is hyper-stylized is both attractive and off-putting in the context of the film, but the abstract nature of the potential cosmic horror that is afoot left me wanting. I didn't mind the slow-burn of it, it maintains a tautness to it that I appreciated, it's an assured and well-made film, but as I say, it doesn't stick the landing, at least for me.
Audio/Video: A Banquet (2022) arrives on region-B Blu-ray from Second Sight Films in 1080p HD widescreen (2.39:1) looking quite nice. The moodily lit cinematography looks fantastic in 1080p HD, plenty of strong black levels with deep shadows, solid, well-saturated colors and and pleasing amounts of fine detail and textures. Audio comes by way of English DTS-HD MA 5.1 with optional English subtitles. It's a potent and immersive presentation that is well-balanced.
This release includes several new Second Sight Film produced extras, starting off with the 16-min Deformity of the Flesh: An Interview with Ruth Paxton which features the first time director discussing the making of the film, shooting during the pandemic, casting and scouting locations. She also gets into the Japanese folktale that inspired a particularly grotesque sequence and how that Cronenbergian image was achieved on-set,
Then onto the 16-min Improvised Exorcism: An interview with Jessica Alexander features the actress discussing how she came to the film, the audition process, shooting during lockdown, filming the neck-vagina scene as well as other tense scenes, and pointing out a particular scene that get intense audience reactions. The 20-min Produced in a Pandemic: An interview with Leonora Darby, she talks about loving the script, finding the right director to balance the horror and psychological elements, the logistics of shooting during the pandemic. Dark Edges: An interview with David Liddell is a 25-min interview with the DP who talks about a lot of the technical stuff, like creating the look of the film, the choice to paint the interior of the house in dark colors to achieve a particular look, his lighting style, shooting the dinner scenes, the neck-vagina, the possession scene. The disc extras are buttoned up with the 17-min Glasgow Film Festival Q&A with Ruth Paxton, Jessica Alexander & Sienna Guillory, and the 18-min Family Disorder: The Making of a Banquet.
The single-disc release arrives in an oversized black keepcase housed inside a Rigid Slipcase with new artwork by Jen Davies. Also tucked away inside is a 56-Page Soft Cover Book with new essays by Alexandra Heller-Nicholas, Jennie Kermode and Anya Stanley, that is fully illustrated with cast and crew credits, plus we get Six collectors' Art Cards.
Special Features:
- Deformity of the Flesh: An Interview with Ruth Paxton (16 min)
- Improvised Exorcism: An Interview with Jessica Alexander (16 min)
- Produced in a Pandemic: An Interview with Leonora Darby (20 min)
- Dark Edges: An interview with David Liddell (25 min)
-Glasgow Film Festival Q&A with Ruth Paxton, Jessica Alexander & Sienna Guillory (17 min)
- Family Disorder: The Making of a Banquet (18 min)
Limited Edition Contents:
- Rigid slipcase with new artwork by Jen Davies
- Soft cover book with new essays by Alexandra Heller-Nicholas, Jennie Kermode and Anya Stanley
- Six Collectors' Art Cards
A Banquet (2021) will appeal to fans of arthouse and the A24-style psychological-melodramas, it's a slow-burn and while it didn't quite stick the landing I still was entranced by it for the most part. The cast is fantastic and the dread-tone it strikes provides plenty of tension throughout - I can see it growing on me with another watch or two for sure, there are plenty of films I love now hat I only liked a few years ago; I've always found it fascinating the way our perspective on a film can change with time about certain films, I can see this one being one of those for me. The Limited Edition slip box release from Second Sight Films is high-quality and looks and sounds fantastic, a gorgeous release all the way around that is sure to please.
Screenshots from the Second Sight Films Blu-ray:
