Heartbeast

There’s a whole subgenre of films about relationships between girls that turn toxic and lead to a “shocking” conclusion. A lot of these fall into other people’s lists of sapphic movies though the friendships don’t always cross that line for me. Heartbeast very much does, with a clearly queer presenting lead experiencing an intense and toxic love. It is worth noting and discussing that Heartbeast is about a visibly queer protagonist being the problem in this relationship. But having seen numerous of these toxic female relationship films, Heartbeast’s artistic merits and gripping atmosphere kept me on the edge of my seat. That’s what I want a thriller to do and that’s often something I miss from this subgenre.

Aspiring rapper Elina moves to France from Finland so her mother can live with her new boyfriend. Said boyfriend has a daughter around Elina’s age, a dancer named Sofia. The awkward, uncertain Elina is instantly taken with graceful Sofia. And Sofia offers closeness too, both in physical affection and in getting Elina to pick up drugs for her. But Elina’s feelings mutate into something increasingly toxic. As Sofia plans for the next stage of her life, Elina begins manipulating and outright abusing Sofia in order to maintain their relationship and draw Sofia closer to her still.

Heartbeast is a film made up of expertly calibrated individual scenes. I found the whole movie gripping because I constantly wanted to know what happens next. But as time went on, I realized the film works impeccably as scenes while there are flaws in the overall story. Every scene in Heartbeast is tense and gripping. Use of lighting, camera angle and sound make even the early bits of this film a thriller. A scene where of Elina showering becomes must-watch because the tension never lets up. Watching even this scene had me asking the constant question of what happens next?

However, Heartbeast and Elina as a character are basically made up of two parts. And there’s not as much connective tissue between these parts as would be ideal. Elina spends the first half of the film as an awkward young woman with a crush. Actress Elsi Sloan gives a staggeringly raw, vulnerable performance. Elina’s early acts of revenge and manipulation are understandable within this context. But at some point, a switch flips. Elina becomes a cold, calculated manipulator and the amount of harm she does to those close to her escalates severely. I found both versions of the Elina characters as gripping as the rest of the film. But there is little that connects the Elina in the first act to the one we see by the final scenes of the film.

It is notable that Elina is not only queer, but masc-presenting. Sofia, meanwhile is femme and doesn’t actually seem to be queer. For this reason, Heartbeast can be seen to fall into dated tropes of predatory lesbians and mascs. This is an acceptable read of the film and reason to dislike it. On a personal level, I don’t interpret the film this way. First of all, this toxic female friendship narrative is something I’ve seen several times now, mostly with two femmes. Additionally, I think that characterization of Elina both visually and otherwise does enough to craft this character as an individual. If this is one of few lesbian or butch-led films you’ve seen, Heartbeast will likely feel like a letdown. As someone who has seen as many as I have, I’ve seen enough butch characters who aren’t toxic or toxic characters who aren’t butch to accept this particular individual toxic butch. However, it’s absolutely a shame that films don’t understand butch or masc women. Heartbeast stands out as an example of a film with a properly butch lead. One who spends the film abusing a femme.

While I do not deny the problems of representation present in Heartbeast, I found the project overall strong enough to give it a positive review. I found the film absolutely gripping. This is an exceptional French thriller and entry into the teen girl relationship gone toxic subgenre. Elsi Sloan gives an incredible lead performance whether she’s portraying the character as sympathetic and vulnerable or the manipulative villain she becomes.

Overall rating: 6.7/10

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