The Novice

The Novice is the story of an overachieving university student on an endless quest for perfection. It is one of the most anxious movies I have ever seen. The film lacks many traditional elements of a thriller. There’s no plot twists, elements of crime or dangerous outsiders. But this is one of the purest examples of a thrilling movie I’ve seen in the WLW genre. The Novice is edge of your seat, heart racing viewing.

From moment one of The Novice, it’s clear that protagonist Alex Dall is wound too tight. She puts a lot of pressure on herself academically. She also stresses hugely about being moments late to the first novice rowing team meeting. It gets worse from here. Few of the other novice girls take it seriously. Jamie, the only other one who does is immediately marked by Alex as a rival. Alex continues to pile the pressure onto herself. But it does pay off. She and Jamie are promoted from novice to varsity rowing. Alex hardly allows herself celebration before she begins working herself even harder. Alex wants to be the best. She wants to break the standing varsity speed record. And anything other than first place perfection is an absolute failure.

The Novice starts with a great story. Then, it adds to that story with a great lead performance, directing, editing and sound design. All of this comes together to create a near unwatchable portrait of stress and anxiety. I am not kidding when I say this is a thriller. The editing helps a lot with that. Alex never breathes, never relaxes and the film doesn’t either. It’s a lot of quick cuts, anxious close ups and frequent montages that never overstay their welcome. The soundscape helps too. Alex’s repetition of phrases is woven into the sound design. So is her breathing; never relaxed but always strained because of physical activity or simple stress. Every element comes together in The Novice to make this a top notch anxiety thriller.

Honestly, I don’t even understand how Alex had the time to make this a WLW film. She’s an A-level student also involved in varsity athletics. And neither of these come easy to her. But, over winter break, Alex has at least one night off. She and her TA, Dani begin a relationship. When term begins, it’s clearly not her biggest priority. But the fact that she keeps seeing Alex at all suggests a pretty high level of desire. What The Novice reminds me of most in this respect is White Lie. That too featured a university student who managed to have time to be queer despite an exhaustive extracurricular. In that case, it was faking cancer. I appreciate these depictions of young adult sexuality. The sexuality isn’t the focus but part of a larger portrait of a complex, flawed individual.

And my god if Alex isn’t flawed. But in the best possible way a film could hope for. Every other character in this film doesn’t amount to more than a two dimensional sketch. They don’t need to be. The Novice is a deep dive into the character of Alex. And she hardly sees anyone besides herself anyway. This character is unbearably watchable. So many scenes are just her alone, not necessarily even talking. And still she’s terrifyingly engaging in this endless stress over perfection. This is an exceptionally engaging character. And actress Isabelle Fuhrman gives an absolutely electrifying performance. Alex’s rancid, stressful vibes absolutely assault you through the screen.

It’s notable that all the pressure on Alex is self inflicted. This isn’t Whiplash. J.K. Simmons isn’t yelling abuse at her. The J.K. Simmons character in The Novice is Alex herself. Her coaches often tell her to slow down and take a break. Alex always fails to heed this advice. Likewise, in academics, her TA tells her there’s no reason to push herself so hard as a freshman. Alex ignores this too. The Novice shows a woman who uses academic success and physical perfection as a method of self harm. This is not self improvement in any way. Alex’s relationship with rowing is deeply, deeply unhealthy. When she resorts to more direct self harm, it’s hardly surprising. The Novice is a portrait of a deeply mentally unwell woman. Even when she directs her obsessive energy into acceptable outlets like academics and sport, she’s still completely self destructive.

The Novice is a real standout of a WLW film. It’s incredibly assured for a first time filmmaker. It has a distinct point of view and effective style. It also manages to effortlessly weave queerness into a narrative where that’s far from the focus. It’s a hard film to sit through, but a harder film to look away from. Director Lauren Hadaway and lead actress Isabelle Fuhrman have created a character you can’t help but watch. Even as she barrels her way towards self destruction.

Overall rating: 8.6/10

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