Acute Failure has a lot going for it in terms of originality. The film specifically went for untrained actors and improvised dialogue, a modest story about a young woman whose dreams of becoming a big time actress in LA (I know, a little meta, but that’s how film festivals go) have not quite materialized when she suffers an ACUTE FAILURE of her kidneys and needs to go home to seek a transplant. It’s a little reminiscent in terms of “slice of life” tone to Boyhood. The protagonist spends a lot of time sitting shotgun in cars, catching up about how things have or haven’t changed since she left her small New England town after high school. Her former classmates are all stuck in the same millennial rut she is, maybe even worse, since they don’t have the skills or the wherewithal to make the move from home.
One of the most compelling threads of the film is the protagonist’s frustration with her inability to erotically fulfill herself with boys. It’s a nice commentary on a profound lack of intimacy, what would have been called ten years ago “hook up culture,” and now–in the age of whatever this is–feels like a much more flexible and accessible feeling of alienation and isolation. The bottom of this movie drops out from under you without a lot of warning. I’m not ruining much by saying that her transplant application is denied because she fails a drug test and is put back on a waiting list and into limbo. The film feels like one without consequence or cruelty until this moment and then it ends. In some ways that’s welcome and fresh and in others, it feels a little rushed and pat. Acute Failure is trying to chip away at a big subject, the malaise of young adulthood, its listlessness in the lower middle class, and this is a great addition to a growing genre.
