SXSW Review: ‘Alexander the Last’

You can’t force-feed love.   Some things come more naturally than others.   Some things must be learned, but it’s the things that just come naturally that make up the smoothest and most fulfilling moments in a person’s life.   These are the themes behind Joe Swanberg’s film ‘Alexander the Last’, a romantic drama that never holds back from showing us both the ugly and the beautiful sides of monogamy and, yes, even true love.

Alex, played by the genuine and beautiful Jess Weixler, is a married actress of the stage who invites her co-star in a new play, Jamie (Barlow Jacobs) to stay with her while her musician husband is out of town.   Needless to say, sexual tension begins to grow, but things take yet another turn when Alex’s sister, Hellen (Amy Seimetz), begins a relationship with Jamie.

As one of the headliners when it comes to the mumblecore movement, Swanberg’s film is super low-budget and almost entirely improvised.   His films have such a natural feel, as if we are outsiders looking in on actual relationships and the way they play out or, in some such cases, do not play out.   Swanberg knows human connection, and ‘Alexander the Last’ is the latest canvas for him to paint his pictures on.

Amidst this story of a love triangle that seems to be taking place on the outskirts of human emotion, Swanberg captures real, everyday moments that truly make up the heart of his picture.   Try not to showcase a broad smile when Weixler and Seimetz impart a tale of a princess in near-perfect unison.   For it to be perfect, the moment would have to be staged and scripted.   It’s not.   One girl falls just behind the other at times.   That little imperfection in this scene, a scene that really has no bearing on the underlying narrative, really brings out the magic in it all.

This sense of naturalness (imperfection) vs. staging (perfection) brings itself totally into light in the moments where Alex and Jamie are being directed in their stage play.   The scene they are blocking is a love-making scene between the two.   The male/female duo directing the play don’t seem to know what they want from their actors, or they do, and they don’t know how to convey it.   Either way, the idea of trying to choreograph every, little movement just lends itself to more confusion and, ultimately, frustration within the scene.

Swanberg shows this even more by juxtaposing certain scenes of this stage-blocking with actual scenes of love-making between his characters.   One is beautiful and full of human sentiment.   The other is difficult and testing.

Hence, you can’t force-feed love.   You can’t choreograph human emotion.   There is no staging in life’s little moments of imperfection, and Swanberg, who is making it his duty to bring to light the true nature of human relations, knows it and shows it.   ‘Alexander the Last’ is a film that drives this point home with every, little, beautiful blemish found within.

Overall: 4.75 stars out of 5