SLIFF 2018 Review – THE RAINBOW EXPERIMENT

THE RAINBOW EXPERIMENT screens Saturday Nov. 10th at 9pm and again Sunday Nov. 11th at 3:15 as part of this year’s St. Louis International Film Festival. Both screenings are at The Tivoli Theater. Ticket information can be found HERE and HERE

Review by Stephen Tronicek

The Rainbow Experiment is a brutal exploration of the different anxieties surrounding the aftermath of a terrible accident that takes place in a high school. There’s a sense of urgency over the entirety of the production that spawns out of naturalistic performances and nerve-shredding cinematography but on top of that, the film partakes in addicting melodrama that highlights the dichotomy of the professional and emotional worlds at the center of the school.

During a chemistry class gone wrong, Matty (Connor Seimer) bursts into flames, leaving his fellow classmates traumatized and the administration reeling in the fallout. It is into this fray that we are presented with our ensemble of characters, each offering a unique perspective to the story.

What makes The Rainbow Experiment work so well is that way that it captures the anxiety ridden hallways of a high school. There’s a particular prison like quality to the facilities that is perfect for the type of adult drama that The Rainbow Experiment provides. The whole production feels like a suspense drama ratcheting up further and further as new information is revealed about each character. On top of this, the film perfectly captures the emotional disconnect between the adults and the children in a high school environment. The students are complex human beings that are only able to perceive the world through their own emotional prisms and the teachers are encouraged to keep at a distance from them. This works further towards the theme of generational disconnect that allows for an accident like this to happen. By following the professional rules of the school, the two sides can only fail to reach into what really causes this: humanity.

In order for all of this to land correctly, the film has to be perfectly balanced. A lack of subtlety would lead to the film feeling heavy handed, too subtle and the film wouldn’t be exciting to watch. Writer/director Christina Kallas, along with the performances and expressive cinematography hit just the right mark. The performances walk the line between melodramatic and realistic, with the actors clearly having a mastery of the language that they are performing. Every word lands like an exponential, compounding piece of drama that becomes incredibly exciting. The camerawork lands similarly to the work of Paul Greengrass or Damien Chazelle, where the documentary style accommodates the intensity rather than dispelling it. This mainly comes down to the fact that it feels intense and urgent, while not sacrificing the spatial geography of a given scene. It really is fantastic stuff.

The Rainbow Experiment is a revelation, a continually impressive ensemble piece allows all its given voices to inform on the theme in a way that seems nuanced, while never sacrificing the fire (no pun intended) at the center of the story. The fact that it holds its ground and becomes a wonderful, well, experiment makes it one of the unmissable films of the festival.