Sunday, August 30, 2020

Fantasia Film Festival '20 Film Review - The Columnist

Femke Boot (Katja Herbers) is a columnist for a Dutch publication. Her subject matter is usually light fair and not political. She writes a column against the Christmas Tradition of Black Pete where people dress up in blackface to represent St. Nicholas' traditional helper. The reaction of the internet is swift and harsh with trolls lining up to hurl vulgar insults her way all with variations on the themes of her killing herself. Boot goes on a local talk show to speak on the matter and is opposed by the imposing figure of popular writer Steven Dodd (Bram van der Kelen). Her opponent attacking her at every turn but at the end admits it's an act to sell more books. Boot is a writer herself with a current title due but she's suffering at the moment from a large case of writer's block. 


As she sits in her study staring at a blank page her neighbour Arjen Tol (Rein Hofman) is working on a construction project right outside her window. Jumping on social media as she often does she finds that he is one of the trolls attacking her. As the first sign of our Protagonist's violent side, Femke destroys the fence that Tol just built then when he is he is working on the roof just outside her window she opens her's, climbs outside and casually pushes him off the roof. After the act she returns to her laptop struggling to keep up as the words flow out for her new book. Killing trolls is her new muse. 

Director Ivo van Aart brings Daan Windhorst writing to the screen. The theme: why can't people today disagree and stay civil. Femke can be viewed as anti-male as all of her targets are men.  The counter to that is her budding relationship with Steven Dodd. His writing is the total opposite of her own, he tells her to never read the comments and to stay off of twitter. His image is black clothing, black eyeliner, black nail polish, and rings. But his mother paints his nails, he loves to cook, and is really good with Femke's daughter Anna (Clair Porro) who is fighting her own battles for free speech at school. 

The Columnist  represents acting on the thought that anyone has had to negative reaction to their work on line. They would like to just once find that person and confront them for them to see how that feels. Here Femke takes it to the ultimate extreme resulting in a creative surge that sees her meeting her publishing deadline and a book launch that creates a stir. 

*** Out of 4

The Columnist| Ivo van Aart | Netherlands | 2019 | 86 Minutes. 

Tags: Talk Show, Black Pete, Internet Trolls, Serial Killer, Free Speech,Garden Tools,Twitter, Book Launch, Cake. 


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