B.I.T.S. '19 Film Review - Z

Joshua (Jett Klye) is an eight-year-old boy with a very active imagination. When he plays with a toy plane the engines roar in his mind. His battling army men are accompanied by rapid gunfire and the horn blares from his train set as it circles the track. But Joshua has a new friend, an imaginary one called Z. Joshua demands that a place is set for him at the table and when milk is served it has to be 2%. His busy architect  dad Kevin (Sean Rogerson) thinks nothing of it believing its a phase his kid will grow out of. His mother Beth (Keegan Connor Tracy) is a little warier. At school, Joshua keeps to himself drawing feverously in his notebook instead of paying attention to his teacher. When his usual ride to school fails to show a pattern develops of Beth's kid being violent and anti-social a fact that Dad Kevin knew but was kept away from his wife.

Director Brandon Christensen alongside co-writer Colin Minihan builds the story slowly dropping subtle clues along the way for the attentive viewer to catch. After a tragic event on an ill -advised play-date, Joshua ends up in therapy where he is treated by child psychologist Dr. Seager (Stephen McHattie) another hit is dropped indicating that this may not be Z's initial incarnation.

Meanwhile, Beth has issues of her own. Her mother is dying in her family home and her younger not so stable sister Jenna (Sara Channing) can't even start to cope. She is not happy with her husband Kevin for hiding critical information from her about her son plus she has now put Joshua on meds that she slips to him undetected without his nor Kevin's knowledge.

Z hits all the beats a viewer would expect from a suburban creepy kid movie. Brittany Allen's score deserves a mention. For the most part, it remains passive in the background working at a subconscious level but expands front and centre when key moments call for it. It's a pulsing narrative that reaches a peak then loses its way a bit in the third act as the film eases away from the jarring direction the story was headed at the end.

*** Out of 4.

Z | Brandon Christensen | Canada | 2019 | 83 minutes.

Tags: Imaginary Friend, Child Psychology, School Suspension, Play-Date, Fire, Wedding, Regression, 2% Milk.