Hoard

An examination of trauma, this film is relentlessly tense as the vulnerability of the main characters means they're constantly on the edge. It left me asking questions of the effect of trauma on relationships and the individual, which I suspect was the aim.

The actors carry themselves faultless, the breakout young star a particular highlight, though the script falls flat a few times. The direction is stupendous - the way they turn a hot iron in to a menacing, predatory presence was a favourite of mine

Sometimes it's incoherent which makes the film difficult to follow scene by scene, and can fall in to itself, but the intensity never abides and all you really want is for these damaged people to turn out OK.

I enjoyed every second of it so why would I rate it lower? I understood everything I saw and I understood the character of Maria and the way grief worked on her and made her do certain things. Joseph looked absolutely scrumptious. I guess you either really like it or really hate it there's no in between.

In her directorial debut Luna Carmoon captures extraordinarily how we can be connected to our positive childhood memories and experiences even when they can be seen as strange and even traumatic by some. Essentially "Hoard" tells the story of love - platonic, friendly, physical or parental, and the way it can affect our behaviour and also our personality. But Carmoon decided to show slightly disturbing and sometimes disgusting side of connecting and bonding of two people, which made the whole film more gripping in my opinion. I found this concept intriguing and although there were some themes I would have wished to be more developed, I am really interested to see what comes out next from the mind of Carmoon. I must highlight the debut performance of Saura Lightfoot Leon in the leading role whose stubborn, emotional and fragile yet brave Maria carried the narrative. In the supporting role the new rising star Joseph Quinn proved that he has the talent even for more artistic approach in film-making than just for mainstream production like Stranger Things (his break-out role).

It will turn out to be a visceral nightmare for anyone with OCD, so it's best to keep your distance.

Now keeping my courteous forewarning aside, this just didn't hit the mark for me, even though I get what they were trying to do, and what they have had in their minds.

A lot of it comes down to the inefficient execution which focuses way too much on visuals and forgets to build a strong emotional groundwork.

Even though I like their intent to highlight 'hoarder disorder' and them providing a voice to those affected by it.

But the real question is, did the story do enough to foster compassion for people dealing with such issues? Or at least help others understand their off-beat mindset better?

I don't think so.

The young "Maria" (Lily-Beau Leach) lives with her loving mum (Hayley Squires) in an home full to the brim of junk. Some of it just bric-a-brac, some of it more distasteful and unhealthy, but the pair rub along well enough scavenging their way through skips and bins. "Maria" has a tough time at school and doesn't really fit in, so when an accident at home sees her put into foster care, she has quite a bit of adjusting to do under the care of the savvy "Michelle" (Samantha Spiro). Now we scoot forward to her late teens where she (now Saura Lightfoot-Leon) is still living with "Michelle" and seemingly quite a content. One morning it's announced that "Michael" (Joseph Quinn), who was a former charge, is coming to stay for a while whilst his housing is sorted out. He's a decent cove with a girlfriend expecting a baby. Almost immediately he arrives, the two click. Not quite in any conventional sense, but there does seem to be something between them, and understanding. It's this that starts "Maria" thinking of her past, pining for it even - especially when a delivery man presents her with something entirely unexpected in a small package! With the two of them living increasingly closely, how might their relationship develop? Now this isn't for the squeamish. Right from the start we experience the rather sticky downsides of their quite grubby way of life, and as the story moves to it's second phase it becomes a potent, if shallow, character study of two people that just don't conform. The problem for me here is that the drama goes nowhere. It's a sequence of observations of the life of a woman that I didn't feel I knew on any level at all. Her behaviour is unsettling but it seemed to me that was so that the audience could feel unsettled, squirm in our chairs a bit, rather than because the character of "Maria" was evolving in any way. Indeed she seems to retrogress as the film just becomes increasingly tasteless and contrived. It's rare to see people leave an arthouse cinema mid-film, but they did during this. I didn't, but I am not at all sure what the point was, or to whom this is aimed. It has it's moments and at times is really visceral, but sorry - by the end I found it all just a bit too introspective and dull.