Lest one ever think Hollywood has a monopoly on horror flicks about teens being irresponsible and disrespectful and suffering the consequences of their actions, here comes Lithuanian filmmaker Jonas Trukanas. Co-writing with Titas Laucius, his 2022 film 'Rupintojelis' ('Pensive,' also known as 'We might hurt each other') gives us a few dozen characters (some spotlighted more than others, naturally) who fulfill various archetypes, whose personalities will come to clash, and who will reveal their true selves on the night of a big party following high school graduation. They also all illustrate the stereotypical behavior of teens in film and TV, which is to say a lot of alcohol, drugs, partying, and promiscuity - gosh, either I was the most obliviously milquetoast person growing up, or the entirety of my hometown was, or fiction has been feeding us false perceptions for all these years about how teens behave. The filming locations are gorgeous, the art direction is sharp, Rokas Sydeikis' cinematography is crisp and vivid, the cast give excellent performances commensurate with the horror-thriller vibes, and the abundant stunts and effects are outstanding. Above all, it's actually the original music of Andrius Kauklys that's most striking to me here as it leans predominantly (but not exclusively) on EDM to complement the violence. Everyone involved turned in fine work, and it looks and sounds great!
The good news is that in addition to looking and sounding great, Trukanas and Laucius give us an unexpected additional angle to the story that's not just dark but outright bleak (and therefore welcome for we genre fans), an underhanded reflection of just how rotten people can be when the chips are down. The bad news is that though we see bits and pieces of this angle throughout the length - a trail of breadcrumbs, if you will - it only specifically comes to bear at the very end. And while the screenplay gives us a lot to like in the preceding length, and some swell ideas, the truth of the matter is that they're rather unremarkable. 'Rupintojelis' is a slasher. It's a slasher that might toss some red herrings our way, which gives us some characters that are especially likable (I'm most fond of Saule and Zygis), and which has some especially smart notions at points (of which it may or may not fully take advantage), but it's still a slasher. Or if you don't like that term, we can just say that broadly speaking the movie is ultimately pretty straightforward. This is not to disparage Trukanas, Laucius, or anyone else's contribution, nor the picture at large. It's enjoyable; there's no rule that says every title must be a revelation; I look forward to seeing what all involved do in the future (this seems to be Trukanas' first full-length feature). It's just that in the grand scheme of things it's not super special, and it maybe doesn't make ideal use of its best ideas.
If one feels some particular impetus to watch then that's terrific, but by and large this isn't breaking any new ground. You don't need to go out of your way for it, yet 'Rupintojelis' is worth checking out if you have the chance.
