donelk-30746

After the passing of a small town devastation, a young boy recounts the tale of how a poisonous mold in an old living room chair, sponsors the undoing of his life. The opening lines of the film detail a reflective and progressive unfolding of the events that lead up to the death of his mother, in her favourite chair, while slowly providing a glimpse into life under a health crisis. In the eyes of his town, the mold became the unspoken object of fear, uncertainty and death, capable of imposing itself on unsuspecting victims. The mystery behind the source of the mold shakes the very fabric of his community by creating opinionated stances on its treatment and meaning. The science world deemed the mold to be an unpreventable occurrence even though the source remained unknown. The school claimed to have an understanding of it all, teaching their students the basic standard of care, while being confused and petrified themselves. The church called for the start of a curse, a hex almost, that surfaced as a result of a fallen enemy. With these perspectives, the boy found no solace in trying to locate the source of his hurt. All he and his grandmother knew was that the chair his mother once sat in, which once gave her rest and entertainment, now proved to be the source of her demise. If it were only for the chair...

Stylistically, the film imposes mystery through the boy's account of "men in white" to "yellow tape" surrounding the home and their possessions alongside the complaint of a smell that only he could locate. This attention to eerie details told as a past event displays the protagonist's understanding of the events occurring around him with a child-like innocence in explaining complex situations. He often adds an effective outlet for comedic relief through almost unrelated detail in the description of seemingly forgettable features. This aids to redirect the audience's attention to the subtle transitions and internal conflict that him and his grandmother feel towards the chair, a symbol of the past and the perpetuation of their suffering. The hatred they both share towards the chair soon becomes the source of captivity for them as it reentraps them to the beginning of their misfortune. In the end, the young black male describes an unlikely infatuation with the subtlety of the mold being able to consume all that it saw and reduce everything around it to itself. He later describes how he wishes to have been consumed in the same way, slowly taken over by a mold that unifies the victims it steals and slowly returns to the ground.

This film is an excellent representation of helplessness and individuals in need of answers rather than subtleties. It appeals to those who desire a solution or final answer from their society or imminent surroundings only to be presented with inconclusivity. The film shows how navigating through inconclusivity gradually costs the loss of objectivity, where the boy and his grandmother resulted in hatred for the chair. It is through the exploration on this truth, told through film shines in.