It Is in Us All

It Is in Us All, dir. Antonia Campbell-Hughes, 2022, Ireland, 92m.

Thursday, June 23, 2022, 8:30pm Kabuki

+Streaming

Neither Hamish nor
Evan, dancing

Hamish, an English businessman, has returned to Dungloe, County Donegal, in the northwest of the Republic of Ireland, to see a house that his aunt has left to him. On the way to the village, Something Very Bad happens. In the aftermath, Hamish finds himself strangely connected to Evan, a local boy who was at the scene. Hamish’s visit of a couple of days to sign the papers to sell the house, turns into a much longer stay, and Hamish and Evan dance (occasionally literally) around issues of family and connec­tion to the land.

The whole thing made absolutely zero sense to me. I didn’t see any reason for Hamish and Evan to be drawn together in the first place, I didn’t see any reason for that connection to endure, and I certainly didn’t see any reason for much of the action that ensued. Add in a grisly extended scene of Hamish actively exacerbating his serious wounds from the SVB (thank goodness for fast forward!), and I have to give this one a Not Recommended, despite its having won “Special Jury Recog­ni­tion for Extraordinary Cinematic Vision” at SXSW.

 

• IMDb page • Twitter: @ACampbellHughes •