A One Mann’s Movies review of “Alpha” (From the 2025 London Film Festival). (2025, 4*, ’15’).
”Alpha” has now been released in UK cinemas, so I am republishing my LFF review. Seems to have been getting some mixed reviews, but I enjoyed it.
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Julia (“Titane”) Ducournau could have coined the term “Marmite movie”. For I can see “Alpha”, her latest film, utterly dividing audiences into lovers and haters. It takes the concept of ‘fractured time-lines’ to a dizzying level, leaving me at times utterly confused with what was going on. In the end, I just gave into the madness and let the images and the style just wash over me.
One Mann’s Movies Rating:
Plot:
Alpha, 13, is a troubled teenager who lives alone with her mother. But their life is thrown into a turmoil when she comes home from a party with an amateur-penned tattoo and her junkie Uncle Amin turns up.
Certification:
UK: NR; US: NR. (The film has not yet been rated by the BBFC but I would expect it to be an ’18’/R for body horror content, strong language and under-age sexual activity.)
Talent:
Starring: Mélissa Boros, Golshifteh Farahani, Tahar Rahim, Emma Mackey, Finnegan Oldfield, Louai El Amrousy, Zohra Benbetka, Ambrine Trigo Ouaked.
Directed by: Julia Ducournau.
Written by: Julia Ducournau.
Running Time: 2h 15m.
Summary:
Positives:
- Like a terrible fever dream, with some memorable images to lodge in your head
- Great acting performances, especially from Mélissa Boros playing the 13-year old Alpha.
- Some memorable needle drops (no pun intended!).
- A strikingly memorable final scene.
Negatives:
- Utterly confusing. Many viewers will give up on trying to understand it, probably somewhere in the second reel!
- Some will find the under-age sexual content distateful.
Full Review of “Alpha”:
Timelines that baffle.
I mean, this shouldn’t really be too hard to understand, since there are only two timeframes in the film: one when Alpha (played by an impressive Ambrine Trigo Ouaked) is 5-years-old and another when Alpha (now Mélissa Boros) is 13-years old. But Julia Ducournau manages to twist and turn the events around themselves in a most baffling way.
The action is set in a time of global pandemic, when a mystery virus (clearly an allusion to AIDS, given its spread by either sexual contact or blood contamination) kills its infected victims by progressive ossification. (Some great body horror effects are employed in relation to this.)
Alpha’s mum, Maman (Golshifteh Farahani), works as a doctor in the local hospital so is in the front line of the epidemic. (Also popping up in a French-speaking cameo in these hospital scenes is the wonderful Emma Mackey.)
The first time you appreciated there are some timey-wimey shenanigans at play is when you notice that Maman’s hairstyle seems to be changing from straight, in the home scenes, to curly at work. But this never seems to be consistently employed so, as you keep making assumptions about the timeline, they keep getting subverted.
What a little prick.
The film starts with Alpha getting her tattoo (note: not a film that haters of needles will enjoy). Given that some dude with a dirty needle has done it at a party, this throws Maman into an understandable frenzy of fear that her daughter will have been infected. The film then brilliantly shows the stigmatization of Alpha by all of those in her school which comes to a head during a memorably cinematic swimming lesson.
Also keeping a safe distance is her (two-timing) ‘boyfriend’ Adrien (Louai El Amrousy). Although the pair never actually have sex, the sexual content in this film will send the MAGA Christian Right into a flat-spin, given that Alpha is only 13-years-old. (Mind you, this is even under-age by France’s standards, where the age of consent is only 15.)
Uncle Amin
Almost distracting from Alpha’s story (which, frankly, for me was the more interesting) is the arrival of the junkie uncle Amin (an emaciated Tahar Rahim of “The Mauritanian” and “Madame Web“). He drifts in and out of the family dynamic, over-dosing and spasming his way through their lives with inevitable regularity. Alpha is initially scared by him but then flips from deeply caring about him to being annoyed with his weakness. She yells at him at one point that being a junkie “is a life choice: not an illness”.
But there are times of great compassion and great emotion between the pair: a tearful hug gives the opportunity for both Tahar Rahim and (particularly) Mélissa Boros to turn in astonishingly powerful acting performances. I have seen far worse performances than that of Boros nominated for a Best Actress Oscar nomination.
A script that fills out the family dynamic.
Ducournau’s script does well in establishing a real family dynamic. The family occasionally break off into the Kabyle language (which – and I’m not a Mastermind… I had to look this up – is related to a Berber ethnic group from the mountainous Kabylia region of northern Algeria. A raucous dinner party at Gran’s (Zohra Benbetka) has Maman and her sisters babbling on in a mixture of French and Kabyle while Alpha desperately tries to follow the discussion. Amin – the black sheep of the family – lurks in the background before sloping off to another room.
The relationship between Maman and Amin is also sweet albeit dysfunctional. Even in a moment of extreme stress and pain, Amin can’t help but stick his finger up his sister’s nose… just the sort of thing a naughty younger brother would do.
Some fabulous needle-drops.
The music in this film is really something else. As well as tracks from Portishead and Tame Impala, there is also the track “Mercy Seat” by Nick Cave during a most impressive football match/clubbing sequence that I’m sure Mark Kermode (a big Nick Cave fan) will love!
For classical lovers, there is also some nice Beethoven in the middle (from the Tempest Sonata) and the overused but still brilliant 7th Symphony (“The Kings Speech” music) over the finale.
This is all part of a fascinating soundscape that the film creates, so hats off to the composer Jim Williams and the sound mixer Paul Maernoudt.
And that finale is something else.
I was wondering where that shot that I used as my title shot came from in the film: Alpha, looking wind-torn and sand-blasted. You have to wait for the finale of the film to see it, and what a dramatic and visually stunning scene it is (DP – Ruben Impens) A visual metaphor for the anguish of grief and having to let go of your loved ones. Simply brilliant.
Summary Thoughts:
A weird, dreamlike and disturbing tale that baffles almost as much as it entertains. The very definition of a Marmite movie, I note that the IMDB ratings distribution for this one currently has an almost equal number of 1 and 10 ratings! I initially had no idea how to rate this one, but – as one of the more memorable films I’ve seen so far at the LFF – I’ve gone for a high rating.
Tickets for the London Film Festival showings on 12th, 14th and 17th October are currently sold out, but here is the booking web site to check for returns or other showings.
Where to watch?
Trailer:
A teaser trailer for the film is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oihFdsL87Jg.
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