Directed by Alex Schulman – Screenplay by Alex Schulman.
These are exciting times for writer-director Alex Schulman. Earlier this month, Alex Schulman’s debut feature, Adult Supervision (known as Arkipelag in Sweden), was announced as Sweden’s official submission for the upcoming Academy Awards’ Best International Feature category. Just last weekend, a few days ago, it had its world premiere at Fantastic Fest in Austin, Texas, and its theatrical release in Sweden is set to kick off on October 9th. Swedes and audiences around the world have something great to look forward to. Adult Supervision is a well-cast, thought-provoking, and sometimes even disturbing film that takes a closer look at modern parenting and troubling modern social dynamics in school classes.
Alex Schulman’s Adult Supervision tells the story of a summer school trip that a class of Swedish 7th graders is to go on, without the supervision of their teacher, and the three fathers who have agreed to chaperone the class. Bill (played by Gustaf Skarsgård) is especially eager to go on this trip to a camp island, as he views it as an opportunity to spend quality time with his daughter. The two other fathers, Bobo (played by Fares Fares) and Pontus (played by Linus Wahlgren), are less eager, but when no one else volunteered, they agreed to go, reluctantly or not. Although they may have had the idea that they could chaperone it from afar, they quickly start to notice distinct groups in the class, troubling behavior, and outright bullying. As the adult trio tries to gain some control over proceedings, it becomes clear that they don’t have a complete understanding of the social dynamics in the class, and they differ in their approaches to conflict resolution. When the adult trio starts showing shades of the people they used to be back in school, they make rash judgment calls that cause tension to rise and situations to worsen.
Adult Supervision is the kind of film that isn’t necessarily straightforward in such a way that you can easily nail it down as one exact genre, so to speak. There are certainly moments of dark comedy, and there’s certainly an argument to be made that you can classify it as a dramedy. But dramedies only rarely get your blood boiling as much as this film can. Seeing injustice on screen is really hard to stomach, and seeing someone look shocked or paralyzed by fear, not knowing what to do next when threatened, is upsetting. You get some of that in this film, in which you see really harsh bullying happen right in front of you, just like you see mindless animal cruelty carried out by schoolchildren, and even parents feeling backed into a corner by children who know what buttons to push. In that regard, it is a tough watch, but it is also very much worth the watch because Schulman has made such a strong film to build those ideas around.
Schulman’s picture is sharply written, sometimes even kind of bleak, and one that really feels like a powerful conversation starter. It is a film that, among other things, dares to ask if parents are even equipped to stop things from getting out of hand once they’re faced with the very real group dynamics at play in schools. It is a film that emphasizes how our own upbringing influences how we define the boundary between right and wrong, but also a film that is deeply aware of what blind spots our own experiences create for us. A significant part of the film features the adult trio regressing into the kids they once were in school, as the clash of their individualities and parenting styles becomes a kind of microcosm of the social dynamics in the class they’ve gone on a trip with.
Shouldering the focus of the film is a trio of rather well-known Swedes. Gustaf Skarsgård (Vikings) is the film’s real protagonist, and his performance is a fully-formed one. Even in early scenes before he has revealed details of his own childhood, Skarsgård communicates an internal conflict and open wounds that he still holds on to. It is also a terrific physical performance, as his posture when standing or approaching someone properly communicates a lack of confidence. The way he slouches when he sits and gives advice is such a good way to show how difficult this is for him. Some of Skarsgård’s best scenes are shared with Fares Fares (Chernobyl). Early on, Fares makes his character seem light on his feet and on top of things, but as the film progresses, the immensely talented actor gets an opportunity to show more mischievous and intimidating sides. There’s a magnetism between Fares and Skarsgård early in the film that turns into more highly charged friction and tension later on, and they’re great throughout it. Finally, Linus Wahlgren plays a character that seems more interested in starting up a summer fling than chaperoning the class or spending time with his daughter. I would say that his is the least fleshed-out character, and while Wahlgren plays the part admirably, his subplot felt the most divorced from the rest of the film. All three of them, however, are fascinating characters, and the first two are written to be quite complex.
The film looks terrific as it is shot on location and filmed by Joachim Trier’s frequent collaborator, Jakob Ihre. Oskar Rindborg and Wilhelm Börjesson’s music eventually really heightens the tension and the disturbing aspects of the film. One aspect that really worked well for the film was the use of island miniatures for certain transitions from scene to scene that, when paired with the music, helped to give the film an air of mystery. This sense that something is almost mythical is further heightened by the shots of scribbles on camp bed frames. These shots are key examples of how the film communicates a sort of cyclical universality to the experiences at the camp.
As a side note, I will say that there is a part of me that worries that the more important subjects touched upon in this film, concerning parenthood, school, and bullying, could be overshadowed by moments of shocking violence. That isn’t to say that those moments don’t work for the film. In fact, these scenes are set up really well throughout the film, and even still you don’t fully know where it’s leading you.
On the whole, Alex Schulman’s Adult Supervision is a really important conversation starter about parenthood, bullying, and the challenges of adolescent toxicity. Schulman’s film is an equal parts entertaining, thought-provoking, and disturbing portrait of modern challenges that interrogates a great number of things, including how complicit adults are in the shaping of harmful schoolyard-type behavior, whether or not adults understand how to steer children in the right direction, and whether or not we have really moved on from the types of people we were when we were kids.
8 out of 10
– Review written by Jeffrey Rex Bertelsen.
