{"id":22969,"date":"2024-05-13T13:35:53","date_gmt":"2024-05-13T17:35:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/areathirtythree.com\/blog\/?p=22969"},"modified":"2025-12-15T18:11:18","modified_gmt":"2025-12-15T23:11:18","slug":"the-fall-of-the-house-of-york","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/areathirtythree.com\/blog\/the-fall-of-the-house-of-york\/","title":{"rendered":"The Fall of the House of York"},"content":{"rendered":"

HUMANE – directed by Caitlin Cronenberg – (limited spoilers) ⁓<\/h4>\n
\"Mia<\/a>

Rachel<\/b> and Mia<\/b><\/p><\/div>\n

This is a locked room mystery with the victims alive at the start. <\/p>\n

Yusef<\/strong> (Joel Gagne<\/a>) and Malik<\/strong> (Frankie Francois<\/a>) arrive to relocate a grand piano for well-known news anchor Charles York<\/strong> (Peter Gallagher<\/a>). While moving the piano, Malik reacts strongly to the statements of another member of the York family, who is being interviewed on television. <\/p>\n

MALIK:<\/b> “Fuck that guy. I don’t see him signing up.<\/em> [pauses] Sorry Mr. York. I made the mistake of assuming…”<\/em>
\nCHARLES:<\/b> “No apology necessary. I agree.”<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Piano<\/a>

Piano movers Malik<\/b> and Yusef<\/b>. On the way to move Charles’ piano, Malik tosses three takeaway coffees<\/a> at government recruitment posters<\/a>.<\/p><\/div>\n

Catastrophic eco-collapse has caused a marked increase in ultraviolet radiation. Windows are covered with film to shield against it, and everyone carries a parasol. It is not specified, but an attempt to reverse climate change (e.g. injecting chemicals into the upper atmosphere) might have destroyed the ozone layer. <\/p>\n

World leaders have decided to manage the mass fatalities that will inevitably result. International borders are closed, and each nation is given one year to reduce its population in a controlled way by twenty percent. The U.S. government has chosen to incentivize suicide, and the immediate family of each American suicide volunteer receives $250,000 tax free. <\/p>\n

\"Sebastian<\/a>

Noah<\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n

In the midst of all this, Charles surprises his four children with an invitation to dinner. The eldest and first to arrive is Jared<\/strong> (Jay Baruchel<\/a>), a Professor of Anthropology employed as a spokesperson for the American administration. (One notes that “apologist” is contained in the word anthropologist.) Jared advocates giving children the opportunity to volunteer for suicide, a position that outrages almost everyone including his ten-year-old son Lucas<\/strong> (Payne Novak<\/em><\/a>) and his estranged wife Beth<\/strong> (Dani Kind<\/a>). Jared is the guy on TV to whom Malik reacted.<\/p>\n

Next to arrive is Rachel<\/strong> (Emily Hampshire<\/a>), a big pharma CE0 who is being sued by women victimized by an unsafe drug. (She is accused of knowingly allowing it to remain on the market.) Unable to find a sitter, she brings along her only daughter Mia<\/strong> (Sirena Gulamgaus<\/a>), even though her father suggested it should be an “adults only” dinner, and Mia seems too old to require a sitter. Because of her mother’s recently acquired infamy, Mia is being bullied constantly, online and elsewhere. <\/p>\n

\"Sirena<\/a>

Mia<\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n

Noah York<\/strong> (Sebastian Chacon<\/a>) catches a ride with his younger sister Ashley<\/strong> (Alanna Bale<\/a>), and their conversation in the car is easily the best scene in the movie. Ashley is an actor, and is continually surprised by her own thoughts and actions, so improv is probably her thing. She and Noah are the only York children who like each other, though Ashley resents the secrets her brother keeps.<\/p>\n

Noah is a concert pianist who plays piano in the local mall’s food court. He is also a recovering alcoholic who has not had a drink since he killed someone while driving drunk. For a pianist whose hands are his living, Noah is strangely eager to fight, and is unexpectedly good at it. Noah is living with Grace<\/b> (Blessing Adedijo<\/a>), who manages a sporting goods store and is also in AA.<\/p>\n

At dinner, Charles announces that he and his second wife Dawn<\/strong> (Uni Park<\/em>) have decided to “enlist”, and the children react badly to their father’s decision to die. Rachel cusses a lot, and Noah, who was going to tell everyone about moving in with Grace, feels upstaged. After dinner, Dawn is nowhere to be found, and Charles finds a note from her saying she “can’t go through with it”. Just then Bob<\/strong> (Enrico Colantoni<\/a>) arrives to supervise the deaths and collect the bodies. <\/p>\n

\"Ashley<\/a>

Ashley<\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n

Bob is self-righteous, petty, and venal. At least some of that is because his late wife was an early suicide volunteer. Mia calls Bob a bully and suggests he just likes to watch people die, and Bob seems okay with that assessment, but Bob has access to all sorts of private information about the York family. He reads some of it to them, but Mia’s mother punches him in the face before he can finish revealing her secrets. He later tells Mia that he knows she was a “test-tube baby”. There might be more to Bob, but we never find out.<\/p>\n

Since Dawn cannot be located and Bob is on a tight schedule, another York must take her place. This pushes the four siblings into a battle for survival that quickly develops into a finely distilled, violent essence of soap opera. One particularly evocative scene brings to mind Tobe Hooper’s 1982 film POLTERGEIST<\/a>. Not everyone survives, but those who do learn a lot about themselves.<\/p>\n

\"Jared<\/a>

Jared<\/b> on the television in Charles’ bedroom. It is unclear just whose photo is at bottom left.<\/p><\/div>\n

Director Caitlin Cronenberg<\/a> told Sadie Dean of Script Magazine<\/a>: “I really wanted the family dynamic, and the sibling dynamic especially, to be very natural. I wanted them to sound like they were really siblings the way that they speak to each other. I have an older brother and older sister, and we are all very different as well.”<\/em> She went on to say “there are two very distinct parts of this movie. The beginning is daylight. We’re understanding the world-building. This is the family drama, everybody’s coming together…The transitional moment, of course, is the sunset scene with Peter<\/em> [Gallagher]. And that was meant to change the entire vibe. From that moment on, we’re in darkness.”<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

Miscellaneous Info<\/center><\/b><\/p>\n

Sirena Gulamgaus<\/a> is also Pavani<\/b>, a 14-year-old who can manipulate and communicate with technology, in CODE 8 PART II<\/a>. Starring Robbie and Stephen Amell, the film is set five years after the events of Part I, and can be streamed on Netflix<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n

HUMANE can be streamed on HULU<\/a>.<\/center><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

HUMANE – directed by Caitlin Cronenberg – (limited spoilers) ⁓ This is a locked room mystery with the victims alive at the start. Yusef (Joel Gagne) and Malik (Frankie Francois) arrive to relocate a grand piano for well-known news anchor …<\/span> <\/p>\n

+<\/p>\n

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