Cruelty at a water polo camp

 

    Recently, I posted my l0-best list of movies for 2025. The Plague,  a vividly made and disturbing plunge into the lives of boys, was on that list and now is making its way around the country. 

Here's what I said: 

   Director Charlie Polinger’s The Plague sets its story at a camp where teenage boys establish a culture of camaraderie and cruelty. In tone and texture, The Plague resembles a horror film, but its ability to unsettle stems from its deeply rooted understanding of adolescent boys. Polinger’s imagery adds an unexpected eeriness to a story that focuses on 12-year-old Ben (Everett Blunck), a new arrival at a water polo camp where one of the boys (Kenny Rasmussen) is rejected for having the plague, a concocted story the boys take seriously. Rasmussen's character becomes an outcast. Steeped in anxiety, The Plague features a small performance from Joel Edgerton as a water polo coach. Credit Polinger with deftly depicting a part of youth most men would prefer to forget. 

    Some additional observations and notes on the movie: Kayo Martin gives a memorable performance as Jake, the malicious leader of the boys who taunt Rasmussen's character. Johan Lenox's  score enhances an ominous quality that mirrors and heightens feelings of anxiety. Edgerton's down-to-earth performance avoids the cliches that might have turned him into a savior of troubled boys.  Steven Breckon's cinematography offers underwater perspectives that help define the disquiet of an atmosphere that can turn chaotic. 

  Technical artistry aside, The Plague stands as a classic about cruelty and estrangement that's perfectly embodied in Blunck's performance as a boy struggling to manage the conflict between basic decency and the need for peer acceptance.