Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
Cast: Elizabeth Banks, David Denman, Jackson A. Dunn, Abraham Clinkscales, Christian Finlayson, Jennifer Holland, Emmie Hunter, Matt Jones, Meredith Hagner, Becky Wahlstrom, Terence Rosemore, Gregory Alan Williams, Elizabeth Becks, Annie Humphrey, Steve Agee, Stephen Blackehart, Mike Dunston, Michael Rooker.
What if? The question has always been a popular game pleasingly set in the eyes of discussion, the possibilities, driven by a strong imagination and depth of knowledge of the subject, are endless and have become just as an intriguing part of life as anything we may have lived through or studies.
The question of course is not bound by historical fact, neither by our own tracks of life we have left in the sands of time, the splinters of decisions we could have made had we been able to see Time play out in front of us, or if we had the judgement to take stock and think of the future as a guide and not as a warning to ignore. It is in this that the film Brightburn delves and succeeds in delivering; the warning to not see the immediate a gift but as the moment when danger and death comes into our lives.
Directed by David Yarovesky and written by Brian and Mark Gunn, Brightburn will always be seen in comparison to the origins of the D.C. comic book hero, Superman, it is unavoidable, it is subjective of course, but the point being is the What If? conundrum, the puzzle of seeing ahead of Time and seeing how the boy found in rural America by a farmer and his wife would play out when the powers start to kick in.
In a way it is the same question we have asked of those whose sheer evil has tainted the world and left a shadow in its wake, if we had the opportunity, the ability to snuff out their life before they killed millions, would we do so, could we see that child as a potential threat, would we take it in and care for it, hoping our love and reason will rub off on its psyche. The question of the What If? is always prevalent in such circumstances as it gives us insight into how the world views such moments and Brightburn as a piece of Horror/Thriller cinema is ready to exploit and ram home without prejudice.
With an exceptional performance by Elizabeth Banks as Tori Breyer and Jackson A. Dunn as the boy in question, Brightburn has the symbolism of the comic book pull but also the representation of the darkened mirror, the ghost of ourselves when allowed to run in a direction than may have been imagined for us. A film of darkness, the What If? taken as a stance rather than a theory.
Ian D. Hall