The Human Surge

Some­times you’ve just got to go with a movie, even when it appears to be ges­tur­ing that you jog off in the oppo­site direc­tion. Resist those bod­i­ly impuls­es telling you to turn away from the screen and just keep ques­tion­ing what you’re watch­ing and why.

Eduar­do Williams’ The Human Surge is cin­e­ma as a dou­ble dare. He asks: if you can see what it is I’m doing, can you admit to be glean­ing any plea­sure from it? Span­ning three dis­parate locales (Argenti­na, Mozam­bique, the Philip­pines), Williams cap­tures the things that young peo­ple do when they have noth­ing to do. There’s lots of wan­der­ing, there’s some idle chat­ter, there’s a lit­tle bathing in a creek, and even some pub­lic urination.

Tech­nol­o­gy offers a gen­tle respite from the numb­ing bore­dom as teens hook up with like­mind­ed peers across the globe and per­form tit-for-tat sex rit­u­als in front of a web­cam. The images cap­tured by the direc­tor (although ​‘direc­tor’ doesn’t seem like the cor­rect word for it) are con­fronta­tion­al, grot­ty and abra­sive as he attempts to emu­late the scuzzy visu­als cap­tured by the bud­get equip­ment owned by his subjects.

There’s no Steadicam here as the cam­era bobs and nods inel­e­gant­ly while trac­ing peo­ple as they wan­der through streets, jun­gles and fields – the human fac­tor is always empha­sised. The title may refer to the idea that the world feels fuller now that gad­gets can sign­post our iden­ti­ty and cor­rob­o­rate our existence.

It’s free­wheel­ing to the point of monot­o­ny, yet the dron­ing longueurs are all part of the film’s sub­tle explo­ration of bore­dom, indi­vid­u­al­i­ty and our abu­sive rela­tion­ship with tech­nol­o­gy. The final sec­tion is also the tough­est as Williams seems deter­mined not to force a con­nec­tion or empha­sise a theme. Then when it comes to a cli­mac­tic coda set in an elec­tron­ics shop floor, the film evolves into a sur­re­al com­e­dy tableaux that’s like Samuel Beck­ett play­ing Pong with Chris Mark­er. Weird shit, but good shit.