This debut by Canadian director Graham Foy has been compared to the work of David Lynch, though it lacks Lynch’s sense of the absurd. The script, however, does feature metaphysical situations that may throw some viewers off since they are presented so matter-of-factly. The action centers on three high school students who mostly wander around the edges of their nascent suburban development. One of them, Kyle (Jackson Sluiter), leaves graffiti on train underpasses and the like—the title refers to his tag, which is never explained. Most of the time he’s accompanied by his quieter friend Colton (Marcel T. Jimenez). Their exploits don’t amount to much—skating, rummaging through houses under construction, swimming. At one point they find a dead cat and send it down the river on a small makeshift raft. Their conversations are naturalistic to the point of meaninglessness. They sound like things adolescent boys really say to each other.

Eventually, Kyle is removed from the proceedings, leaving Colton bereft, as if Kyle were the only person he knew. His mood turns caustic before leveling out with the passage of time, at which point Foy picks up the story with the third character, a very nervous girl named Whitney (Hayley Ness), who herself is left bereft when her own inseparable friend, June (Siena Yee), breaks up with her in a sudden way. Like Colton without Kyle, Hayley feels abandoned and, to a certain extent, betrayed. She works off her anger and fear by exploring the same landscapes we saw Colton and Kyle visiting in the first half of the movie. At one point we see a search party and posters on trees stating that Hayley is missing. As far as we’re concerned she isn’t, and then she stumbles upon Kyle and they form an alliance of the dispossessed.

The Maiden works best when you don’t think too carefully about it. Shot on grainy 16mm, it has a timeless quality that’s reinforced by the vintage cassette recorder that figures prominently in the exposition, not to mention the old songs that occasionally waft through the soundtrack. A second viewing might reveal more of Foy’s intentions—the typical teenage ennui on display seems to have a deeper meaning as the movie progresses, and when Kyle says to Whitney that “everyone thinks they’re lonely,” he sounds practically philosophical, whereas when he was talking to Colton in the first half of the film he sounded merely incoherent. What the three characters have in common is an artistic side that they mostly hide from their peers. Kyle’s tagging is a form of self-amusement, while Colton’s drawings and Hayley’s notebooks are the only means they have of coming to terms with feelings they don’t yet understand. The Maiden does a good job of expressing the inchoate longing of youth without presenting anything concrete. As you watch it you can’t help but recall your own wasted high school days. It evokes emotions that are so familiar they’re scary.  

Opens April 19 in Tokyo at Theater Image Forum Aoyama (03-5766-0114).

The Maiden home page in Japanese

photo (c) 2022 FF Films and Medium Density Fibreboard Films