Beautiful Beings (2022)

Out on digital platforms this month, writer-director Gudmundur Arnar Gudmundsson's tale of adolescent friendships and the hardships they must sometimes endure is getting a release from Signature Entertainment.

Iceland. Teenaged misfit Balli (Askell Einar Palmason) is constantly bullied at school. Finally, having had enough of having his clothes shoved down the toilet and being constantly picked on, he tried to fight back, only for the leader of the gang persecuting him to smash him in the face with a tree branch, leading to injuries severe enough for him to end up in hospital.

He also ends up on the local news, which is how he gains the attention of Addi (Birgir Dagur Bjarkason), another teenager at the same school who has his own gang of three. Slowly Balli becomes a part of Addi's gang and together the four boys have a series of adventures punctuated by episodes of violence that becomes increasingly bloody until things reach a climax when Balli's stepfather is released from prison. 

Billed as the Icelandic STAND BY ME the setting and atmosphere in Gudmundsson's film is a lot more in keeping with grim, grimy pieces like Justin Kurzel's SNOWTOWN, so be prepared for that level of squalid. It's telling that we never see any of the boys' fathers, who are either abusive, divorced and alcoholic, in prison, or dead, while their mothers are either absent, as good as or, in the case of Addi's, consumed with her beliefs in the supernatural. Addi himself has a couple to trippy visions that possibly foretell certain events.

Bearing in mind all the above, though, BEAUTIFUL BEINGS is actually quite the triumph, showing us young men with troubled backgrounds living sometimes in appalling conditions forging friendships and looking out for each other, and the film does end on a resolutely upbeat note. So as long as you can take the grimness, you'll find a lot to reward your time. 

BEAUTIFUL BEINGS was due out on digital platforms from Signature Entertainment on Monday 19th December 2022 but the release has been delayed until Monday 30th January 2022