Review by Jessica Carr
Not gonna lie, I came super close to skipping this movie entirely. I had a full day of movies and this one was my third AND it was at 10:30 p.m. For the sake of cinema and giving new filmmakers a chance, I still went...but I kind of wish that I hadn’t.
Castle in the Ground is a film that wants to shed light on the growing opioid crisis, specifically among young adults. While I think this is definitely a topic that deserves some attention, I don’t really think director Joey Klein knew exactly what he was getting into. He creates a film that gives the audience about 2 hours of young adults crushing, snorting, and injecting drugs into themselves but not much else is achieved. I left the film feeling like there was no light left in the world, and I don’t think that really adds anything new to the opioid crisis conversation.
The film follows Henry (Alex Wolff) as he takes care of his ailing mother (Neve Campbell). After graduating from high school, Henry didn’t go to college like the rest of his friends so that he could instead be a caretaker for his mom. Once his mom dies, Henry is left with nobody else, so he starts taking her leftover painkillers to ease his grief. Not long after, Henry begins to get involved with Ana (Imogen Poots) a recovering drug addict who lives next door. Soon, the two begin to barrel each other into the ground as Ana introduces Henry to the fucked up world she has become accustomed to.
I’ve seen quite a few films that center around drug addiction, most notably the Safdie Brothers’ Heaven Knows What. That film manages to create an intense atmosphere in which you do feel sympathy for Harley while also being angry at the bad decisions she is making. With Castle in the Ground, there is no build with the characters. They just feel like people who are doing drugs over and over again. I just felt bad for them and not much else. Another big difference between these two films is that Heaven Knows What is an autobiographical story written by Arielle Holmes who experienced it first-hand. That itself makes the film feel genuine, and you can see towards the end that she is fighting to change her life. There is no hope or light at the end of Castle in the Ground, and there isn’t even any kind of solution presented. Where can people go for help? What are their resources? Castle in the Ground doesn’t seem to be interested in answering those questions. Instead, it ends with an artsy shot of Henry high out of his mind with the flicker of a flame from a lighter reflecting against his face. It looked cool I guess, but what’s the point?