Serafima Serafimova
To try and cram this film into a neat little category is nigh on impossible as it has a bit of an identity crisis. But it turns out that part documentary, part fiction, part comedy and part horror/thriller equals a quick-witted, captivating and wonderfully wholesome short that defies both genres and expectations.
Directed by Alex Coppola and written by Morgan Talty, who also stars as himself, Belongings is an intelligent gem that’s candidly crafted to get real emotions and laughs when you least expect them. Reviewing the ten-minute film almost seems like doing it a disservice because the old adage that the less you know the better, very much holds true here. So read on at your discretion.
Largely relying on the documentary genre’s tried and tested techniques – talking head interviews coupled with pseudo-vérité footage to compliment them – Coppola tells Talty’s story as he returns to his childhood home in search of answers after his mother’s passing. Before you write this off as a cliche-studded tearjerker however (although shedding a few tears is not out of the question), I should mention that the film is centred around a genuinely creepy and equally hilarious haunted house story, making the experience of watching the narrative unfold deliciously surprising and delightful.
Morgan Talty both wrote and stars in Alex Coppola’s Belongings
We spoke to both Coppola and Talty to find out how the film was conceived. “As a prose writer, it’s not every day I get to create something visual, and so I thought it would be interesting to take some of my nonfiction and string it together into a short film. I had been working on a piece about my mother and her passing, but hadn’t really completed it until working on the film – writer Talty shared with us. To which Coppola added – “I had read Morgan’s work and loved his voice. It’s so funny and self-effacing and poignant. We wanted to make something that — while it did feature elements of documentary and narrative — still felt like traditional storytelling.”
Belongings does indeed have the skeletal structure of a traditional autobiographical documentary, but it’s fleshed out with enough flair and originality to make the film fresh and distinct. The majority of the visuals are what you’d expect from the genre, but those are also interspersed with slick, slo-mo tracking shots paired with an unnerving, otherworldly sound design, which should feel out of place, yet doesn’t.
The narrative takes some pretty unexpected directions too. Like when you’re completely sucked into the story of the haunted house and Talty comes out with the outrageously funny line about the poop on the single sheet of toilet paper, or when the mood suddenly changes in the final act, to a more reflective and introspective one. These are intelligently structured stylistic decisions and plot twists which are meant to wrong-foot the audience and make us question the validity of all we’ve seen and heard thus far.
And this game of deception is a running theme throughout the film. After finding out more about how the film was made, I found myself rewatching and questioning everything. Was that really Talty’s mom’s diary? Is the woman on the phone really his sister? Is that really the house he grew up in? But ultimately, the answers to these are irrelevant. Because Belongings oozes with authenticity and warmth, and however much of it is scripted or acted (and I suspect very little), it’s all rooted in Talty’s love for his mother and the heartache over losing her. And is there anything more real than that?