Generally speaking, there are two tiers of A24 films. The first: massively successful, auteur-driven, elevated genre exercises that make stars out of their directors (or introduce film bros to people like Kelly Reichardt) and receive the bulk of the marketing share from the distributor. The second: mostly decent but endlessly droning dramas, usually from debuting directors, that show promise and ambition, but ultimately come off as more self-important than the final product warrants. This fine line is what separates your Good Times from your Lambs; your Moonlights from your Prayer Before Dawns. Unfortunately for Saela Davis and Anna Rose Holmer, God’s Creatures falls squarely below that line, taking incredibly serious subject matter rife with potential for an arresting character study and giving us a half-hour’s worth of that in an hour-and-a-half.

To Davis and Holmer’s credit, that last half-hour truly makes use of the story’s dramatic potential, painting a grim picture of the lack of justice for victims of abuse. It’s in these moments that the dime-a-dozen, low-tier A24 coldness of the film’s presentation actually serves it effectively, but until we get to that point, God’s Creatures is, plainly put, not all that investing. The character setup that feels necessary to make this a slow burn (poised to be an instance of my patented Burning Effect) is too hollow to make later developments feel as impactful as intended.

Emily Watson, as the character being dissected here, and The Nightingale breakout Aisling Franciosi do the bulk of the heavy lifting here (as is expected and, for this narrative, fitting). So it’s odd to see so much buzz for Paul Mescal, being praised as this year’s Cannes breakout star. I know I know, I haven’t seen Aftersun, but the praise for his performance here as well would have anyone reading the hype believe that he’s a full-on revelation, when this role could quite honestly have been played by any number of young, ambiguous-looking actors. At the very least, his relative restraint works to keep God’s Creatures from verging into exploitative camp territory, which for a film of this topic, is undoubtedly a wise choice.

Saela Davis and Anna Rose Holmer, as with most ingenue filmmakers that A24 takes under their wing, show promise with God’s Creatures, leaving room to hope for more refined work in the future. As it stands, God’s Creatures will go down as one of those blind Cannes watches that makes me glad… that it didn’t interfere with anything I actually intended to watch here.

2022 Ranked.

A24 Ranked. 

Cannes 2022.
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