by: Siena Richardson
Crimes Against Humanity follows an unstable and incompatible couple. Brownie (Lyra Hill) is a disaster. Highly emotional and thoroughly unmotivated, she has no job, no plans, and ultimately no passion. Her endlessly patronizing boyfriend, Lewis (Mike Lopez) takes immense and self-righteous pride in his position as assistant to a university dean. Directed by Jerzy Rose, the film is a dark romantic comedy, taking place in a highly petty, pretentious, absurdist version of academia.
When Brownie’s pet rabbit dies, she is plunged into a depression and ultimately, the arms of Rory O’Rear (Ted Tremper). Meanwhile, Lewis and private investigator John Folder (Adam Paul IX) puzzle over rumors that two Satanist ethnomusicology professors are sleeping with students. When Brownie is hit by lightning while with Rory, Lewis discovers the betrayal and, even after a car subsequently hits her, redoubling her injuries, he refuses to visit her in the hospital. After a faculty party at the university, Folder brings Lewis and his assistant, Frenchie Sessions (Adebukola Bodunrin) to eavesdrop on a professor’s alleged affair with a student. She and Lewis drunkenly go home together, and shortly afterward, she falls down a well, leading Lewis to believe that a curse has befallen the women he sleeps with. Returning home, Lewis finds a newly healed Brownie, who apologizes for sleeping with Rory and claims responsibility for their estrangement. The two make up, and come back together in a bookend that leaves one questioning either’s capacity for change despite everything that happens to them over the course of the film.
The dynamic between the central characters is clear from the first scene. Lewis sanctimoniously explains his plans for his day at work, before asking Brownie what she’ll do all day, and she cobbles together a vague plan to buy rabbit food and “clean up” her resume. The tension between the two characters is keenly felt underneath a façade of polite routine. The scene feels grounded; it resonates with a degree of emotional truth. In one of the final scenes, these two are once again alone in the apartment together, and we are hit with a poignant struggle to rebuild their relationship. Hill and Lopez are perfect when captured alone together, playing off one another perfectly. Yet somehow, in the large stretch of the story when they are apart, the film feels unsatisfying.
Crimes Against Humanity looks good aesthetically, has a distinct tone, and yet is problematic somehow. The absurdist sense of humor is clever, and occasionally, is played just right, particularly by Mike Lopez, who displays excellent timing and seems to easily integrate his work into the absurdist reality of the film. Yet, in other moments, the satire is too heavy handed to be effective or entertaining; a recurring bit concerning one accused Satanist professor’s “bedroom eyes” comes to mind. Brownie’s tearful moaning too, is a bit overplayed. In a scene in the hospital, she has just been hit by a car, abandoned by both men she was with, and hit by lightning, and somehow she is so pitiful that it is difficult to feel sorry for her. An ounce more creative restraint, and the moment might have been funny.
Ultimately, Crimes Against Humanity may leave you uncomfortably silent through a failed joke or two. However, it also provides a portrait of human need and insecurity, set within a world of academia that feels somewhat distressingly familiar.
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