The Lord of the Flies (Piggy)

Whether or not Golding’s novel itself represents meaningful text criticizing post-war Great Britain or little besides a frightening fairy tale for preteens, this adaptation attempts to argue the merits of the former argument, if only because the latter would be boring (suck it down, purists). Some of the characterization is arguably too specific to our own moment to register beyond distracting allegory, but most of this is spectacular, gorgeous cinematography combined with a literal-dizzying lens centering Nicolas’s perspective as perpetually off-kilter and climaxing with a truly nightmarish visual the Stranger Things crew wish they could’ve conjured. A damn strong start.

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