13 Minutes
Netflix platforms a wake-up call to climate change deniers, which, in spite of the clichés, hits all the right spots.
In a week of record wind speeds in the UK, few could have predicted the arrival of 13 Minutes. 13 Minutes is a disaster movie fresh out on Netflix and, in the film’s closing statement, is “in honour of those whose lives and communities have been affected by extreme weather.” The cinema has seen its fill of pandemic thrillers – most actually made before the pandemic – so it’s time for a new breed of horror story. 13 Minutes may be a disaster movie, but it’s a rather good one. Besides a terrible score, the film has enough telling moments to commend its pedigree and make us care for the lion’s share of the characters in a small town community in Oklahoma. It is a freak of nature that the 46th state is subject to an average 62 tornadoes a year, a figure that is counting. Climate change deniers might like to take a gander at the film and, unless they live in Tornado Alley, should count their lucky stars. It’s just astonishing what Nature can unleash on a densely populated area, with scant regard for human life, life-time collections of memorabilia or happy endings.
The small town in question does not posit itself as an American ideal. Its inhabitants would seem to be either and/or homophobic, Bible-bashing, anti-choice, racist, small-minded, right-wing ingrates. And should you wish to suffer the cold shoulder of your neighbour, you’re still living in the path of a house-chucking force of nature. The town is also home to a number of Mexican immigrants and one can but wonder what the hell they are doing this side of the wall. They really aren’t appreciated.
First-time director Lindsay Gossling has made some smart choices. Thora Birch, playing an expectant grandmother, really does look like her daughter – as if they were genuinely related by biology. But re-wind a minute: Thora Birch as a grandmother?! Wasn’t it just yesterday that she was playing Harrison Ford’s nine-year-old daughter in Patriot Games? Be that as it may, she plays Jess, a single mother who works in an auto parts shop and has, perhaps, the best scene in the film. When her daughter Maddy (Sofia Vassilieva) fesses up that she’s pregnant, Jess fixes her with a stare and empties her heart: “You kinda ruined my life,” she concedes. “I love you – but there’s a reason you’re an only child.” And for good measure: “You are the best and most challenging thing that has ever happened to me.”
At its worst, 13 Minutes feels like a box-ticking exercise: there’s the pregnant teenager, the Latino over-achiever, the little deaf girl (played by the deaf YouTuber Shaylee Mansfield), a Native American (the Oglala Sioux actor Tokala Black Elk), the gay in a closet and even a case of sexual harassment in the workplace. And then, in order to separate the liberals from the bigots, all hell breaks loose. But Gossling doesn’t play by the rule book, just as Nature doesn’t cherry pick whose lives it is going to destroy. In an interesting piece of casting, Anne Heche plays a homophobic nurse (she’s also a pro-life bitch), while Paz Vega brings conviction to the role of a hotel chambermaid who remains uncannily upbeat in the face of mounting odds and a racist employer. And there’s that one great cinematic moment: when the 11-year-old deaf girl walks into the street and stares up at a Biblically indignant sky. Steven Spielberg would approve.
JAMES CAMERON-WILSON
Cast: Trace Adkins, Yancey Arias, Thora Birch, Tokala Black Elk, Peter Facinelli, Anne Heche, Will Peltz, Davi Santos, Amy Smart, Laura Spencer, Sofia Vassilieva, Paz Vega, Allyson Cristofaro, Gabriel Jarret, James Austin Kerr, Shaylee Mansfield, Doug Van Liew.
Dir Lindsay Gossling, Pro Travis Farncombe, Lindsay Gossling and Karen Harnisch, Screenplay Lindsay Gossling, Ph Steve Mason, Pro Des Ian Phillips, Ed Lisa Grootenboer, Music Ariel Marx, Costumes Jenava Burguiere and Jack Odell.
Elevated Films/Involving Pictures-Signature Entertainment/Netflix.
109 mins. USA/Canada. 2021. UK Rel: 18 February 2022. US Rel: 29 October 2021. Cert. 12.
