The fact that there are no parents or real parental figures present in Parvulos gives the film a unique perspective compared to many other post-apocalyptic coming-of-age narratives. In those movies, even when the kids are the central focus, there’s typically an adult to keep a watchful eye. Acadian is one recent example. There are, of course, those where the kids are generally left to their own devices—Shal Ngo’s The Park from last year springs to mind, Riot Girls works, and I guess maybe A Boy and His Dog fits the bill—but we’re talking in broad terms here.
[Related Reading: 'The Park' Movie Review]
The point is, there’s something very child-like and authentic about the way the boys go about their lives after the end of the world. Everything they do, they do it the way a kid who doesn’t know any better would. They’re serious and businesslike about survival, but they’re also goofy youngsters who want to play, get bored doing chores, and bicker like brothers do. Adding adolescence and sibling rivalry to the apocalypse is a recipe for disaster, but they find time for joy and fun and warmth while living on the razor’s edge.
All three of the young actors give strong performances, which is vital, because if you don’t buy them, you don’t buy this movie. Each has their time to shine, but Correa is the standout, playing Sal as tough and strong, while still being as fragile and terrified as the others. But we also learn at times just how resilient and resourceful, and maybe a little psychopathic, the younger boys can be. It’s a constant escalation of what lengths they’re willing to go to in order to survive, and for the people they love.
[Related Reading: 'Riot Girls' Movie Review]
The film moves at a gradual, deliberate pace as the script doles out information about how the virus wiped out most of the world. (Given the origins of the pandemic, and the current spate of vaccine truthers, it leaves a bad taste in the mouth, but that's for another time and place.) As it progresses, it puts interesting spins on a few familiar horror archetypes, and creates a taut, real-feeling sense of place and time.
Parvulos works best when it sticks with the boys. Attempts to introduce elements of the wider outside world don’t always mesh well, and not in ways that create tension and drama but in clunky, awkward ways. At one point, a young woman named Valeria (Carla Adell) arrives at their gate. For a moment it appears to be building to something, only it fizzles out. Things also stumble when the script tries to drive home the well-worn people-are-the-real-monsters trope, and it fumbles the end as they inject a Slipknot-looking death-cult late in the game. Explaining their world view drags everything to a screeching halt.
[Related Reading: 'Arcadian' Movie Review]
This is a cool looking film. Ezban and cinematographer Rodrigo Sandoval use sweeping shots of the boys’ remote home to crank up the pressure of isolation and loneliness. It has a lovely sepia tone that gives things an almost black and white aesthetic. The design and sets are on point. All the gardens and booby traps and improvised whatnots are, again, the type of improvised concoctions kids left alone would come up with, a mix of ingenious and wtf were they thinking?
Overlong by a significant amount and with multiple pacing hiccups, Parvulos tries to strike a tonal balance between scares and terror and a warmer, more joyful sensation. It doesn’t always achieve this—the humor and horror are occasionally at great odds with each other—but when it works, it’s effective. The result is a flawed but ambitious post-apocalyptic tale with a distinct point of view and plenty of gore and brutality, anchored by three strong performances from its young actors. [Grade: B]
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