Feb. 12--Genuinely strange, writer-director Andrew T. Betzer's "Young Bodies Heal Quickly" puts a couple of brothers at risk somewhere in rural California early and often, and often within situations that aren't explained or set up in any conventional narrative way. I struggled with parts of the second half, but the film is worth the struggle; Betzer's up to something visually, and he has a ripe career ahead of him. At least I hope he does.
Let's describe the action of "Young Bodies Heal Quickly," now in a week's run at Facets, as if it waswere a conventionally told story. It begins with a doughy young man (played by Gabriel Croft) squeezing through the wire fence of what appears to be a prison or detention facility. Now free, he finds his young brother (Hale Lytle) and they commence to raise some hell, shooting BB guns at women who are riding around on ATVs. One of the women dies, and the unnamed brothers go on the lam, seeking out their sister (Kate Lyn Sheil) and, eventually, their estranged father (Daniel P. Jones).
A lot of indies, most of them straight out of the Sundance Film Festival, relay similar sorts of tales. But Betzer's methods are unusual. His film, shot on ironically lovely 16 mm film by cinematographer Sean Williams, captures behavior, raw and perplexing. Much of it is weirdly comic, especially when the older brother gets involved with a chef's wife and finds himself at the wrong end of a butcher knife. All the while the verdant rural backgrounds and striking sunsets cast a glow that seems to be glowing for others, not these guys.
Once they reunite, uneasily, with their father, "Young Bodies Heal Quickly" spends a good deal of footage on dad's favorite pastime: Vietnam war re-enactments. The kids become involved, treacherously, after being schooled in the particulars of dad's Nazi war memorabilia. Betzer's title suggests a hardy spirit and the resilience of childhood; the story, which unfolds in elliptical but often intriguing chapters, indicates the healing might be a little more complicated and difficult.
'Young Bodies Heal Quickly' -- 2 1/2 stars
No MPAA rating (language, violence)
Running time: 1:42
Plays: Friday-Thursday at Facets Cinematheque
mjphillips@tribpub.com
