Charlie Shotwell in John and the Hole
Charlie Shotwell plays an intense teen who traps his family in a forest bunker in Pascual Sisto s disturbing first feature, also starring Michael C. Hall, Jennifer Ehle and Taissa Farmiga.
The minefield of early adolescence is a treacherous phase in Spanish visual artist Pascual Sisto s
John and the Hole, in which Charlie Shotwell gives a rivetingly affectless performance as an apathetic 13-year-old who holds his parents and sister captive in an underground bunker. The director has jokingly referred to his psychological coming-of-age thriller as a Michael Haneke version of
Home Alone, which isn t far from the truth. But it more specifically recalls the 2014 nail-biter by the Austrian auteur s compatriots Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala,
There’s an abandoned bunker in John’s backyard. Most kids would probably see it as a place to play, the basis for a hideout or secret fort. Some might climb in and get trapped, and then we’d hear all about it on the news. Not John. John goes through life in kind of a daze, a
John and the Hole Marks a Tense, Vacant Feature Debut
Pascual Sisto shows directorial prowess with his first feature, but what is it all about?
Sundance Institute
about.
John and the Hole. John (
Charlie Shotwell) is a spindly boy in late-middle/early-high school with a staple white suburban swoosh of straight dirty blonde hair that hangs dramatically over his right eye. He doesn’t talk much from what we see, except to ask his parents the occasional investigative life question, as children do, or mutter some fuck yous with all the muted excitement of a teenager beating his friend in a game online. But he’s not afraid to talk either. He’s quiet and comfortable with his family and they’re quiet and comfortable with him. That is until they meet the titular hole.