The violence of growing up

(Credits: Cannes Film Festival)

There is nothing more confusing than the experience of being a teenager, something that is only worsened by the lack of sympathy from adults while in the throes of puberty, social growing pains and crippling anxiety about the way you look and everything that comes out of your mouth. Your head becomes an echo chamber full of unchecked negativity and self-deprecating thoughts, growing critical of parts of yourself you never noticed but now suddenly loathe, whether it be a dimple, spot or the way you pronounce a certain word. The playground becomes a battlefield, and nothing is more concerning to you than the idea of standing out, pleading with benign higher forces to be cool, popular, invisible.

While this idea has been explored through the perspective of young girls in films like Eighth Grade, A Real Young Girl and Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret, the socially anxious boy is often depicted through a comical lens, with teenage boys generally being portrayed as overly-energetic and horny monsters with zero self-control or brain cells. It is for this reason that I was completely enamoured by Charlie Polinger’s directorial debut, The Plague, in which boyhood is exposed through the horrors beneath the boyish bravado.

The Plague takes place at a water polo summer camp for 12-year-old boys, following a socially anxious tween called Ben as he tries to fit in with the popular group, being pulled into a cruel game in which they accuse an outcast called Eli of having ‘the plague’. However, after Ben is accused of having the plague himself, he is forced to confront the price of fitting in and whether he should let go of himself in order to conform, or risk complete ostracisation and embrace authenticity.

The film begins with a still underwater shot as each boy bombs into the pool, with an echoing sound design that floods your ears with each splash, we are plunged into this feeling of competition and discontent. Each boy frantically kicks his way to the surface, immersing us in the simultaneous camaraderie and conflict at the heart of young male friendships as they tease each other in the locker room.

At this age, cruelty and violence is the price of conformity, with an endless game of chicken as the boys test the limits of their friendship through light bullying and picking on whoever seems like the weakest link. While this isn’t a threat for some, with popular boys like Jake being treated as nothing short of a god by the rest of his possy, it is a constant source of anxiety for someone like Ben, who doesn’t possess the same confidence and masks his discomfort by trying to join in on the fun and feign indifference to their teasing.

However, Ben is not like the others, with a clear sensitivity and emotional intelligence that exceeds the popular kids, feeling guilty for their mocking of Eli and not quite fitting into their group for this very reason. They taunt and ostracise Eli for supposedly having ‘the plague’, a made-up disease that is a manifestation of their fears around authenticity, with Eli clearly being neuro-diverse in some way and living in his own world, seemingly unbothered by their remarks and the pressure to fit in. Unlike the other kids, he has also started going through puberty, with acne and a deeper voice than the other kids.

But Ben’s empathy is eventually what threatens his precarious social standing within the group. While the other kids mercilessly tease Eli for his appearance, with the teachers clearly being unequipped to deal with his learning needs and brushing off the bullying as ‘boys being boys, Ben cannot let go of his guilt over how he is treated by his ‘friends’ because deep down, he relates to Eli – the only difference between is his insecurity over not fitting in, while Eli seemingly doesn’t care (or has figured out a way to mask this). And so, when Eli is in a moment of need and struggling to apply cream to his back rash, Ben offers to help, with another boy witnessing this moment and spreading the rumour that he has caught ‘the plague’.

The film descends into a fever pitch of violence, paranoia and crippling anxiety, with Ben being shunned from the group and desperately trying to regain their friendship, suddenly becoming the target of their cruel hazing rituals as they dart around him in the showers and unleash cockroaches in his sleeping bag, trapping him under the blankets while his harrowing screams fill the dorm as the bugs attack his skin.

Each act of violence becomes an attack on the senses, with the suffocating sound design and cinematography trapping you in Ben’s fears and the societal pressures that tell us that this behaviour is okay, with violence being not only tolerated, but encouraged from boys as they progress to adulthood. Each one is forced into the traditional mould of manhood, despite being as unnatural and dangerous as the plague that looms over them. 

However, after reaching breaking point and being offered some well-intentioned, if hollow, advice from his coach, he is faced with a dilemma – either sacrifice himself for the sake of fitting in, or let go of trying to blend in. The final sequence is exhilarating, gory and completely chaotic, with Ben releasing his frustrations on the person who deserves it least, with the violence expected of him leading to disastrous consequences that shine a light on how the true cost of his conformity is empathy, leading to an explosive catharsis as he finally lets go and embraces the freedom of being himself.  

The Plague is equally terrifying, disgusting and devastating, highlighting how we normalise the dehumanisation of young boys by encouraging them to fit into masculine molds that strip them of their best qualities, leading to a generation of young boys that lose sight of their humanity at such a young age and are told that this is what makes them men. But Ben is an example of what it looks like to stray from the crowd and the complete liberation of abandoning these pressures; to shake free of these expectations, take off the mask, and dance like no one is watching.

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