Producers: Alexandre Dauman, Jack Parker, Adam Paulsen and Lije Sarki Director: Ethan Berger Screenplay: Ethan Berger and Alex Russek Cast: Alex Wolff, Lewis Pullman, Halle Bailey, Austin Abrams, Angus Cloud, Bo Mitchell, Scoot McNairy, John Malkovich, Denise Richards, Cheri Oteri, Will Ropp, Graham Patrick Martin, Nicholas Basille and Drew Pipkin Distributor: Utopia
Grade: C+
Writer-director Ethan Berger and his colleagues—production designer Francesca Palombo, costumer Akua Murray-Adoboe and cinematographer Stefan Weinberger—get the background right in their film, which culminates in a hazing incident at a college fraternity. The KNA house at the southern school is a pretty squalid place, physically as well as in terms of the toxic culture of privilege and indolence it represents. Its Greek life is depicted quite rightly as an ugly thing.
But the narrative Berger and Alex Russek have situated there is a tepid rehash of the old standby about the dangers of social striving, basically a watered-down version of Dreiser’s “An American Tragedy.” The Clyde Griffiths surrogate here is Tom Backster (Alex Wolff), a middle-class Florida kid who’s on a scholarship though his mother Jackie (Cheri Oteri), over breakfast as he prepares to return for his sophomore year, remarks about the thousands she’s spent on his tuition, complaining especially about the extra costs of the frat he’s joined and his lack of attention to his studies. Looking forward to getting away from his summer job waiting tables, he replies that joining the frat is the way is make the right kind of connections, ones that can speed him up the success ladder. Jackie even notes how he adopts a drawl to fit in there.
That hope must also explain his relationship with Mitch Miller (Bo Mitchell), the slovenly, belligerent roommate he befriended during freshman year while they were pledging KNA. He obviously wants to cultivate Mitchell’s snooty father Beach (John Malkovich), a rich CEO in whose presence his brutish son shrinks into squirming docility. Presumably it’s the family’s “legacy” status that explains why the college admitted the boorish Mitch and the fraternity accepted him. It’s less clear why KNA chose Tom and even more so why current chapter president Todd Stevens (Lewis Pullman) has quickly advanced him as his lieutenant and likely successor–presumably to varnish the reputation of a frat already under a cloud for previous hazing activity.
No such explanation is apparent for the chapter’s choosing Gettys O’Brien (Austin Abrams) as one of this year’s pledges, He’s a freshman with an outspoken contempt for authority—within the frat as well as the college—and an inclination to ignore chapter rules. Nor for Todd’s decision to go off to a meeting and leave Tom in charge of a trip to the Beach lake house, where Mitch predictably takes over, intending to put the pledges—The Line, as they’re called—through dangerous, now-forbidden rituals. His hostility is directed especially against Gettys, who had the temerity to insult him during the pledge-vetting process. It’s inevitable that Tom will fail to maintain order, and things will spiral so far out of control that the police (in the person of Scoot McNairy), as well as the school officials, become involved. Naturally it’s lowly Tom who will be most severely affected.
There’s also subplot in which Tom gets involved with Annabelle (Halle Bailey), a bright, hard-working girl whom he asks for tutoring help, though his interest in her obviously goes beyond the academic. She’s there to be a convenient voice of ethical principle for Tom as he considers his options, but in fact she’s basically peripheral in the resolution of his ethical dilemmas.
“The Line” benefits from vivid performances by Wolff who, as in “Hereditary” and “Pig,” makes a strong impression as a character wracked by doubts, and Pullman, whose smooth efficiency is much more effective here than in his starring turn in the recent remake of “Salem’s Lot.” Abrams, who was one of the better elements of “Wolfs,” is one-note here, and Bailey is pretty but rather dull. Mitchell goes way overboard as the obnoxious Mitch, but Malkovich does his customary shtick well as his nose-upturned father, though his screen time is quite limited. Editor Ted Feldman does a decent job of keeping matters clear, and Daniel Rossen’s score is unobtrusive.
As far as recent films about fraternity hazing go, Andrew Neel’s 2016 “Goat” packs greater punch. “The Line,” though it has its moments, comes in second. It boasts two excellent lead performances, but its focus on class difference and social striving seems contrived and poorly worked out.