Cinema One Originals 2018 | Fisting (a.k.a. Never Tear Us Apart)

It's quite telling that in Fisting (a.k.a. Never Tear Us Apart), there is an obvious aversion to showing faces. In fact, for all the characters except one, we do not see their faces until the very end. Through a smartphone-like aspect ratio, for the next 84 minutes we will get to know them through their bodies: the avatar-like image, defined by carnal and materialistic expectations, that they decide to project out into the world. The sole exception is the dominatrix (Jasmine Curtis), because we do not desire her for just her body - anyone who has tried out BDSM knows that the experience is as cerebral as it is carnal.

In that sense, Fisting tells the story of us through our bodies, in every nook and cranny, every tattoo commemorating a lost lover, every scar. Even though the framing and pictures look formal and staid, it manages to be a surprisingly intimate film.

That said, Fisting is a family drama that defines a family by its dysfunctions and kinks. Its final scene is a counterpoint to all the perversions that followed before: the picture-perfect image of a nuclear family, much like in the old American commercials of the 1950's. But beneath that surface, one might say that the only abnormal sexual profile is a completely normal one, and this family is anything but normal. The father, perhaps emasculated in his role as the head of the family, engages in roleplay and power fantasies, of dominating and being dominated. The mother's desires are dampened by boredom and ennui. And the son deals with his own sexual repression (there's a scene where he literally goes back into the closet, as if the metaphor wasn't obvious enough.) There seems to be a desire to tie in the son's sexual revolution to social revolution, and sexual repression to social oppression, but the overall effect of that is not as effective.

For all its seeming obtuseness, Fisting is actually Whammy Alcazaren's most realized and clear film, his family drama to Islands' hugot movie. It is definitely challenging material, but everything in this movie was made with a purpose in mind, and it's a fascinating movie to dissect.