‘Riddle Of Fire’: Cannes Review

Dir/scr: Weston Razooli. US. 2023. 113 mins.

Weston Razooli’s feature debut aims to be a salute to childhood in all its rambunctious wonder. Riddle Of Fire plays like an epic fable in which three scrappy grade-schoolers go on a mighty quest, all in order to get permission to play a video game they’ve recently stolen. At times, the young actors’ intentionally unvarnished performances are charming, conveying the myriad ways that children can be unpredictable, awkward little creatures. But an overly precious tone ultimately sinks the written-director’s attempt to recapture the enchantment of adolescence.

 The plot, while meant to imitate the free-for-all exhilaration of a child’s make-believe, drags rather than soars

Riddle Of Fire screens in Directors’ Fortnight: outside the festival circuit its lack of stars will  potentially limit commercial prospects. But the film’s distinctive look and texture, aided by being shot on 16mm, may help pique interest in Razooli’s next feature.

Set in a sleepy forest community in Wyoming, the story revolves around the exploits of Hazel (Charlie Stover), his younger brother Jodie (Skyler Peters) and their friend Alice (Phoebe Ferro). Rowdy and happy, riding motorised bikes and shooting paint guns, they break into a warehouse to steal a prized video game, barely escaping before a security guard can catch them. But the children are thwarted when they get to Hazel and Jodie’s home, discovering that their mother (Danielle Hoetmer) has put a parental control on the television — and that she won’t give them the password, preferring that they play outside on such a beautiful day. After the children plead incessantly with her, she finally offers them a deal: if they go to the store to get her favourite blueberry pie, she’ll unlock the TV for a little while.

This seemingly simple request proves far more complicated, however, and one of Riddle Of Fire’s sharper ironies is that, like it or not, our three young protagonists will end up spending a lot of time in the great outdoors as they try to acquire this pie, a mission that eventually requires them to hunt down special eggs to make the pie and square off with a dangerous gang known as The Enchanted Blade. Razooli treats his tale like a magical yarn — almost as if it’s a big-screen adaptation of a forgotten children’s adventure book. The 16mm lensing by cinematographer Jake L. Mitchell only adds to the story’s nostalgic tone.

The three leads consciously lack the poise familiar from polished child actors, a creative choice with both pluses and minuses. The way Stover and his cohorts sometimes scream or mumble their lines feels entirely in keeping with how children actually talk, their words coming out in animated, wobbly bursts. (Refreshingly, they also swear exactly as children do, so excited every time they get to say something like “bastard” as if they’re being truly transgressive.) Their unpredictable energy also creates a feeling that they, not Razooli, are directing Riddle Of Fire, their unembarrassed exuberance propelling the narrative along. The downside is that, outside of Ferro – projecting palpable soulfulness as Alice, who has feelings for Hazel – the child characters can become a bit overbearing.

It doesn’t help matters that Razooli overdoes his stylised approach to the material. By viewing childhood in such dewy terms, he tends to infantilise its complexities, which proves to be a liability once the story gets a little darker in its second half. In addition, the children’s adventure isn’t especially compelling. The presence of The Enchanted Blade introduces an element of fantasy and fairy-tale — their leader Anna-Freya (Lio Tipton) turns out to be a witch — but the plot, while meant to imitate the free-for-all exhilaration of a child’s make-believe, drags rather than soars.

Occasionally, Riddle Of Fire hints at something deeper about the fragility of youth. Although the child actors may be unsteady, their chummy rapport suggests how easily bonds can form at that age. And there’s an especially touching scene near the end where the threesome meets another little girl, Petal (Lorelei Olivia Mote), realising that what they all have in common is being raised by single parents. Over the course of the film, Hazel, Jodie and Alice will discover there’s a whole world out there just ready to be explored if they put aside their video games, but unfortunately, Riddle Of Fire doesn’t make that odyssey worth the journey.