FANTASIA 2021: Lost Boys
FANTASIAThere is no easy way to describe Joonas Neuvonen's ten-year follow-up to the mesmerising and underground hit Reindeerspotting: Escape From Santaland with the haunting and harrowing documentary Lost Boys. Following on from the debut documentary in the weeks celebrating the success of Reindeerspotting: Escape From Santaland in an Asia-travelling romp from Thailand to Cambodia, Neuvonen documents the drug-fuelled journey in his and his friends past, but while showcasing the consequences of their actions, he begins to explore the harrowing reality that needs to be exposed and ultimately found in the present.
Joonas Neuvonen's documentary is nothing short of harrowing. From multiple points of view, thematics, and narratives, Neuvonen's feature consistently measures the strength for acceptance and to be understood. One can only imagine the sheer emotional impact it took to make for the creator to share these intimate and often disturbing aspects of his life, but such is undoubtedly exhibited and evoked for its audience. The guilt and pain, even the burden, of Joonas documenting the death and life of his friends curates a strengthened bond of affection between audience and subject.
Lost Boys ultimately acts as his sonnet on life, his final confession, and so forth. Written by Joonas but narrated by Pekka Strang in a powerful and foreboding tenure of voice that captures the feature’s audience in intensity and atmosphere. Joonas Neuvonen is currently serving time in prison for drug smuggling, but nevertheless, the connective tissue of his own prison constantly battles that of his emotional state and journey that is depicted in the imagery throughout Lost Boys.
Constantly honest and transparent with its depiction, Lost Boys is never afraid to showcase the reality of the situation. Full frontal nudity, drug-fuelled nights, and excess are shown in a no-holds-barred portrayal of this life. It has every right to do so; in fact, this is not a romanticised Hollywood portrait of excess in which the characters are redeemed and go off into the distance happy as Larry. In fact, it would undermine and ridicule the lives and lessons that are presented within Neuvonen's documentary ten-fold if they were not showcased in the brevity that is needed. The editing, in particular, brings great insight into the effects of drug-fuelled binges, but when the documentary becomes investigative, it holds the edit for immersion and emotional depth, in what is ultimately revealed in the players surrounding this plot.
Lost Boys is conscious of showcasing real-life and that crafts genuinely frantic and brutal documentation of the events that occurred. It acts as a warning, no doubt, but also showcases the reason for excess is to find something, perhaps within oneself or in another. Yet as Joonas states, the paradise they think they have found is a lie, but it explores in poignancy tragedy why these people desperately want it to be true.
