Alpha
2025
****
Director: Julia Ducournau
Cast: Tahar Rahim, Golshifteh Farahani, Mélissa Boros, Ambrine Trigo Ouaked, Emma Mackey, Finnegan Oldfield, Louai El Amrousy, Marc Riso, Jean-Charles Clichet, François Rollin, Driver, Zohra Benbetka, Fadila Belkebla, Sofia Naït, Bahia Badji
13-year-old Alpha lives with her single mother, a doctor, who is battling a lethal blood-borne disease that seems to turn bodies into marble. Her world is thrown into crisis when Alpha returns home with an infected tattoo on her arm. Julia Ducournau's follow-up to Titane is another original drama with elements of body horror. It could be read as an AIDS allegory or as an examination of grief and a sense of exclusion. The film plays with timelines, dreams, and memories, and maybe it doesn't completely come together in the end, but it is certainly powerful and unsettling, with some terrific set pieces and needle drops. The performances are all great, but Tahar Rahim, who resembles Christian Bale in The Machinist, stands out as the mother's heroin-addicted brother.
