Five girls stray from society on the hunt for something more special…you can find them if you follow the sound.
I have been covering Fantasia on and off for approximately seven years now. This year, I wanted to find a moment that perfectly represented the occasion to write about – to give you a better sense of what attendance is like – as every festival is unique. I didn’t have it until I saw “Honeycomb.”
“Honeycomb” features the end credits that every movie should have. The “Special Thanks” section was quite lengthy and featured a sentence for virtually every cast and crew member, singling them out for their contributions to the project. It’s enough to make you tear up. The spirit and kindness that thought to include those credits are from writer/director Avalon Fast, who was only 19 when the project was conceived and shot with her friends. That spirit exists throughout the entire duration of the runtime, a remarkable feat for any film.
After a group of five newly graduated high school students stumbles into an abandoned cabin, Willow (Sophie Bawks-Smith), Jules (Jillian Frank), Leader (Destini Stewart), Vicki (Mari Geraghty), and Millie (Rowan Wales) quickly form an all-female commune, where teenage boys are only welcome after being led blindfolded. Parents are out of the equation, and a new system of rules is formed. At first, things appear idyllic, as Fast demonstrates through brief vlogs from the girls. Though it is a hive-like society, with one seemingly taking a predominant role (the girls’ names are a clue as to which), and once the concept of “suitable revenge” for transgressions is introduced, the stage is set for tragedy.
There’s something timeless about “Honeycomb.” There are allusions to the Manson Girls and references to Lord of the Flies, but the suburban locations around the woods and the dialogue could easily be set in the ’90s or decades previous. In its best moments, Fast articulates the intense longing for escape adolescence can produce. Fast also shows a mature understanding of recent history, which you rarely see so well expressed in new work, nor do you see such rich characterization.
A proper independent production, “Honeycomb” is not without some amateurism that sometimes aids and damages it. There’s a genuine camaraderie between the cast – the sense that they just turned on the camera and started filming mid-way through a high school conversation – that most mumblecore films can’t even accomplish. Confident though Fast is in the editing room, she and co-writer, Emmett Roiko, demonstrate the same abilities in scripting, although you’re left to question just how much credit to give them. Fast wears her inspirations on her sleeve visually, leaning heavily on Sofia Coppola and, to some extent, the works of Mary Harron. The script, however, can be a little too direct with its literary pulls. It’s the mistake of a young writer, one that can only be improved upon.
Fortunately, Fast is already working on her next project, “Camp,” which will see a counselor for troubled youths start to suspect her colleagues may be involved in witchcraft. I’m excited, and you will be too.
“Honeycomb” recently had its Quebec Premiere at the 2022 Fantasia International Film Festival
