In her 1965 essay, “The Imagination of Disaster,” critic Susan Sontag observed that science fiction films focus on the aesthetic appeal of destruction and chaos. Director Benjamin Brewer’s latest film, “Arcadian,” embodies this notion with both beauty and, regrettably, disorder. The story centers on Paul, portrayed by Nicolas Cage, and his teenage sons, Joseph and Thomas, played by Jaeden Martell and Maxwell Jenkins, 15 years after an unspecified catastrophe has struck the Earth. It is hinted that humans caused this disaster, resulting in monsters roaming the lands. During daylight, people can carry on with their lives, but by nightfall, they must secure themselves indoors. Paul and his sons live secluded on a farm, and their main connection to the outside world is through Thomas’s budding romance with Charlotte, portrayed by Sadie Soverall, who resides in a nearby community. This relationship introduces significant tension in the film as Thomas takes numerous risks to pursue it. On one occasion, Thomas falls while hurrying home before sunset and needs assistance.
Paul rescues him but becomes incapacitated in the process, leaving the brothers to handle things on their own. “Arcadian” proves itself to be both familiar and unique. It blends elements of thriller, horror, and creature feature, with peculiar and unsettling creatures being the film’s standout aspect. The film even incorporates some body horror. It draws comparisons to the 2019 adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft’s “Color Out of Space,” which also featured Cage, and shares similarities with “A Quiet Place” (2018) in its tense, confined atmosphere. Unfortunately, it also borrows the shaky handheld camera style from “Cloverfield” (2008), which I found distracting. Cage offers a confident and surprisingly subtle performance, supported well by the young cast.
Although the film explores intriguing concepts, its brief 90-minute duration leaves little room for development. Early in the film, during a dinner scene, Paul intervenes to stop his sons’ bickering—typical sibling rivalry. “You wanna be animals?” Paul shouts. “Are we not men?” he demands, stabbing his knife into the table. Oddly, the brothers mimic this gesture and phrase, highlighting the lack of women in the film. Apart from Charlotte’s pointed remark, this narrative angle doesn’t evolve much beyond suggesting the boys are overly testosterone-driven. More compelling is the dynamic between Joseph and Thomas. Joseph, the responsible one, is eager to learn and understand the world. He even captures a creature for study and is shown examining a chess board, learning from famous games. Thomas, on the other hand, is carefree and more inclined towards play. He’s essentially still a child, living under extraordinary circumstances. In a scene where he tries to impress Charlotte, he juggles toys, pretending it’s a trick Joseph taught him.
Another game they play, “crappy apocalypse,” serves as a means to piece together the film’s sparse backstory. When Charlotte suggests this game, it’s an attempt to steal more time with Thomas. It involves narrating their imagined causes of the apocalypse in ten seconds. Cage’s character, Paul, seems to embody the “arcadian” of the film’s title, although it’s never explicitly stated. He expresses an optimistic belief that the world is becoming cleaner post-apocalypse, beautifully captured in a scene by a waterfall. The movie’s daylight scenes exude serenity, reflecting the pastoral ideal the title hints at and which Paul appears to yearn for. Without giving away the conclusion, the movie’s ending resonates with themes of returning to nature, now seen through the eyes of the young characters searching for a new arcadia.