Davey PeppersIn a year that gave us The 15:17 to Paris and Gotti, the claim that the most heinous cinematic crime committed in 2018 was the trailer to Alpha is a bold one. However, it’s a bold one I stand by, because whoever made the decision that this brutal and beautiful survival drama should be marketed as A Dog’s Journey: Caveman Edition should be run out of Hollywood forever. Since the marketing refused to, let me tell you what Alpha actually is. It’s a film entirely in a made-up caveman language that has more in common with The Revenant than Homeward Bound. A sensory experience that embellishes the most soothingly lovely things a camera can accomplish, Alpha shouldn’t be forgotten because of its horrific marketing, it should be praised as an anomaly: an adventure film that feels plucked from the past because of the faith it puts in its audience not to run away at its violence or its choice of dialect. In an age where four-quadrant releases get safer and safer with every year, Alpha’s existence feels like a glitch in the Matrix that I so deeply wish we got more of.
Davey Peppers Says Don’t Forget: Alpha
