Shirkers (2018)

3 1/2 Stars (out of 4)

Film Scars

By Jeffrey M. Anderson

Sandi Tan's bittersweet Shirkers is a most extraordinary movie-story, telling the story of three friends in Singapore, Sandi, Jasmine, and Sophie, who decide to make a movie when they're barely out of their teens. They receive "help," from a film teacher called Georges, and the film is completed, but then Georges disappears with all the film and materials, leaving the three young women to contend with their strange loss. Tan's writing and directing is wonderfully assured — she worked as a film critic and published a novel in the years since — and the footage from the unfinished "Shirkers" is boldly colorful and frequently striking. She manages to dig a little under the surface of friendships here, exposing flaws as well as virtues. This is a totally captivating, and surprisingly moving film.