‘Preparation for the Next Life’ Review: Love on the Fringes

Bing Liu’s first two feature-length documentaries, 2019’s Minding the Hole and 2021’s All These Sons, confirmed his penchant for tackling difficult, tragic matters like abuse and gun violence with a touch of hopefulness. His fiction function debut, Preparation for the Next Life, tailored by Martyna Majok from Atticus Lish’s 2014 novel of the identical title, continues that development. Liu approaches the story of younger love between an immigrant and a lately discharged U.S. soldier with an unusual sensitivity, bringing a contact of optimism and pathos to the movie whereas retaining it grounded and unsentimental.

When Aishe (Sebiye Behtiyar), an Uyghur girl combating to remain in the U.S., and Skinner (Fred Hechinger), an American soldier scuffling with PTSD, lock eyes on the streets of New York Metropolis, Preparation for the Next Life briefly flirts with preciousness. However quickly after this meet-cute, the movie settles right into a extra acutely observational mode, its scenes marked by a refreshing emotional candor, with as a lot mentioned by means of facial expressions and contact as dialogue.

Liu observes his essential characters with endurance and a pointed curiosity—that’s, with a documentarian’s eye—as in an early scene when Aishe and Skinner flirt inside a small membership. Aishe has the drive and gritty toughness shared by many immigrants, and in the spirit of competitors, she kilos a Corona earlier than nodding to Skinner, cueing him to do the identical. Throughout this scene, which unfolds with out the characters saying a phrase, the digicam is alive to erotic pull of the membership as a catalyst for romantic ardour and Aishe and Skinner’s playful sport of seduction.

One small, shrewd choice after one other permits Preparation for the Next Life to maintain its naturalism to the finish. Certainly, the choice to focus on Aishe exterior of her relationship with Skinner prevents the movie from overstating its case on the significance of affection in even the harshest of circumstances. Newcomer Sebiye Behtiyar fantastically balances Aishe’s need for that romantic connection along with her extra pragmatic must earn a residing with out correct documentation and to search out, with little help, a approach to legalize her standing in a rustic rising ever-harsher to non-white immigrants or refugees.

From looking for a approach to get free recommendation about the potential advantages of marrying an American, to bickering along with her boss (Eddie Yu) at a Chinatown restaurant for stiffing her for extra time she labored, Aishe reveals a toughness and resilience that rings true to her character. But, the movie by no means sugarcoats her scenario or buys into the false actuality that as a result of she has a powerful work ethic and avenue smarts, she’ll in some way discover a approach to navigate her manner out of her practically unimaginable scenario. She experiences pleasure in the first act as she falls for Skinner, although it’s principally fleeting, as the weight of each of their conditions forces them to confront the restricted decisions which are out there to them—economically, romantically, and politically.

Whereas the story is generally centered on Aishe and her relationship to Skinner, we get glimpses into his battle with PTSD, sophisticated by his dishonorable discharge dropping him his veteran advantages. We initially get the sense that he and Aishe could be stronger collectively than aside, for being higher capable of assist one another, however the movie questions how a lot of which may be wishful considering given Skinner’s random outbursts of frustration and lack of ability to perform in society. Liu doesn’t draw back from the poisonous facets of Aishe and Skinner’s relationship, even confronting the indisputable fact that it’s way more useful for her to maintain the flame alive than it’s for him.

It’s all half and parcel of Preparation for the Next Life’s clear-eyed portrait of life on the edges of American society, the place the disappearance of social security nets has made that life that a lot more durable to endure. Aishe and Skinner are left with none avenues for help or assist exterior of each other, and the movie well acknowledges {that a} relationship might not have the ability to survive if one accomplice can’t assist themselves. On this regard, it’s an sincere and heartfelt movie, and it’s all the higher for not wallowing in distress or manipulatively jerking at the coronary heart strings. Quite, it’s as unvarnished in its understanding of the hurdles that disrupt the lives of individuals like Aishe and Skinner as it’s of the joys which are nonetheless to be discovered amid such circumstances.