Content warning: Both the film and this review discuss themes of domestic violence and abuse.
The very first thing to catch my eye about Quinn Armstrong’s debut Survival Skills was its peculiar narrative style.
The audience follows Jim (Vayu O’Donnell), a rookie police officer during his first year on the job, throughout a How-To style 80s police training video. The Narrator (Stacy Keach), an old, weary man with a drained wheeze in his voice, talks us through the highs, but mostly lows, of policing in America.
In today’s current climate, a film about a police officer is probably last on anybody’s watchlist. To make it worse, Jim is easy to sympathise with. Often referred to as ‘Robocop’, he’s as optimistic as a game-show host. With a big grin and a thumbs up, he lives a perfect life – too perfect. In the suburbs, with his model home and wife, the naïve trainee officer is gradually worn down by the grim reality of America and the troubles of one family in particular.
To include such a compassionate character, even despite his cartoon-like actions, is, in fact, incredibly clever. Now more than ever we hear the phrase ‘not all cops’ in response to those suggesting law enforcement officers are bad people within a corrupt workforce. Jim embodies one of those cops.
His very first response on a job is a domestic disturbance call at the Jenning household, at which point The Narrator details exactly what should be done: calm the situation, then discuss the altercation with the family. What he doesn’t explain is what to do next. Our perceptive but emotional officer assumes there is more to the story than both victims (a mother and her teenage stepdaughter) are letting on – and he can’t let the situation go.
In one particularly tense scene, Jim is alone in his office, calling Mrs Jenning in an attempt to convince her to report her husband’s abuse to the police, with the promise he would help. The Narrator struggles to convince him otherwise, rewinding the tape for us and asking him to try again. It’s clear he’s breaking the rules, but even the exemplary Officer Williams is too human to simply be a bystander in the Jenning family’s abuse. Eventually, his compassion and heroism will backfire, proving no happy ending for either party.
What Armstrong so brilliantly conveys is just that: the system does not work. The story of the Jennings, and the other families Jim helps throughout his first year (including one family grieving the death of their matriarch, for whom he buys $200 worth of groceries) is one in a million. Where there is corruption and inequality, there can’t be any “good apples” as the system just isn’t built to work in their favour. My only issue with Survival Skills is the end does seem to lose itself and the message it worked so hard to get across. The theme fits incredibly well, however; when Jim becomes more believable as a person, his actions don’t follow.
The Verdict
Survival Skills is unlike most satirical films, but uniquely more daring than most. There are subtle references to other civil issues, including abortion and racism, but Armstrong’s ability to completely blur the line between good and evil is remarkable. Between quirky sitcom-like scenes and the more emotional, intense moments, you’re constantly wondering what you would do in that situation, knowing that essentially a wrongful end is inevitable.
Rating: 8/10
Words by Libby Briggs
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