Pink Hill (2019)

PINK HILL could be described as a Southern Gothic drama with comic, and surreal elements. Four friends spend a final summer together tangled in a web of sexual obsession, alienation and magic. Leroy and Vye are a young couple suffocating in the small southern town of Pink Hill. They visit their friend Charles who has given up on life and has become a recluse hiding in a cabin in the woods.

They inform Charles that they plan to move to Paris at the end of the summer and are hoping Vye's artwork is accepted at a school there. Charles is depressed and finds comfort in a plaster statue of Venus. Leroy, in an attempt to break Charles' funk destroys the statue. Charles is furious and he and Leroy get into a fight. Vye breaks up the fight and suggests Charles move in with them for the summer; they will help him get on his feet before they leave town. Charles is unsure about accepting their invitation and says he has to think about it. Back home Vye is studying French and dreaming of living in Paris. There is a knock at the door. Their friend, a charismatic model, Azalea, enters. She explains to Vye and Leroy that she has been kicked out of her house and is living in a motel out by the highway. Azalea then reclines on the couch and Vye begins to draw her. Azalea asks Leroy to draw her too, but he declines and goes into the next room where he spies on the girls. Azalea expresses how she really likes Leroy and how lucky Vye is to have such a wonderful man. That night, as Vye and Leroy are fooling around in bed, he shows Vye a doll that looks exactly like Azalea, they play with it as they make love. Vye decides to go out, but before she does, she picks up a framed photo of Charles from the tiki-bar in their house and has a vision. In her vision Charles is standing in front of his cabin which is engulfed in huge flames. He seems more confident. He picks up his backpack as the cabin begins to collapse behind him. Vye explains to Leroy that Charles will be coming soon. When Leroy asks how she knows, she replies "I just know" implying she is psychic. Leroy goes to bed and has a very strange dream. In the dream he draws a small white figure named Petie Ponte. The figure is devoured by a Venus fly trap. When he awakes, Charles has arrived. Leroy calls him Petie Ponte, Charles corrects him saying, "No, it is me Charles. " Leroy is happy to see him. The next morning at breakfast Charles is a much happier person. He has decided to take them up on their invitation and stay with them till the end of the summer or until they go to Paris. Azalea arrives to model; she is introduced to Charles and flirts with Leroy. They open a bottle of Champagne and dance. Later, Leroy and Charles are walking down the road when Charles confides that he finds Azalea attractive. Leroy tries to dissuade his interest. Meanwhile Vye and Azalea are in a large beautiful field of flowers. Vye opens up to Azalea about feeling lonely, even though she is with Leroy. Azalea is not interested in such serious subjects. Leroy and Charles go to a stock car race and run into a local named Earl. He teases Charles about not being a real man because he does not have a woman and his own house. He also calls Leroy crazy for wanting to leave the town of Pink Hill. After the races Charles says he wants to find his own house as it would be better for him to be on his feet before Leroy goes to Paris. Leroy is a bit hurt. Azalea is sitting alone in her parked car flipping through a magazine. A butterfly lands on the windshield and then flies into the car. She is terrified by the insect and jumps out of the car trying to kill the butterfly with the magazine. The butterfly chases her to a road side stand in the shape of a giant ice-cream cone where Charles is eating a snow cone. Azalea asks him what he is doing there and Charles explains he has just found a house to live in. Azalea also needs a place to live, she flirts with him and becomes his new house mate. Charles has to leave town to get some furniture for the new house and he gives her the key. Azalea pulls up in front of a large old wooden house standing alone in a desolate field. She enters a bed room and drops her things just as Vye arrives. They explore the house together and decide to have a barbecue. Leroy joins them and they have fun drinking wine in the backyard. Vye discovers a cicada nymph emerging from the ground. She explains enthusiastically how they live underground for years and then emerge one summer and fly into the trees to buzz and mate. To her, cicadas are the "sound of the summer. " Leroy grimly reminds them that the cicadas die at the end of the summer. That night the three sit in the house by candle light as there is no electricity. Leroy makes a figure of the little man, Petie Ponte, out of the candle wax. He tells the others that Petie is from his dream and represents Charles. He hides it in a small cabinet as a surprise gift for Charles. They go upstairs together, Vye falls asleep on the top of a wardrobe and Azalea asks Leroy to go on a walk with her. In the dawn she confesses her love for him and says nobody has ever really loved her. They return to the house and begin kissing in bed. Leroy refuses to go any further with her and Azalea is deeply hurt. Vye wakes up, her and Leroy go home leaving Azalea upset and alone. In her anger she decides to retaliate. Azalea hears a sound and Charles walks in carrying his belongings. She invites him into her bed and they make love. The next morning Charles discovers the wax figure of Petie Ponte that Leroy left for him. Azalea says it was put there to mock him. Charles begins a secret project and invites Leroy and Vye over for a party to celebrate his new house and to reveal his secret on the Summer Solstice. They arrive to a tense atmosphere. With a bit of pomp he unveils two slabs that he has carved from stone. He is very proud of them and calls them his "Laws of Instinct". Charles says that they all should throw out conventions and behave according to their instincts alone. The girls are impressed. Leroy is skeptical but pulls out some psychedelic pies and they begin to hallucinate. All laugh, except Leroy, who seems to be having a bad trip. He follows Azalea out to the front porch where he tells her he has changed his mind and that he does love her. She says it is too late, she is now with Charles. Leroy does not believe she loves Charles. Azalea refuses to listen and goes back inside to join the party. Leroy spies through the window and finds all three are kissing each other and having a good time. He goes inside and gets angry, eventually breaking the stone slabs Charles has made. Charles lets out his pent up anger toward Leroy and cuts him with a sword; Leroy is shocked and bleeding. Vye, clearly intoxicated, leaves with Leroy. Azalea is triumphant. Vye and Leroy return home humiliated and angry. Leroy has brought the wax figure of Charles (Petie Ponte) back with him. Together with the doll that resembles Azalea, Vye and Leroy perform a voodoo-like ceremony driving a large needle through the figures and hanging them in the closet. That night they are restless and decide to drown the dolls in the river the next day. They tie stones to the dolls and burn them before tossing them in the water. As Leroy and Vye walk away the dolls rise from the depths. Azalea and Charles are in bed having sex. Azalea looks into the mirror wishing she could just pack her bags and go, but she realizes, she really is in love with Charles. It scares her to feel this way. Vye has become sick and from her front porch watches as the cicadas die. It is the end of the summer. She goes inside just as Leroy is hanging up the phone. There was a call from France, her work has been accepted, their dream has come true; they will move to Paris. The film ends bitter sweetly as they ride out of town in a taxi through the memories of the town, they pass Azalea and Charles as they walk the dirt road in front of their old wooden house.