Black Conflux: Ace Thriller Interlaces Coming-of-Age Story with Delusional Man Saga

By Kim Hughes

Rating: A

A profound sense of dread coats almost every moment in writer/director Nicole Dorsey’s itchy drama Black Conflux, which follows two vastly different characters who briefly converge in what can only be termed as a stunning though not-at-all predictable conclusion. Unnerving doesn’t come close.

Set in 1987 Newfoundland, Black Conflux follows Jackie, a bright and beautiful high schooler whose surface promise masks a difficult home life. A good student keen to excel in the school choir, Jackie lives with an alcoholic aunt because her mother is in jail for a drunk driving offence.

Read our interview with Black Conflux writer/director Nicole Dorsey

Though clearly guided by a moral compass, Jackie is nevertheless drawn toward partying via her friend Amber, whose drinking, drugging, and sleeping around both entice and confuse. Meantime, Jackie is struggling with the sudden attention of men and boys whose desires are at once exciting and worrying.

In the same small town lives Dennis, an introverted, self-loathing, hair-triggered fire bug whose troubling attitudes about women, illustrated through fantasy sequences and some awkward real-life encounters, augur poorly for any good outcome. Existing in the margins between a rote brewery job and a prickly home life with his sister, Dennis is the proverbial powder keg.

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Black Conflux follows Jackie and Dennis separately until the two coincidentally intersect, a meeting foreshadowed by the merging of two rivers seen in a recurring aerial shot, one of many beguiling shots propelling these tense, plaintive scenes.

Apart from a few era-wrong hiccups (one character says, “My bad,” which almost certainly wasn’t part of 1987 vernacular), Dorsey nails the inherent weirdness of the 80s, sizing down its excesses to better reflect the small town on a small island where the action unfolds.

Dorsey also maintains the tension throughout, suggesting that Jackie and Dennis will meet eventually but offering few clues as to how, why or when. When the creepy conflux of the title occurs, it’s terrifying because its conclusion is unforeseeable. Like life you might say: impossible to predict but nevertheless captivating.

Black Conflux. Written and directed by Nicole Dorsey. Starring Ella Ballentine, Ryan McDonald, Luke Bilyk, Olivia Scriven, and Sofia Banzhaf. Available nationwide through the Digital TIFF Bell Lightbox July 2.