Immigration has unfortunately been one of the most discussed topics this year. It has led people to heated debates about who deserves the golden ticket to shinier parts of the world. While calling it a fight for meritocracy, it has simply exposed the uglier aspects of developed nations living their lives at the expense of resources from the rest of the world. The sweeping socio-political generalizations made in these discussions lead people to frustratingly impersonal tangents, devoid of warmth or grace towards people simply trying to find a better life. Bing Liu’s new film “Preparation for the Next Life” follows a similarly human tale of an immigrant woman meeting an American soldier, both at a vulnerable point in their lives.
Based on Atticus Lish’s eponymous book, the film revolves around Aishe (Sebiye Behtiyar) and Skinner (Fred Hechinger), who have a chance encounter in New York City. Aishe, a Uyghur woman, works tirelessly at any job she can find merely to make ends meet. Skinner, an American soldier, isn’t bound by similar financial constraints, but is nonetheless tied to the emotional baggage of his time fighting in a war. Neither has clearly defined goals for their future, but they have different ways to deal with those uncertainties. Aishe leads her life with a wide-eyed optimism and actively works toward a better future, unlike Skinner, who finds it difficult to move on from his emotional wounds and remains woefully passive.
On paper, there’s very little that binds them together. Skinner is a white American citizen who can seek opportunities that Aishe may never be able to. There’s a wall separating them through these practicalities, with real-life repercussions. However, Liu doesn’t introduce them through the conflict of their differences. Instead, he presents them as two dreamy souls, wandering on a busy city street, catching each other’s eye and finding an instant spark, almost as if they are protagonists from a Wong Kar-Wai film. After they meet, they glide through bustling spaces with a similarly dreamy logic, without any apprehension or materialistic concerns that may weigh them down otherwise.
It feels like a meet-cute fairy tale about two soulmates living in a bubble, soon to be burst with a reality check. Martyna Majok’s script follows a similarly predictable narrative arc, often seen in trauma-bonding dramas, where two people connect over their mutual brokenness only to realize the limitations of such relationships.
He is a PTSD-ridden soldier, prone to bouts of nihilism, who leaves home without a future in sight. She is the daughter of a soldier with big dreams, determined to make them a reality. Unlike him, she may not have a place she can call her home. Hence, his reluctance to look past any given day clashes with her desire to strive for a better future, making them go through the usual motions of romance.
It’s the kind of film that is ripe with moments trying to tug at your heartstrings, which would have fallen flat if not for Liu’s sensible directorial style and his ability to build visceral drama even from the most casual moments. That was evident in “Minding the Gap,” his feature-length documentary about a group of skaters he grew up with in a small American town.
Partly autobiographical, the film emerged as one of the most tragic introspections on modern masculinity. Liu analyzed it through his deeply personal conversations with his friends, struggling with the residue of their childhood traumas, while trying to turn a new leaf. Thematically, “Preparation for the Next Life” explores a similar story, evident from its title.
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Liu spends much of the duration showing the ebb and flow of Aishe’s life, gleefully interrupted by Skinner’s needy innocence. Liu’s direction shines especially during moments of mutual recognition, where characters acknowledge each other’s presence, rather than being lost in the crowd, barely distinguishable from the rest. While a cliché, he treats it with such sincerity that even a cynic would fall for its charm. He fleshes out so much from similarly familiar beats, compelling us to root for Aishe and Skinner’s lives, despite knowing their inescapable tragedy.
There’s a moment where Liu captures Skinner’s maniacal energy in trying to recreate a moment with unsuspecting strangers in the middle of Times Square. He conveys Skinner’s palpable desperation to relive his past through frantic movements at his most vulnerable. Hechinger imbues it with an almost childlike innocence, which makes his struggle seem all the more heartbreaking. He flawlessly captures Skinner’s nervous disposition and the depths of self-loathing lying beneath that nervousness, which makes him as threatening as the world is to him.
Behtiyar, who makes her feature film debut with this project, strikes a chord as strong-willed Aishe, susceptible to Skinner’s boyish charm, but mature enough to understand how to grow beyond such infatuation. Unlike Skinner, Aishe’s struggles are also due to external factors beyond her scope of control, with terrifying real-life parallels to the present-day United States. Behtiyar maturely conveys Aishe’s eternal agony in fighting those external forces, which come at odds with her youthful yearning for reckless abandon.
Although a deeply felt film, “Preparation for the Next Life” falls short in addressing the characters’ plight beyond the known tropes. Majok’s script vaguely touches upon their respective pasts, leaving them as enigmatic, listless characters in a Sisyphean struggle to reach the next chapter of their lives. It doesn’t affect Skinner’s emotional arc as much as it does Aishe’s, also because of how the film presents it.
Skinner’s past is shown through his personal account along with photographic evidence. However, Aishe’s past appears through her internal monologue, along with representations of her memories, which feel derivative without a grounded understanding of the world it hopes to address. The lack of specificity takes away the air of authenticity otherwise noticeable even in the film’s most predictable genre notes. So, while a well-meaning film about the plight of people coping with the American dream, it doesn’t have enough to say about these archetypes beyond what’s public knowledge at this point.
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