You may feel like you’ve seen plenty of films about college fraternities before, but you’ve never seen one quite like “The Line,” being released by Utopia in select theaters on October 18, with an expansion on October 23.
Director Ethan Berger‘s film is way, way more than a “problem picture” about the evils of hazing and other negative aspects of campus Greek life, nor is it a comedy in the “Animal House” mode. It’s a deeply absorbing character study about why fraternities are appealing in the first place — one that then takes quite a turn in a very suspenseful direction to become an outright thriller. Watch the teaser trailer for “The Line” above, a IndieWire exclusive, set to the sweet sound of “neggy” by Husky Loops.
In the film, Alex Wolff stars as Tom, a guy from a working class background who’s a rising force in his fraternity at a prestigious southern college. He believes that the relationships forged because of his frat will set him up for success after graduation — this is partying and socializing as networking. The fraternity’s president (Lewis Pullman) puts Tom in charge of recruitment, and among the pledges is Gettys O’Brien (Austin Abrams) who both epitomizes frat life and subtly subverts it. Gettys butts heads with Tom’s best friend (Bo Mitchell), complicating Tom’s efforts to induct the next pledge class.
It’s all very much Greek life as a hermetically sealed-off world, but then Tom meets Annabelle, who has no interest in fraternities or sororities whatsoever. Halle Bailey plays this breath of fresh air, who gives Tom a glimpse of what life could be like if he actually focused on his studies rather than drinking, drugging, and hiring hookers for his buddies (the sheer amount of money all the frat brothers expend is astonishing).
It all heads toward what is the single most suspenseful scene you’re likely to have watched in a movie for some time. But that the film veers off in a thriller direction is all the more impressive for Berger’s masterful command of tone: Yes, it becomes a white-knuckle ride, Wolff’s Tom stretched to the limit, but it’s a film that, to that point, also had Bailey saying to him, when he looked to her for help with coursework, “I’m not your study hooker!” That had John Malkovich and Denise Richards playing the parents of Tom’s best friend, who lives in a weird pressure cooker of obscene privilege but also lofty expectations he’ll never meet.
Berger, who previously directed commercials and served as a writer and producer on the ESPN miniseries “More Than an Athlete,” makes his narrative debut with “The Line,” but it comes across like the work of an even much more experienced filmmaker.
Here’s the official synopsis and poster: “’The Line’ is a campus thriller that plunges into the dangerous world of college fraternities and blind adherence to tradition. Alex Wolff stars as Tom, a scholarship student desperate to break free from his working-class background who is charmed by the prestigious KNA fraternity’s promises of high social status and alumni connections that open doors. But upon beginning a romance with Annabelle (Halle Bailey), a classmate outside of his social circle, and the manipulative schemes of his fraternity president (Lewis Pullman) unfolding during the hazing of new members, Tom finds himself ensnared in a perilous game of ambition and loyalty.”
