How do you exhilarate your audience’s spirits while triggering their thoughts for the most pungently realistic questions? Well, that’s a problem Wild Fire beautifully solved.

Like how the sea surface always appears extremely calm before thunderstorms, the melodies introducing us to the world of Wild Fire, with its bouncing notes and flowing tones, tenderly strike our heartstrings but also slyly let our guards down for the burning story: one that ignites viewers’ sensors with contrasts between scorching, searing depictions of desire and the splashing of reality.

Three couples gathered at a recent-widowed friend’s housewarming around the bonfire; with the catalysis of alcohol, a simple Truth or Dare game puts everyone’s relationship on trial. Through successive questioning sequences, all the false peace, unsettled problems, and masks of disguise are fiercely ripped off. Twirling among the mists of turbulences, everyone has to face the truth and ask their own hearts about loyalty, morality, trust, and love.

The approaches of expression in Wild Fire are absolutely innovative. In a movie that orients on the theme of desire, the rising flames of conflicts of emotions grow ever higher under the unsettling waves of radical questions. Conventionally, the outdoor setting where the climax occurs is meant to be unrestricted and unprotected. Here, tinted with mysterious colors by the shades of night, the bonfire surrounded by the characters creates a more intimate space that isolates them from the infinite darkness but also illuminates their facial expressions and prevents them from escaping from either their own true feelings or others’ observations. Therefore, while the sense of insecurity lingers, the freedom to escape is wiped out.

As such, it is in this private space in an unrestricted outdoor setting that the piercing accusations, stinging sarcasm, and intense confrontation depict a scarlet filter to the narration, which stiffens into a pair of invisible hands scratching viewers’ hearts. Yet, when our nerve strings are tautened to the maximum, together with Ronnie (Siena D'Addario), we are suddenly thrown into the cool water —Just when viewers have accommodated to the toasted sand of the Sahara, they are immediately thrust to the blistering glaciers of the North Pole.

It was through these artistic, whimsical representations that viewers gain an immersive experience of not only watching but almost physically feeling first-hand the tearing desperation and the overpowering, inextinguishable desire, and the addictive pain of being torn between the two, and therefore, wholeheartedly, deeply appreciate the characters’ reconciliation or unyielding devotion.

While the symbolic portrayal and manifestation of characters’ inner worlds are unconventionally bold, the verisimilitude of the problems, their real-life concern, and the vivid portrayal of the characters that harmoniously constitute the film pull viewers’ thoughts into their own experiences.

The movie does not fall into the cliché of foreshadow-outburst-rebirth. Free from the overdramatic plots in which the protagonists would suddenly make life-changing decisions or have clean cuts from the past, Wild Fire chooses reconciliation and concession with mature discussions, which once again fascinates us with the sophistication of the movie’s theme and perspective.

Without a doubt, such an organic, vivid portrayal would not be complete without contributions from either the impeccable performance of actors or the genius of Jennifer Cooney, who, although being a first-time director, has already demonstrated enormous potential in narration featuring artistic usage of camera language, which conveys the nuance of emotions so subtly and naturally that viewers would so often forget the hand behind the camera. This gentle touch soothes the billows churning in the flaunting cottage, temporarily wiping out the glitz and glamour dazzling our eyes, along with the disguise and acts, and bringing our calmed minds into the innocent nature representing the true, fragile hearts.

Is there a best answer to any question in relationships? Perhaps not, and neither is Wild Fire there to provide any “correct” solutions. It is the lens through which you inspect and the art that is meant to inspire, yet through this thunderstorm raging through your mind and heart, you would also gain a rare chance to have a deep conversation with your own wish and desire.

Wild Fire will be playing at the Spring 2024 New Jersey Film Festival on Saturday, February 3 – Online for 24 Hours and In-Person at 7PM in Voorhees Hall #105/Rutgers University, 71 Hamilton Street, New Brunswick, NJ. Wild Fire Director Jennifer Cooney will be on hand to do a Q+A after the In-Person screening! For more info and tickets go here.