‘Riddle of Fire’ Review: Weston Razooli’s Americana Fairytale Harkens to the Splendors of Childhood
Courtesy of Yellow Veil Pictures
“Are ye a knight, or are ye a squire? Can ye solve the Riddle of Fire?” In Weston Razooli’s imaginative debut feature film, Riddle of Fire, three scrappy children embark on a Homeric journey across the slopes of the Rocky Mountains with one objective: to make a blueberry pie. Enchantingly charming, Riddle of Fire is like a breath of fresh air, a throwback to children’s adventure films of yesteryear, with the raucous addition of dirt bikes, paintball guns, and foul-mouthed youngsters. While the movie uses no serious exertion to step outside its overall comfortable, jaunty tone, Riddle of Fire’s humor, craft, and joyous design make it an excellent specimen of cinema to escape into for a few hours.
In the fictionalized mountain town of Ribbon, Wyoming, brothers Hazel and Jodie spend summer days with their best friend, Alice, causing a ruckus as they zip around on dirt bikes and heckle the townies. With their mother sick in bed with a cold, the trio—self-monikered “The Three Immortal Reptiles”—set out to find a blueberry pie to lift her spirits. As the children launch on their search for confections, what adults would consider a mundane chore transforms into a monumental adventure for the kids: who cross paths with a forest fairy, slow-witted outlaws, and a bohemian witch on their epic quest. With this splendid pursuit, The Three Immortal Reptiles and their expedition invoke grand adventures and imagination so specific to the purity of childhood.
Courtesy of Yellow Veil Pictures
The Riddle of Fire radiantly illustrates the brilliance of inspiration experienced during youth, the freedom of summer holidays when the days blend, and the burdens of adulthood seem a million miles away. The movie is heavy-handed in plotting but delightfully so, feeling like a throwback Nickelodeon cartoon mixed with The Sandlot (down to the Converses), with an outrageous storyline that continuously pushes forward and keeps viewers engaged with what is to come. Roughing up the edges of the film’s sentimental scenario, the central trio of children brings tons of personality through their performances, particularly through the spirit of crass insults they use, like “woodsy bastard!”
Razooli’s unique crafting of Riddle of Fire represents the up-and-coming filmmaker’s promising sensibilities. Even from its title card–– which plays with a bold Old English font–– audiences can gather that its team approached this film with much creative care. Filmed on Kodak 16mm, the movie’s cinematographer, Jake Mitchell, takes full advantage of the Utah mountains where the shooting took place, capturing the dazzling summer sun, brilliant greens of the forest, and dynamic peaks of the Uinta range with a painterly gaze that supports the neo-fairytale thematics. As Riddle of Fire takes place over a single day, Mitchell’s visual language transitions impressively from light to dark, especially considering its use of real shooting locations with a presumably limited production budget. The film boasts a dungeon synth score, layering serene wind instruments over punchy electronic beats in a unique manner that works with the singularity of its overall design.
Courtesy of Yellow Veil Pictures
Riddle of Fire’s originality allows it to venture into genre-bending territories that work well with its child protagonists and their infinite imaginations. The film’s nods to fairytales combine intriguingly with its setting, almost like Hansel and Gretel relocated from the Bavarian Alps to the Rockies after watching American Western flicks. As the trio of children enters conflict with their delinquent foes, the movie plays into the tradition of Adults vs. Kids films that prove entertaining to audiences time and time again.
Although the movie’s plot-heavy composition does not seem majorly fixated on developing its characters, Riddle of Fire is not just a superficial exercise in aesthetics. The fierce independence exemplified by The Three Immortal Reptiles points to conceivable voids in the children’s home lives, especially since they all share the commonality of having absent fathers. This lack of oversight is unmistakable through the movie’s ultimate narrative arc, which—like all great fairytales—works as a cautionary lesson condemning the kids’ trickery.
All in all, Riddle of Fire serves as a bright debut from Razooli, with the laughter and wonder of youth emanating from every frame. Stimulating and distinctive in tone, Riddle of Fire provides the perfect getaway from the insanity of the contemporary world, conjuring one of cinema’s greatest powers. Riddle of Fire premiered in the Director’s Fortnight sidebar of the Cannes Film Festival last spring before making its way around the festival circuit throughout 2023. The film will begin its theatrical debut in the United States on Friday, March 22, with distribution handled by Yellow Veil Pictures.
4/5
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