Tótem (2023) review

Seven-year-old Sol (Naíma Sentíes) goes with her mother to her grandparents' house where a big birthday party is being planned for her terminally-ill father, she interacts with various creatures (snails, a bee, a praying mantis, a parrot), sneaks a sip of wine and watches her family members bicker with one another - while this is happening, two practitioners of "alternative medicine" also show up to "heal" the place.  Víctor Erice's The Spirit of the Beehive appears to be a key inspiration (along with Céline Sciamma's Petite Maman), but it's mainly arthouse posturing that seems to think all the symbolism is going to add up to something substantive (notice the scorpions at the conclusion), and it uses a precocious little girl with anxiety (she searches on the Internet as to when the world will end) for cheap and easy sympathy points.  There are ways in which this approach could be effectively done - I'm thinking of Bergman's Fanny and Alexander, for example - but that would have required a warmer touch ... and a lot more creativity.