"M3GAN" Review: When Killer Dolls Play It Safe
M3GAN has the potential to be a pop-culture icon. The memes that have come from the trailer alone have been enough to have her ascend to memorable villain status. However, the film itself is a paint by numbers horror movie that, unlike its robotic star, doesn’t have the same amount of life and punch!
After her parents die in an accident, Cady (Violet McGraw) has to live with her aunt Gemma (Allison Williams). It’s quite evident that Gemma hasn’t had too many touch points with children. Her house is a nerdy roboticist’s bachelorette pad, equipped with collectibles and an Alexa-type device that runs the house. To Gemma’s credit, she wants to fight to keep her niece with her instead of Cady going to live with her father’s parents. She wants to fill the void she sees in Cady’s life while simultaneously wanting to please her boss David (Ronny Chieng) in getting a new toy to market.
Gemma figures she can solve both issues with her Model 3 Generative ANdroid aka M3GAN (voiced by Jenna Davis and played by Amie Donald), a prototype of what could be a game changer in toys. A doll that is continuously learning the child it’s paired with and told to protect her sounds like a great idea! Right? Wrong! Let the dangers of a sentient Artificial Intelligence (AI) manifest!
There are so many things going for this film. For starters, the M3GAN doll body and face is horrifically realistic and yet the wig is awful. So this villain has the physical characteristics to be memorable. The film starts with a realistic promo for a Furby-like toy for today’s kids. You can feed it via an app and the physical toy responds. If you over-feed it, it poops. It’s so over the top but grounded in today’s reality, which underscores the films theme of relationships. There is a constant nod to our connection with technology and one another as human beings. The fight between what we pay attention to more, tech or the ones we love is real! The tension created by director Gerard Johnstone between M3GAN and the adults who realize something is wrong is palpable. This is largely due to the cinematography of Peter McCaffrey and Simon Raby (director of photography). The frame hides M3GAN in shadow when needed and puts her on full display at other times.
When the movie leans into its satirical nature and the themes it explores, it’s a blast, but it takes itself too seriously more often than not. It’s as though it knows it comes from a long line of killer doll movies and is afraid to buck the rules or step out of line by making memorable kills or noteworthy dialogue. The best performances come from Williams, McGraw and the physicality of Donald as your standard horror leads. Yet, it’s probably because they are the best developed characters on the page. Chieng’s David is supposed to be the self-centered, berating boss but his lines are vapid and poorly delivered. Everyone else in the film seems to be set pieces to get us from Act 1 to Act 3.
The best moments are probably not meant to be funny, like the cop who says “I’m sorry, I wasn’t supposed to laugh at that” or M3GAN playing “Toy Soldiers”. Each set up for a genuine scary moment is stress inducing until its underwhelming finish. I’m assuming the PG-13 rating kept M3GAN from going for the fences. Instead we get a bunt that should definitely bring viewers in for a streaming platform view at home, but not the home run in theaters! Save your theater money, but definitely grab some popcorn when this hits whatever streaming platform it will land on.
Rating: C
Check out some of the best memes to come from the trailer:
"Barbarian" Review: An Unexpected Surprise!
If you like films that go in a direction you don’t expect, or subvert their genre, Barbarian is one to see. The film was marketed in a way that doesn’t give away the overall story, but has more to it than meets the eye. It’s a psychological thriller that will keep you questioning what will happen next, even when it admittedly goes a bit off track!
Tess (Georgina Campbell) is checking in to her Air BnB to no avail. A light pops on inside the house and she meets Keith (Bill Skarsgard), who seems to be occupying the space through another rental service. After they both realized they’ve been double booked, they’re tasked with awkwardly trying to figure out how they will do sleeping arrangements for the night. It’s the friend or foe mystery that propels the story forward.
As much as I’d like to give more context, going about as far as the trailers explore is best. Tess does discover an ominous room in the basement. Writer/Director Zach Cregger understands the story he’s telling and where he wants to lead his audience. Visually his framing leads the eye to an object or character, but he blocks his characters in the same frame to hide what we really want to see.
In understanding the rules of the horror genre, Cregger manipulates his audience in fun and entertaining ways. As Barbarian develops, its self-awareness and dark humor makes exploration of the secrets that lie beneath its story interesting to peel back. Somewhat like the way I’ve mentioned the genre(s) this film straddles, if you were paying attention! This is worth a view!
Rating: B
Nope Review: An Old School Alien Film
It takes three unique, memorable and well done films to become an auteur in my book. With three films, you can start to find patterns of the director and ensure it’s not a fluke. Nope establishes Jordan Peele as an auteur, with a unique perspective in telling stories cinematically! Don’t worry folks, if you think you saw the movie in the final trailers, you don’t know what you’re in for.
OJ Haywood (Daniel Kaluuya) heads up the family business after his father passes from a freak accident. As Hollywood animal trainers on a horse ranch in an isolated gulch in California, there is always work to be done. His sister Emerald (Keke Palmer) is a rolling stone who comes by to look through some items at the house. It’s obvious that Em is feeling out if she’s wanted around or not. The likely dramatic history of the family seems thick, but their bond is thicker.
As odd occurrences start happening around the property, OJ enlists the help of an electronics store employee named Angel (Brandon Perea) to capture it on camera. They’re looking for the money or “Oprah shot” as they call it. A once in a life time, first discovery image that will catapult them in the history books. Their neighbor, Ricky Park (Steven Yeun) runs a poorly attended theme park and he seems to know something is up as well.
Kaluuya brings a presence to the film that is felt from the first time he appears on screen. Palmer gives a star making performance as the firecracker and comic relief in the film! Emerald has dreams, the gift of gab, past mistakes, and a heart of gold that won’t be denied all in the one bag she came home with. The lesser known, Brandon Perea, is one to watch as the lovelorn camera installer. The overall ensemble works well together.
It’s this desire to see train wrecks, mysterious occurrences or miracles that Peele explores here. It’s innate within us and we can’t seem to turn away, no matter the cost. Peele’s camera work is exquisite. Director of photography, Hoyte Van Hoytema, can take credit there as well. The setting leans to extreme wides that show the beauty of the landscape. Yet, Peele makes sure that we see what he wants us to see. It’s in the choices of using pans rather than cutting to another shot, or making the camera follow something with an obstructed view that builds suspense and tension. Peele’s genius and knowledge of film is on full display in the way that Nope is crafted from a cinematography and sound perspective. Sound and the lack thereof is used beautifully throughout the tale. A picture is worth a thousand words and Peele uses one frame, cuts to the next and then the next to give an intellectual montage that tells us a story while pushing the movie forward seamlessly.
There are some issues with the film. Certain storylines seem to be dead ends when all is said and done, but are mouth watering moments while watching. While this movie harkens back to 80’s and 50’s alien movies in feel, it is not in the same lane as Get Out or Us. However, there’s no question that it demands another viewing as his prior work has done as well. Trying to understand how this world works is part of the fun of being in the hands of an auteur!
Rating: B
The Forever Purge Review: The Installments Keep Going, Why Shouldn't the Purge Itself?
The Purge franchise has seemed to always tell us something in its themes. We’ve seen racial tension touched in The First Purge, family strife in The Purge, and in the latest installment we see immigration tackled. The Forever Purge takes a look at what its America may look like if citizens continued The Purge after the most recent bloody 12 hour night.
The film opens with married couple Adela (Ana De La Reguera) and Juan (Tenoch Huerta), giving coyotes money to get them across the border from Mexico into America in search for a better life. Ten months later they seem to be on that path. Adela works in a kitchen while Juan works on the wealthy Tucker family’s ranch. The Tucker patriarch, Caleb (Will Patton), is impressed by Juan but Caleb’s son, Dylan (Josh Lucas), has issues with the hired help.
As the work day ends, preparation for The Purge begins. The Tucker family locks down in their secure home while Adela and Juan take a bus full of Mexican workers to a space that provides armed protection. This Purge isn’t about the 12 hours of mayhem though, it’s about what happens after. As Adela and Juan return to work, it becomes clear that some people are extending the annual sanctioned mayhem by continuing to kill and destroy. Thus, the survive the night films that we’ve become accustomed to seeing starts.
This installment is full of sermons and lectures on America’s malicious history of disenfranchising the poor and people of color. Colonialism and The American Dream are parts of conversations. In one scene, a swastika tattooed prisoner calls out every gun that he hears firing; he talks about the specific rhythm of the guns and calls it “American music”. It’s meant to be a creepy moment, but it rings full of authentic truth. We’re known for the fight for our 2nd amendment rights, so the film continues its analysis of who we are as Americans yet also continues its awkward handling of truth. It gives us stereotypes and archetypes to make its points.
Perhaps its most ironic moment is found in Americans running for the Mexican border in order to escape the Forever Purge. The film pays specific attention to the white Americans reliance on Mexican and Indigenous help to get across the border while being chased by white Americans who believe the country should be purged of those who don’t look like them. It’s a matching bookend to its beginning as Mexican news talks about American “Dreamers”.
Director Everardo Gout handles the action and blocking of scenes well. The film is entertaining for what it is and what you’d expect. Ana De La Reguera is a refreshing addition to women who can handle themselves in the killing fields. As her character navigates the turn of events, its evident there is much more to her than meets the eye, but it’s De La Reguera’s performance that is fun to watch. While writer/creator James DeMonaco may have written something that could have been straight from the headlines a year ago when it was supposed to be initially released (it was filmed in 2019), the film feels a bit dated.
However, you wade through its social commentary, the action and kills you’ve come to expect are there. I saw this at home and that’s just the way this film should be seen in my opinion! It’s a great streaming flick but not necessary for your first time back in theaters!
Rating: C+
Antebellum Review: A Missed Opportunity
It’s not that Antebellum isn’t entertaining. There is a good deal of mental gymnastics you do as you try to find out what’s going on in the film. The problem with Antebellum is that for all the physical violence, rape and historically black trauma you have to endure to get to its end, there is absolutely no pay off! This is a prime example of a film that’s core concept was great in pitch meetings, but never got fleshed out properly by writer/director team Gerard Bush and Christopher Renz.
The film starts out on a plantation with the gruesome killing of a slave who is given the chance to run, only to be shot and dragged back to the center of the plantation by her neck while her loved one watches the scene unfold. We’re introduced to Eden (Janelle Monae) as she’s dumped off a horse and remarks are made to a failed attempt to flee. This particular place seems to be harder than any other plantation. No slave can speak to one another. Break the rules and it will cost you your life.
As the film moves forward, we quickly see more slaves come on to the plantation. It's apparent that they have a certain self-awareness and empowerment that’s not indicative of the typical slave films we’ve seen in the past. In fact, in present day we see Veronica (Janelle Monae), as an adored wife, mother and successful speaker and scholar on race. With continual verbal nods to the past, present, and how they continually collide, the viewer starts to wonder how this all fits together.
Gerard Bush and Christopher Renz try to push a black lives matter emphasis within the film. Their cake is half baked though with a heavy reiteration on the darkness of America’s history of slavery, while missing the nuance of the systemic oppression and racism post-slavery that has us in our current state. So it’s a lost opportunity to make an important social statement in how the past effects us presently.
Janelle Monae has the talent to be a memorable actress in our time, but this isn't her best performance. She does the best with the script handed to her but her delivery of lines are so stiff at times. The southern accents and dialogue of the antagonists of the film are atrocious. Not just that, the motivations of the “villains” is not clear. They're mean just to be mean. The lack of depth in going past a great concept is what sinks this film.
I’ll be honest, the concept of this film is something that black folks may give thought to. I could totally sign up for the elevator pitch of this film, but this script desperately needed to address the motivations of its characters, the trauma of being black in America, and have a conclusion that would tie everything together and maybe leave us deep in thought after the credits roll. It didn’t. So while “from the producer of Get Out” is a great marketing tool. You may not want to compare this to a masterpiece. It's just not a good or honest comparison!
Rating: D+
"Doctor Sleep" Review: Don't Overlook This One!
In a world where sequels, reboots, remakes, and a lack of creativity exists, it’s hard to believe that we’re revisiting the Overlook Hotel. There are certain classics we shouldn’t touch. I would have thought The Shining would be one of them, but director Mike Flanagan gives us The Shining meets Inception in an intriguing look at where Danny Torrance (Ewan McGregor) is nearly forty years later in the new movie Doctor Sleep.
After learning how to deal with and master his shine, Danny has decided to dampen it by staying under the influence of the bottle. Drowning his grief to escape being haunted, literally and figuratively, by ghosts of his past, it’s years later that an event causes him to run to a small town and unexpectedly sober up. It’s when he starts to sober up that a connection with a powerful “shiner” named Abra (Kyleigh Curran) is made miles away. Simultaneously, a group of adults who have been living for centuries by finding people who shine and eating off of their life force, feels Abra on their radar and have to have her.
The first act of the film meticulously sets up the foundation for the expansion of its world. Once the film establishes itself, following its lead is a pleasure to watch. Flanagan slowly builds the layers of psychological horror through character development, cinematography, and a controlled camera that knows what to show, for how long, and what not to show.
McGregor brings an everyday man’s sensibility to the role as the reluctant, eventual mentor. Curran has a lot to take on as a child actor. It’s rare that you see a horror film in which the kid involved is not only not afraid of the monster or villain, but has a healthy understanding of the power she possesses and is willing to stand toe to toe with said villain. Curran embodies this balancing act with a rare comprehension of her character that helps make the film work. Which brings us to Rose The Hat (Rebecca Ferguson). Ferguson gives her character a tangible quality that is both attractive and terrifying. With a villain this good, it’s hard not to root for her and her band of thieves at times.
Flanagan makes a smart move in giving us the fan service in the final act of the film, rather than throughout it. In fact, he pays homage to many of the iconic frames Kubrick created by not giving us a shot for shot match, but instead finding his own frame in the same space. It’s a clever tip of the hat, that keeps us from making intense comparisons.
Doctor Sleep reminds us that occasionally a sequel can be done right these days. It’s a rich expansion of a world that shows us that sometimes the only way to face your demons is to go through them. I wouldn’t overlook this one!
Rating: B+
"It Chapter Two" Review
It Chapter Two gives us the conclusion to the Losers story. The film goes big and tries to cram 900 pages of material into its nearly three hour run time. The transition from childhood to adulthood can be tough, and certainly showing that in the sequel to 2017’s It was a difficult task for director Andy Muschietti. His efforts have to be commended. However, with length and structure issues, this doesn’t hit the mark of its predecessor and might wind up being forgotten once you’ve left the theaters much like leaving the town of Derry.
Jumping off with a hate crime towards a homosexual couple, the film gives its first foreshadowing of what you’re about to see: intense setups with questionable or predictable payoffs. After a young man is dismembered by Pennywise (Bill Skarsgard), and once Mike Hanlon (Isaiah Mustafa) hears about the latest murder over a police scanner, he quickly calls the gang back to Derry to finish what they set out to do. Mike’s call to Bill (James McAvoy), Beverly (Jessica Chastain), Ben (Jay Ryan), Richie (Bill Hader), Eddie (James Ransone) and Stanley (Andy Bean) sets off a chain reaction of fear reentering their lives before returning home.
Upon arriving back in Derry, the group quickly falls back into the friendships they left behind 27 years prior. The narrative is pretty straightforward from there. They have a job to do, and there’s an inventive way in which the internal clock on the group’s decision to carryout their mission is employed. Each character has their own moment to reconnect with their childhood fears and It, which is part of the reason for the bloating of the film. In fact, the film is light on the scares this time around in exchange for humor and the exploration of what it takes to overcome fear. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but its execution is fumbled in some stories.
The casting here is well suited. Bill Hader is stand out as Richie! From the moment he enters the frame, he embodies the role with a scene stealing richness that has to be applauded. (I doubt It: Chapter Two would receive any awards, but you could certainly make a case for Hader’s performance.) While we’re used to Jessica Chastain being a leading woman with a presence, she’s able to shrink herself enough to be one of the gang in a way that really works. It’s a shame that Skarsgard doesn’t get to do a lot with Pennywise in regard to screen time, but when he’s on the screen his performance is masterful.
Don’t get me wrong, Chapter Two has nice moments. Cinematographer, Checco Varese, is able to tap into our fears with the way he uses light in scenes. A lightning bug lights up Pennywise’s face in one scene, while the ugly fluorescent and neons in a fun house light another. Certainly the suspense and hair-raising moments of facing your fear is there. With sound being a huge component of creating scares, the sound department deserves their credit as well. It’s the quiet moments followed by the crescendo of a monsters footsteps getting closer and closer that really puts you in the zone.
Ultimately, this sequel doesn’t match the quality of the film before it due to the way the child ensemble masterfully handled the material and the fact that things that go bump in the night is a lot scarier when children are involved. There’s something about the way it feels more believable because we can remember when our imaginations ran wild and the friendly clown at the circus looked more like a threat then a fun time. That said, seeing the story conclude is much more satisfying this time around than the 90s mini-series.
Rating: B-
"Ma" Review: A Reminder of Why You Don't Hang With Strangers
There’s a reason your parents teach you not to talk to strangers at a young age. You never know what a person does or who they are when they’re by themselves; even if they’re your friend. Ma is just a friendly reminder to teens who may think they know more than their parents, “you don’t know that lady! Why would you go into her basement?”
Maggie (Diana Silvers fresh off of Booksmart) and her mother Erica (Juliette Lewis) have just moved back to Erica’s hometown in middle-of-no-where America. Maggie quickly finds new friends in Haley (McKaley Miller), Andy (Corey Fogelmanis), Chaz (Gianni Paolo), and Darrell (Dante Brown). Being in a small town means there’s not a lot to do event wise, so drinking at the rock pile is a good time. Of course, being a teen means that there’s a small hurdle to getting alcohol. So when Sue Ann (Octavia Spencer) walks by and agrees to purchase booze for them, it makes sense to keep going back to their supplier.
Sue Ann gets closer with the teens and even let’s them call her Ma. She opens up her basement as a safe place to drink with their friends. She only has a few rules: don’t use the Lord’s name in vain, she has to check to make sure the driver is ok to drive before they leave, and don’t go upstairs! Initially blinded by the opportunity, the scales covering their eyes to seeing Ma’s strange and sinister nature slowly start to fall off as Ma starts showing up at school, texting them relentlessly and more.
The key to Ma is that the first two acts of the film are dominated by suspense in tension. We know something the main characters don’t know. Yes, in part it’s that you shouldn’t trust strangers or put all your business out on social media for someone like Ma to find, but it’s also Ma’s ties to their parents. After a traumatic incident of bullying and sexual abuse, Sue Ann has been harboring anger ever since.
There’s no doubt that Ma could have explored a variety of things in more detail. There’s an element of the dangers of social media, bullying, and the fact that Sue Ann seems to be the only black woman in her small town (which actually leaves room for a funny joke with Darrell). Yet, seeing an Oscar caliber actress like Octavia Spencer take on a genre film is what helps this movie. Spencer’s choices and presence creates a tangible character that feels like a family member instead of the creepy person next door. They could have let her loose a bit more in her role, but it seems as though she chose to have fun with the character over making her more sinister which works.
The film teams Spencer up with director Tate Taylor (The Help) again. There’s an element of the film that feels like Taylor watched Get Out hundreds of times before stepping on set with his camera work. The close-ups, dutch angle shots, and cuts in the editing are vaguely familiar and make things comical at times rather than scary. However, it somewhat lends itself to writer Scotty Landes’ writing style.
Ma is a fun ride if you know the type of vehicle you’re getting into. It could have been souped up a bit more, but it’s an entertaining thriller that opens the door for desire to see more Oscar caliber actors in rolls outside of their genre wheelhouse. Perhaps parents should check out the film with their teens just to say “that’s what happens when you give in to peer pressure and hang with strangers.” And while you should drink responsibly at the appropriate age, “don’t make me drink alooooone!” might be one of the funniest lines to sing and demand of your friends this year!
Rating: B
"POMS" Review: The Perfect Dud for Mother's Day!
You have to be patient with POMS in the same way you have to be patient with your grandmother or an elderly friend. You keep hoping that the chemistry amongst its cast will get better, that it’s going to pick up the pace, that it won’t keep engaging in the routine beats of ensemble films that have done this before (and better), and that its veteran cast will act like they’ve been acting for decades. Instead, this movie slips into slapstick, juvenile comedy at times and you wish its screenplay and characters were more maturely developed.
Martha (Diane Keaton) decides to move into a retirement community after a life with no children, seemingly no friends, and learning she has cancer. It’s her way of “going out” on her own accord. She’s introduced to the welcoming committee, an elderly mean girl trio led by southern belle Vicki (Celia Weston), and informed that she has to join a club or create one as apart of the community. Martha quickly forms a hodge podge group of women to join her cheerleading club. They consist of the barely used Pam Grier and Rhea Perlman.
Martha’s neighbor, the spunky, promiscuous Sheryl (Jacki Weaver), helps the group perform at the local high school. When the unrehearsed group’s performance fails, a video of them hits the internet and goes viral. Due to the club’s ability to lift every member’s spirits, they decide to take it to “nationals” of sorts in the Bring It On type of climax.
There are so many moments in this film that I thought I was watching a young improv troop perform. Diane Keaton gives a confusing performance as Martha. She’s not quite a grumpy old woman, but she doesn’t really have any redeeming value either. She talks out loud to herself a lot in the movie, but not in the way that perhaps an older person, slowly losing her mental faculty would. It’s more like accidentally saying the beats of the scene out loud or trying to fill blank space in a scene. The film doesn’t really allow its stars to shine, but instead reduces them to the stereotypes of a younger version grown up. Jackie Weaver is the only bright light of the film as she brings an authentic, lovable character out of Sheryl.
If this movie wins any hearts it would have to be with an older demographic. That was the only people I heard saying anything positive about the film. I was hoping the film would be a winner in the vein of “you’re never too old to go after your dreams”! I expected to shed some tears and want to hug my grandmother after seeing this film or even be put on the path to think about what she’s been through in her lifetime. Instead, co-writer/director Zara Hayes (co-writer Shane Atkinson gets this ire too) gives us a forced, snooze fest that should have been something special. Sometimes going from documentary filmmaker to narratives doesn’t translate well. POMS is an example where the same care that’s given to documentary subjects should have been given to the characters in this film.
Rating: D
"Us" Review: Be Prepared for Nightmares
A little over two years ago, Jordan Peele told us to Get Out. This time he wants us to look at ourselves in his new movie Us. While this film doesn’t rise to the masterpiece heights of its predecessor, it sure proves that Peele understands cinema and he’s no one hit wonder. Usually I’d say the hype is real, but the truth is true this time around, and Us is the sci-fi/horror truth!
As a young girl, Adelaide Wilson (Lupita Nyong’o) wandered off from her parents at the Santa Cruz beach. The experience left her speechless and in therapy for years. So years later, when her husband Gabe (Winston Duke) decides that her and the kids should go to the same beach for vacation, she begrudgingly goes. They meet up with the Tyler family and Adelaide learns Kitty’s (Elizabeth Moss) secret to dealing with life is booze, while Gabe and Josh (Tim Heidecker) compare boat sizes.
Once they finally get home and Zora (Shahadi Wright Joseph) and Jason (Evan Alex) are tucked in, the lights go out and things get weird. A family stands at the edge of the drive way and won’t budge off the property. Once the Wilson family realizes the family is comprised of themselves (called the tethered), a story only Jordan Peele could unveil begins.
Peele hits every note of suspense in setting up scenes that we as an audience are frightened by and using every element of cinema to capitalize on that fear in a way in which you feel like you are in the situation. He uses sound and the lack thereof to build those fight or flight moments that we experience in real life. He’s not afraid to let a moment breathe and build the tension in a scene like some directors in the genre back away from these days. His blocking of characters shows an understanding of a frame of film and how to use it. In a scene with Adelaide riding shotgun in the foreground on the way to the beach with a look of absolute nervousness and Gabe in the background obliviously happy, he allows the story to be told without a useless back and forth of camera shots.
Lupita Nyong’o gives a stellar performance as both Adelaide and her tethered, Red. She plays a range of emotions as both characters and is stellar at it. Red’s presence is almost good enough to put her in the top lists of movie villains. The rest of the cast equally play their parts well in such a way that once the story comes together, you’ll have tons to talk about in the parking lot.
You better believe I’m talking around this film so you can go in as blank as possible. Us does have some story issues, but the setup and storytelling more than make up for those issues. See this film with as many black people as possible! It will only enhance your experience because this is definitely a film you may find yourself talking to the screen in throughout its second and third acts. If you don’t know how to do it, sit back and take notes because it might get hilarious in all the right ways. The best part is, the main characters don’t constantly make silly decisions. It’s old fashion horror and sci-fi with all the good twists and turns it seems we will come to expect from a Jordan Peele movie. With this film, it seems we’re on the verge of seeing a new auteur in the suspense thriller genre.
Rating: B+
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"Mandy" Review: A Vision Both Strange and Eternal
It has been seven years since filmmaker Panos Cosmanos burst onto the scene with the cult sci-fi film Beyond the Black Rainbow, and many have wondered if and how the writer-director could top Rainbow’s ramped-up hallucinogenic visuals. Fans of the director now have their answer, as Cosmanos has returned with Mandy, an acid-drenched revenge thriller unlike anything released in theaters this year.
Lumberjack, Red Miller (Nicolas Cage), lives a quiet life in the forests of the Shadow Mountains alongside the love of his life, the titular artist Mandy (Andrea Riseborough). However the serenity of the forest is disrupted by the arrival of Jeremiah Sand (Linus Roache), a failed folk singer- turned-cult leader and his group of God-loving hippies. After a passing encounter on a desolate logging road, Sand decides that Mandy must join his group. Tragedy eventually ensues and leads Red and his home-forged battle axe into the night seeking revenge at any cost.
Cosmanos takes this simple plot and drowns it in gallons of blood and LSD. Mandy’s forest setting is constantly punctuated by beams of Giallo-influenced color, animated hallucinations, and an ever-present heavy metal-influenced score composed by the late Jóhann Jóhannsson. The film contains homages to midnight films of the past, but these blend seamlessly into Cosmanos’ world and never feel tired or cliche. It takes a special film to do that in a nostalgia-dominated media landscape, and Cosmanos has shown that a throwback film doesn’t need to consist of yelling “HEY REMEMBER THIS?” at its viewers.
Of course, the film isn’t all nostalgia, and provides a number of original set-pieces that must be seen to be believed. Otherworldly S&M bikers are summoned via ocarina, and grown men duel with chainsaws under the lights of a mining quarry. These (and other) insane sequences aren’t for everyone, but they certainly draw the viewer into Mandy’s unique vision. It takes a total commitment to the craft to pull things like this off without irony, and the film succeeds where other camp-focused features may fail.
This all-in feeling is buttressed by the film’s impressive cast, many of whom turn in milestone performances in their respective careers. Nicolas Cage’s monolithic filmography has been varied to such a degree that the internet has designed a four-point matrix on which to graph his performances. This, however, is a role no one else could pull off, and Cage’s performance as Red transcends the points on the aforementioned Cage matrix. Red’s transition from loving partner to blood-soaked death machine requires just about every emotion to come through on screen, and Cage nails every beat required of him. The viewer really feels Red’s emotional arc, and when Cage engages in one of his legendary on-screen freak-outs, the moment is more than earned. This is a performance for the ages, and should be seen as a return to form by one of Hollywood’s finest.
While most of the press surrounding the film’s post-Sundance premiere has focused on Cage, Andrea Riseborough and Linus Roache deserve equal amounts of praise. Riseborough’s portrayal of Mandy is wonderful, and Roache’s turn as the villainous Sand should be seen as a breakout moment in his career. A confrontation between the two is one of the film’s highlights and provides a clear piece of social commentary in the age of #metoo. Expect to see both actors doing big things in the future.
All of this praise is certainly warranted, but the film is not without some issues. The filmmaker’s editing style is a bit of a double-edged sword, as it was in Rainbow. The pivotal shift in tone occurs about halfway through Mandy’s 2-hour run time. This gives the viewer plenty of time to invest in Red’s eventual rampage, but the film does drag a bit. Those expecting a pace similar to other action-oriented films may find the glacial pace of Mandy’s first half off-putting, but it’s hard to say whether the film’s tender first half could be shortened.
Nontheless, Mandy is a strong addition to Cosmano’s filmography, and fans of genre-filmmaking looking for an unforgettable experience should strongly consider giving Cosmanos’ latest a view. Mandy is showing in a limited run of theaters and is available on VOD.
Rating: B+
"The Nun" Review: Save Your Money for the Warren's Next Adventure
Since its debut in 2013, The Conjuring has grown beyond stand-alone status into a fully realized cinematic universe, all fueled by the real-life investigations of Ed and Lorraine Warren. The newest entry in this gathering of demons and ghouls is Valak, the hell-spawned nun first seen terrorizing the Warren’s home in The Conjuring 2. Director Colin Hardy takes the viewer back to the source of the demon’s power in the newest Conjuring-related film. However, the interpersonal relationships and horrific imagery of the source films have unfortunately been stripped away, leaving a carnival ride that fans of the horror genre have ridden a few too many times before.
Upon hearing of a suspicious suicide at the Abbey of St. Carta, the Vatican dispatches paranormal investigator Father Burke (Demián Bichir) and novitiate Sister Irene (Taissa Farmiga) to the Romanian countryside. Upon their arrival at the Abbey, the pair, along with French Canadian farmer “Frenchie” (Jonas Bloquet), confront and attempt to overcome Valak’s evil influence.
Despite providing an imposing, Hammer Films-esque haunted house and vague glimpses of the dark history of the Abbey, the film chooses to provide a minimum amount of world building. After all, the filmmakers have viewers to scare! However, the scares here mostly fall flat, as the viewer is rarely exposed to anything truly terrifying.
The old standbys are all here: unseen forces inverting crosses, undead beings lurking around the corner, and mysterious pairs of hands reaching out from the dark-all accompanied by a shrieking violin or loud otherworldly thump. Look, a jump scare is an effective way to get a reaction from the viewer, but so is any unexpected loud noise. The most iconic films of the horror genre invade the mind of the viewer, implanting imagery and a sense of unease that lasts long after the lights go up in the theater. Unfortunately, The Nun provides very little in the way of true nightmare fuel. Instead, the film relies on recycled cliches and involuntary nervous system responses to illicit cheap reactions from its viewers. Some imagery may have felt transgressive at an earlier time but feels tired in 2018.
The quickly established characters of Burke and Irene, both possessing hints of a troubled past, ultimately serve as little more than engines to move the barebones plot forward. The dialogue between the two consists mainly of heavy exposition punctuated by screaming. The duo constantly separate, dragging the audience from scare to scare until finally reuniting with Frenchie and Valak for the film’s welcomed ending.
Credit should be given to Farmiga, who injects some level of humanity into her character. Nonetheless, the film gives the viewer little reason to care about the fate of its inhabitants. Bichir’s portrayal of Father Burke is relegated to a confused facial expression and the desire to run towards any strange sight or otherworldly sound the film throws at him. The campers at Camp Crystal Lake had more sense than the Vatican’s top “Miracle Hunter” has in this film.
It could be argued that the traditional imagery and lack of characterization is itself an homage to the B-movies of old. After all, weak characterization in horror films isn’t exactly a new phenomenon, and lord knows film buffs have seen their fair share of haunted houses/castles/hotels/etc, but The Nun doesn’t fully commit to B-Movie status. Instead, it floats somewhere between Hollywood blockbuster and midnight trash. If the filmmakers chose to lean further toward one of the two extremes, it may have resulted in a better product. However, the lack of commitment here hurts more than helps.
Save your money for the Warren’s next official adventure, and leave The Nun alone.
Rating: D+
"Hereditary" Review
I’m still speechless about what I saw coming out of the theater. Hereditary is the best horror film that I have seen in the theaters since 2016’s The Witch, which coincidentally was another horror film that A24 released from the same producer. The directorial debut of newcomer Ari Aster, this film signals a new filmmaker that you should keep an eye out for from now on following this release. Unsettling and tense at times, Hereditary is that type of film that slowly builds and builds until finally all hell breaks loose. Super creepy as well, this is a film that will stay with you long after the credits roll, and it might give you some nightmares along the way.
Without going into too much detail, since you should try and go to this as cold as possible, the film begins with the grandmother of the Graham family dying and her family members attending the funeral. After the funeral, Annie (Toni Collette) and her husband Steve (Gabriel Byrne), and their children Peter (Alex Wolff) and Charlie (Milly Shapiro) start experiencing strange occurrences around them, which results in a tragic accident. In the midst of everything, Annie starts to uncover things about her ancestry and must figure out what’s happening to her family before its too late.
To start off, this is Collette’s film through and through. This is a phenomenal performance that results in what could probably be her finest hour yet as an actress (if you must know, she and Byrne are also credited as executive producers of the film as well). Some of the scenes that Collette’s required to perform are absolute standouts, and for all the different types of ranges she goes through, she performs them all flawlessly. I wouldn’t be surprised if at the end of year, Collette is in the mix for award discussions. Another actor that stood out to me was Wolff, who turns in an impressive performance as Peter, as a man who slowly begins to lose his grip on the world. It’s safe to say that for his career so far, this is his best role yet (he’s way better in this then say Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle or Patriots Day). For her debut film, Shapiro as Charlie definitely plays up the creepy child vibe, but in a good way! Don’t be surprised if she blows up into a future star in Hollywood after this. Most of the characters are well rounded as Aster, who also wrote the film, peels back on the layers to get a sense of who these people are and how each are affected with what’s going on.
Hereditary is that type of horror film that I tend to enjoy a lot, which are those that take on a more psychological approach than having it shoved in your face and being too violent. In my book, horror films are much better if they show you creepy images or imply things rather than showing what happened. If you didn’t know that this was a feature length debut, you would think this was from a master class horror filmmaker. I loved the look that Aster and his cinematographer, Pawel Pogorzelski, came up with. Even though in theory the scenes have simple setups, the shots are meticulous, and for the most part, the only camera movements they employ are either pans or slow zooms in or out. Aster never over-cuts on the scene, but rather lets the scenes play themselves out; to the point where scenes start to get unsettling since you don’t know what’s going to happen next. The bluish tones that the film employs also represents the mood and mindsets our characters are going through. In addition, the use of silence in some of scenes help further the mindset of some of the characters. The sound design gets creepy at times, and the music from Colin Stenson hit the spot. I like the slow burn approach that Hereditary takes as it builds and builds until basically an all out assault, since it takes time to let us know who is who and we get to know them before things start to hit the fan.
If there are any drawbacks that Hereditary has, it is that it may leave people scratching their heads about what’s going on. For a 127-minute film, it relies on you to figure things out on your own rather spelling things out. If you keep up with the dialogue, you should have a grasp in what’s going on. Speaking of scratching your heads, like The Witch, the end gets completely bonkers to the point that you are either on-board or not. The slow burn that the film takes might put people off, but trust me, keep with it and you will be rewarded greatly.
Overall, A24 has another winner on its hands with Hereditary. If you can, try and go into the film cold outside of this review. The less you know about it, the better off you will be. Go see this in a packed theater. This film will give you the creeps, I will assure you of that. By the end of the film, you won’t be able to sleep with what you just saw. I thought going into the film I was getting one thing, but the film became something else than what I expected, with some of the themes and ideas that the film presents to us. I would definitely recommend this to you. Now it’s time to get some of these images out of my head.
Rating: B+
"Happy Death Day" Review: A Unique Twist on the Genre
It’s a theme we’ve seen before. The protagonist has to repeat the same day over and over, except this time her murder is what hits the reset button. Happy Death Day is a refreshing take on the repetitive day genre, whose charm resides fully in the capable hands of its lead character, Tree Gelbman (Jessica Rothe).
We first meet Tree waking up in the bed of stranger Carter Davis (Israel Broussard). She came home with Carter after drinking too much, and while attractive on the outside, her insides are pretty snobby and shallow. As we patiently munch popcorn through the obligatory set up of her day, we realize just how shallow she and some of her sorority sisters are. Patience is key in the first act of the film, because we know she’ll live, die, repeat, but the payoff is what happens next.
Once the rules are established and Tree is up for the challenge of figuring out who her killer is, here lies where the film succeeds. Screenwriter, Scott Lobdell, allows Tree’s character growth to mature in a way that makes the film enjoyable while building on the overall story. Each day brings another clue that we didn’t know before, as well as the opportunity for the shell around Tree’s heart to slowly give way to a person that we can really root for. She’s funny, not as shallow as he appears at first, and she becomes more kind and grateful for those around her. Did I mention that she embraces each day with a comical, nonchalant sarcasm that is as charming as laugh out loud funny?
Some praise has to be given to Jessica Rothe, who we spend every scene with. Her acting choices with Tree are subtle, natural, and likely to make her a new, popular face in Hollywood (while she has been in other films). With a film like this, the protagonist makes or breaks the film, and she makes it work!
While the solution to the mystery is laughable, there are some twists along the way to make up for it. Overall, Happy Death Day takes us on an entertaining ride and manages to side-step foibles that could drag it down. Surprisingly, this would be a good date movie with your boo and likely fun in a full theater. While I saw it with one other person at a mid-day showing, if it doesn’t do well in theaters, it’s certainly a must see on Netflix or Red Box! It’s a worthy entry into the genre that should get more love than I fear it may receive.
Rating: B
"IT" Review
IT has been a long time coming. Not only was this a film stuck in development hell, but it comes as an example of this generation’s property-driven adaptation streak that includes the prolific but often poorly adapted Stephen King. Each reworking of the unimaginably popular and massively prolific King is something like pulling the sword from the stone. So far only two have definitely done it: The Shawshank Redemption and The Shining. Kubrick’s The Shining altered the material enough to receive a full dismissal from the author, even as the standalone film is one of American cinema’s most extraordinary and cryptic works. The other was touching critically praised, but not in any way a horror film.
Andy Muschietti’s film (along with this summer’s other long-simmering King work, The Dark Tower) comes with introductory endorsement from the author himself. The reasons for a poor page-to-screen transition are numerous, let alone King’s winding, character driven epics. Even then, IT is an albatross, a cinder-block sized horror-text about childhood trauma, friendship and a decades-long wrestling match with an inter-dimensional being who appears as a clown. But the premise is simple, IT is a creature that preys on the fears of children.
So, take a minute King fans…horror fans. IT is a great movie--a worthy adaptation of King, an unrelenting visual delight and horror film first and foremost.
Set in the Derry, Maine in the summer of 1988, IT tells the story of Bill Denbrough, a junior high kid whose brother Georgie was snatched down a storm drain by a maniacal clown the previous fall. All the town knows is where he disappeared. As school lets out for summer, Bill and his friends (known as the Loser’s Club) discuss whether they will pick up the abandoned search for Georgie. Here, we’re introduced to a collection of stock roles and identities: Stanley Uris, the Jewish one (Wyatt Oleff), Eddie Kaspbrak (Jack Dylan Grazer) the hypochondriac and Richie Tozier (Finn Wolfhard) the foul-mouthed one. They will add to their ranks Beverly Marsh (Sophia Lillis) the girl, Mike Hanlon (Chosen Jacobs) the black kid and Ben Hanscom (Jeremy Ray Taylor) the new kid/the fat kid. They are antagonized by a trio of shaggy haired bullies, lead by the mulleted Henry Bowers (Nicholas Hamilton). What pain isn’t inflicted by the bullies is portrayed by cartoonish parents who are dismissive, predatory or smothering. Given that nearly every character is given some type of minor arc the stereotypes are a way to identify a barrage of introductions and early interactions.
But IT loads the titular monster early. Pennywise the dancing clown (Bill Skarsgård) appears to each of the kids as a manifestation of their own fear or trauma. For instance, Mike Hanlon, having been orphaned in a house fire and raised by his grandfather, a livestock farmer and butcher, is confronted with a vision of the house fire and the clown, strung up on a meat hook, eyes glowing in the dark. Stanley Uris, sees the clown first as a creepy Edvard Munch-like portrait come to life. Each child is confronted by IT as Pennywise and IT as a creature. They have to find and confront the clown as a group or risk being picked off in isolation.
The script deals each bit of exposition with bursts of thrilling nightmares, all Dutch angles and swift editing. There is little time to catch your breath before the next scene and the narrative is incomprehensible. At 135 minutes, IT is barely contained, stuffed to crown of its encephalitic clown skull with wondrous and terrifying set pieces. Assembled more episodically, IT pulls away from the coming-of-age story to deliver a finely crafted creature feature. There’s some half-baked structure around how fear (literally) divides the Losers club, but the adventure lies in the variety and ingenuity of the scares.
Skarsgård wisely crafts Pennywise’s persona from scratch, trading the harsh taunting of Tim Curry’s 1990 portrayal for a childlike charisma that emanates wordlessly from the painted contours of Skarsgård’s face. IT/Pennywise is given no backstory and reigns in the immediacy of each encounter, bursting through slide projectors, rising from floodwaters, and menacing in a room full of clown dolls.
For horror fans, this is a must see. IT is old-school fun and deserves the experience of the big screen. The film leaves no doubt of a sequel, and remains highly re-watchable until that time.
Rating: A
"It Comes At Night" Review
Americans are primed for the apocalypse. Whether the deluge of doomsday preparation and undead apocalypse TV shows or cardio-based zombie evasion fun runs, we’re a nation steeped in the possibility that all men will eventually become zombies. And when that time comes we’ll have achieved a 40-yard-dash time quick enough to outrun the bloodthirsty masses to a fortified armory and help rebuild civilization. Escaping danger is our collective middle name.
Thing is, once we’ve hacked and slashed our way to safety, all that time spent locked away in the abandoned fort will be tedious. There’s drama, sure. Leaders will emerge and be challenged, resources will go dry and need replenishing and all our social networks will be useless. Survival is a waiting game, meal after meager meal, day after dull day, month after miserable month.
It Comes at Night, the second feature-length movie from Trey Edward Shults (Krisha), is laced with small doses of excitement, but spends much of its running time watching its characters wait in fear. Shults employs the camera as a tight third-person observer. While boogeymen real and imagined circle the limited world of the script, the camera is focused on the mental and physical strain our heroes suffer as they undertake survival. They are bound to a day-to-day exercise in trust, regiment and they hold a skeptical gaze toward any stranger in their midst.
The family in question is only identified as father Paul (Joel Edgerton), mother Sarah (Carmen Ejogo) and son Travis (Kelvin Harrison Jr.), as fear has a way of grinding units down to individuals. The familial clan of survivalists are holed up in the woods while an ambiguous plague threatens the world around them. At the start of the film, the illness has already claimed one other family member, but little else is explained about its origin or effects. It Comes At Night is not about the fight against the undead, but the threat of sickness penetrating the family unit. It opens in a tragedy meant to solidify the family unit and warn the viewer of both the outsider itself and the fear of outsiders.
After the deceased is laid to rest Paul, Sarah and Will must move on and bury sadness with trust and routine. When a young father, Will (Girls’ Christopher Abbott) barges in on the trio in search of supplies, it takes some time before Paul agrees to bring Will’s family into their fold. Joel Edgerton’s Paul is nothing if not a cautious realist, but he’s flawed in his fearfulness. While the two families attempt to live together in tension and mistrust, Travis has visions that wind the daily tension with nightly terror. His insomnia is the lens of horror tropes. He sees his mouths filled with blood, animal corpses and one of the film’s very few jump scares.
Shults uses Travis’s nightmare sequences to explicate both the characters fears and his desires. It Comes At Night follows through with a drama film that plays as horror because the viewer, through close camera focus, is meant to watch the characters diligently to see how and when they break. While the familiar beats of zombie films and backwoods horror will delight enthusiasts of both genres, the subdued action may disappoint some. Still, It Comes At Night holds so steadily in its watchful gaze that the viewer must see themselves walking down every empty hallway. And as horror films are often a chance to live out death from the safety of an armchair, It Comes At Night is a chance to be the weary eye of a survivor, waiting and watching in fear.
Rating: A-
"Get Out" Review: An Instant Classic
Let’s face the facts, meeting any significant other’s parents for the first time is plain scary! Add in the fact that you’re an interracial couple and it can add a little weight to that. In writer/director Jordan Peele’s Get Out, he takes that premise, a dash of suspense, and real world issues to make a refreshingly original take on meeting the ‘rents.
Chris Washington (Daniel Kaluuya) is an upcoming photographer who is going to his girlfriend Rose’s (Allison Williams) home for the weekend to meet her parents. While the love between the two is strong, there’s no question that Chris is a little anxious to meet her parents, Dean (Bradley Whitford) and Missy (Catherine Keener) Armitage. After encountering a deer the hard way, Chris gets his first introduction to Rose’s hometown through the local police. This is where we first see how Peele is telling his horror through real life issues of being black in America. During the exchange, we witness Rose talk back and be confrontational with the officer, while Chris does just the opposite with a smile. Thus, the dichotomy begins.
After arriving at her parent’s home, Chris navigates through the normal awkward attempts to relate with lines like “I would have voted for Obama a third time”, or “my man!” However, it’s Walter (Marcus Henderson) the groundskeeper and Georgina (Betty Gabriel) that make Chris squirm. As he attempts to talk with them, they seem to have no soul, which in this film refers to black culture, in them. Things only get more peculiar as the weekend goes on. Whether it’s a late night hypnosis session that Chris barely remembers, meeting Andrew Logan King (Lakeith Stanfield) who seems familiar, or his cell phone being unplugged at night, it all starts to add up into a horrifying tale.
The key to this film is the manipulation of space and time, framing, sound, and good storytelling. Peele’s pacing of the film is perfect. Things move at just the right pace as to lure you in and speed up once it’s too late to stop. He gives us in your face close-ups that heighten the sense of alarm within the film. Yet it’s his script that’s the backbone of this sure to be instant classic.
Kaluuya and Gabriel give memorable performances in their roles as black people “trapped” in a white world. Their faces say so much more than words. Simultaneously, without the creepy opposition of Williams, Keener, Whitford, and Caleb Landry Jones as Jeremy Armitage, you wouldn’t have the tension that is felt so much throughout the film.
Get Out is a film that you have to see more than once to catch everything that was thrown at you. There’s no doubt that it’s a horror/mystery for this generation! Equipped with the comedy of Chris’s best friend Rod (LilRel Howery) who stands in the gap for the audience who would regularly be yelling at the screen, this film knows what it’s doing and knows what you’re thinking!
Rating: A
"Don't Breathe" Review: A Breath of Cinematic Fresh Air
For some reason I’m thinking about the scene from Blade 2 where the half vampire half human Blade comes out of a pool of blood after being shot by Reinhardt. He slowly rises, energized by the fresh blood and ready to take on his nemesis. After a summer of horrible and lackluster nationwide releases shooting us to cinema death, Don’t Breathe is the lifeblood needed to remind us of the magic of movies and that great films do exist!
The film is pretty simple in its premise. Three teenagers, Money (Daniel Zovatto), Alex (Dylan Minnette), and Rocky (Jane Levy) burglarize Detroit area homes for money. After getting a tip on a house that’s inhabited by a blind man (Stephen Lang) who won a big $300,000 settlement after his daughter was killed by a motorist, may have that cash inside, they decide this may be the last house they have to rob in order to get out of the slums of Detroit. Which is actually pretty ironic considering the genre of film.
Once the trio gets into the house, things get complicated. They quickly learn that the blind man is not to be trifled with. Director Fede Alvarez masterfully crafts this film into a tension, suspense filled survival film that beautifully balances psychological terror and physical harm. In his arsenal of psychological weapons, Alvarez utilizes sound much like his blind antagonist. Sounds like a creak in the floor, breathing, sniffling, footsteps, and more all become needles to poke us with psychologically. He frames scenes in such a way that we see the youth in the space of the blind man, and much like them we want to escape the claustrophobia of danger.
Cinematographer Pedro Luque gives the ally-oop with the use of light and lack there of within the frame to help this film be a slam dunk. Light becomes a character that reveals and conceals within this movie in all the best ways possible. We’re able to both see what Alvarez wants us to see at times, and then like the blind man, things we want to see are taken away from us, heightening the horror.
The cast does a great job of playing their characters. Horror roles are easy to break down into stereotypes, but each actor brings some level of humanity to theirs. Stephen Lang is terrifying as the blind man. His muscular figure in an aged, military veteran body becomes instantly imposing. He sniffs and snorts throughout the film like a Minotaur hunting down its prey inside the maze of the home that he knows inch by inch. You can watch him reach for landmarks as he chases after the teens, and with each confirmation you feel his plan for catching them. Zovatto is the annoying and abrasive wanna be gangster, that even in the trailer, we’re happy to see leave. Minnette plays the smart/heart amongst the trio, and Levy is an every woman heroine that we can feel for.
What really sets Don’t Breathe apart is the morality shift that occurs throughout the film. Who is really the villain: the blind man or the thieves who broke in? Who is the victim? There are a couple of great twists within the film that quickly displace where you stand and how you feel about characters. It’s the cinematic experience that keeps you on the edge of your seat with all of your senses in tune to what’s going on before your eyes! Go see this film! Just remember to breathe during the scenes, as breathtaking as they are at times.
Rating: A-
"The Purge: Election Year" Review
It’s been two years since we last saw America purge in The Purge: Anarchy. This time it’s 2025 and America is on the verge of either electing a new president who wants to get rid of the purge, or a president who wants nothing but to see the annual 12 hours of all crime being legal continued. This weekend at the movies, I vote you save your money and wait for this one to hit your favorite streaming program!
Eighteen years before the present day in the film, Senator Charlie Roan (Elizabeth Mitchell) watched her family be murdered before her eyes on purge night. Since then, she has been on a mission to end the purge. Let’s not kid ourselves, her opponent is a Donald Trump-like character who believes in violence as the American Way. Frank Grillo reprises his role as Seargent Barnes but this time he’s the head of the Senator’s security.
We’re introduced to new characters in the beginning of the film, and it’s noticeably less than Anarchy’s cast. Bishop (Edwin Hodge) is a revolutionary fighting the NFFA (a trivia note, he's the only person who has been in all three films but he's at the forefront in this one), Joe (Mykelti Williams aka Bubba from Forrest Gump) is a small deli shop owner with the worst afro-centric stereotypical one-liners, and Laney (Betty Gabriel) is an ex-gangster who may have traded in violence for being a triage nurse but still has a shotgun near by. The character development is a little rushed, and the only new person I cared for was Laney as she had a great stamp of approval from a teenage hell-raiser (who comes back later in the film) in the beginning of the film.
The franchise hasn’t changed from its baseline since The Purge. The characters still have to survive the night. This time the goal is to protect the senator from the NFFA members and hired henchmen trying to take her out. The intriguing development this time is the culture and technology of the purge. Foreigners from around the world come to America to participate in the purge as a form of leisure, coined “murder tourists”. Purgers use drones to track people, set up sophisticated traps, and have fight clubs. You get a true sense that this America is fully realized throughout the film.
Writer/director of the trilogy, James DeMonaco, visually taps into the terror of the purge by taking what’s typically harmless and making it horrifying. A car wrapped in christmas lights, bumping Taylor Swift, and filled with teenage girls dressed in lingerie becomes a psychotic gang you don’t want to mess with. Unfortunately, this film seems to have lost its steam at the script level. DeMonaco has slowly brought a political/class undertone further to the forefront with each film, and Election Year clearly wants to speak on gun violence, the Black Lives Matter movement, religious fanaticism and our current election season. The subtlety in eluding to modern issues is tossed out for either on-the-nose dialogue, or long scenes that run its point into the ground.
I’ve been a fan of this franchise up until this point from a guilty pleasure perspective. The internal time clock on the films keep things moving, and its entertaining to see how the characters will survive. While The Purge: Election Year has its moments, overall it feels rushed and the characters are caricatures of their stereotype. I’m sure there will be another purge film, but this franchise’s clock may get punched if it doesn’t work on better character development and presenting issues in a more subtle way.
Rating: C-
"The Conjuring 2" Review: Wan is Back in the Zone!
Horror fans, indulge me for a moment. Think of all the elements that go into a masterful horror film: Nerve-jangling scares; a sense of dread permeating throughout; imagery that sticks with you and keeps you up at night; brilliant production design; a great score; believable performances; and yes, even genuine emotion.
It sounds too good to be true in today’s world, where fecal matter like Ouija, The Gallows, and The Forest clogs the toilet that is mainstream horror. Yet there is hope in the form of our savior, the almighty and all-knowing James Wan, who has come to show us the way. Wan has always been a master of his craft, as he has demonstrated in the original Saw, Insidious, and The Conjuring, but now he has perfected it. With The Conjuring 2, he has made a perfect horror film.
Yes. The Conjuring 2 is a perfect movie. As in, it has practically zero flaws.
Like its 2013 predecessor, The Conjuring 2 is set in the 1970s and delves into the so-called “true case files” of Ed and Lorraine Warren (played by Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga, respectively), a real-life husband-and-wife team of renowned demonologists. This time, the Warrens travel to Enfield, England, where a single mother (Frances O’Connor) and her four children are being tormented, possessed, and generally inconvenienced by a demonic presence.
What transpires at the Hodgson household is pretty standard stuff: A chair moving on its own, strange voices, bumps in the night. Of course, we’ve seen it all done before in plenty of other movies, but rarely have we seen it done so well. Like a certain Mr. Spielberg, Wan has a gift for manipulation, and not in a bad way—he meticulously crafts each individual moment for maximum effect, so that the audience is completely wrapped around his finger. The tension Wan creates is palpable, and while he often makes use of those dreaded jump scares, they never feel cheap and they always feel earned. The man simply knows what he’s doing.
He’s aided by terrific production design by Julie Berghoff and a spine-tingling score by Joseph Bishara. Both add authenticity to the period setting and an uncanny unease to the film’s atmosphere. Sweeping camerawork by director of photography Don Burgess glides placidly, putting the viewer on edge for what awaits just around the corner. And the performances—with standout turns once again by Wilson (TV’s Fargo) and Farmiga (TV’s Bates Motel)—bring humanity and heart to the spooky proceedings.
I loved this movie. As a horror fan, I want to shout it from the mountaintops: “The Conjuring 2 is not only the rare sequel that’s as good if not better than its predecessor, it’s a masterpiece of the genre!” It’s a rickety, demented funhouse ride that, despite its 135-minute running time, doesn’t overstay its welcome (unlike those pesky spirits). That’s quite an accomplishment. And though there have been some phenomenal indie horror films as of late, such as It Follows, The Babadook, and The Witch, James Wan is king as far as mainstream, wide-release horror goes. With all the heavenly blessings, I thank James Wan for turning down Fast 8 to direct this film. Horror is where he belongs.
Grade: A+