A scene from the Danish TV series “The Killing.” Photo courtesy of Topic Entertainment.
This subtitled Danish TV crime drama series “The Killing”(original title “Forbrydelsen”) will impress you as either riveting or tedious, depending on how much time you want to spend on this binge. Like most European crime series, this one is more cerebral than visceral. Their fictional cops just don’t get into as many fights and shootouts as our made-up heroes. It runs 20 hours of a single, extremely complicated homicide, compared to the norm of solving such cases in an 8 – 10 episode season.
Sara Lund (Sofie Grabol) is a Copenhagen detective on her last day before moving to Sweden with her beau and son. She’s assigned to one last crime scene to break in her replacement, Detective Meyer (Soren Maling). The body of the young woman they find shows such prolonged and brutal treatment that Lund just can’t let it go, staying on the job much longer than planned. This is quite upsetting to both her family and colleagues – especially Meyer, who is something of a jerk, resenting her hands keeping the reins at his expense.
Suspects rise and fall like a game of whack-a-mole, as each new bit of evidence points the “J’accuse” finger at a different suspect, often seeming to exonerate the last one. Perhaps it was a crime of passion; there’s a strong chance of some political connection, greatly complicating the hotly-contested mayor election in process throughout the investigation. And just for another layer of confusion, this might be the work of a yet-undiscovered serial killer.
The script is highly intelligent, juggling more characters and plot lines than usual for the genre. We meet a slew of civilians affected by the tragedy and watch how lives crumble in various ways due to grief, suspicions and frustrations as each seeming explanation gets debunked by some other revelation. The political thread runs deeply and cynically throughout the season, with lines between the ones to like or dislike shifting and blurring constantly. Is the idealistic candidate (Lars Mikkelsen) as good as he seems, or involved in the murder and cover-up? Viewers can never be certain about who to believe or trust.
The 20-hour investment will be rewarded for those who have the discretionary time and patience. If you’re not geared for that length of involvement, don’t get started. You might wait for the release of its following seasons, in which the crimes at hand are resolved in about half the time, or less. Or you may be interested in the in the English-language remake (also titled The Killing) starring Mirielle Enos as Lund’s US counterpart. Both ran for several seasons.
(from left) Mid-Sized Sedan (Aaron Pierre), Prisca (Vicky Krieps), Guy (Gael García Bernal) and Chrystal (Abbey Lee) in OLD, written for the screen and directed by M. Night Shyamalan. Courtesy of Universal Pictures.
There is hardly anything scarier to Hollywood, or even to American culture generally, than growing old, and something that makes aging happen much more rapidly would be terrifying. So M. Night Shyamalan’s latest thriller OLD, where a group of people find themselves on a beach that compresses years of aging into hours, hits a cultural nerve, and has inherent potential for social commentary. Whether this director will use that potential, or even acknowledge it, is a big question going in to seeing this film.
A couple Guy (Gael Garcia Bernal) and Prisca (Vicky Krieps) and their 6-year-old son Trent (Nolan River) and 11-year-old Maddox (Alexa Swinton) check in to posh tropical resort for a family vacation. The wife found a deal on resort, and the family is pleased with their find as soon as they arrive, as they immediately are welcomed by the attentive staff with cocktails specially designed for their tastes. While the parents enjoy their cocktails, the kids check out their own candy and beverage bar, where their 6-year-old son Trent meets a boy who lives at the resort with his uncle and a friendship quickly forms.
The family looks happy but it soon becomes clear the pair on the verge of a breakup. Further, the wife has been diagnosed with a slow-growing tumor, although she is the one who is leaving the marriage. The next morning, the resort manager (Gustaf Hammarsten) approaches the family to offer a special treat: a day at a secret private beach hidden in a nature reserve, an excursion only offered to a select few. They gladly accept but as they are loaded into the van, they find they are not the only ones on the outing. Joining them are another couple, a nurse (Ken Leung) and his psychologist wife (Nikki Amuka-Bird ) and the family of a doctor (Rufus Sewell), with his much younger trophy wife (Abbey Lee), their 6-year-old daughter Kara (Mikaya Fischer) and his mother Agnes (Kathleen Chalfant) who has brought along her little dog. The resort provides beach chairs and umbrella, and a very full picnic basket, but no help getting that to the beach. As the driver (director Shyamalan) leaves, he tells them he’ll be back at 5 p.m. to pick them up. All they have to do is follow the path through a slot canyon and down to the beach.
The beach is beautiful as promised but a few odd things turn up right away. For one thing, there is someone already there, an African American man (Aaron Pierre) who looks a bit dazed and turns out to be a hip hop star with the improbable name of Mid-sized Sedan (one of the film’s few touches of humor). Soon become much weirder, and the vacationers quickly figure out the something is aging them (some more quickly than others). They also discover their phones don’t work and when they try to leave, something renders them unconscious. They appear to be trapped.
OLD, which is based on a graphic novel, has a fast-running ticking clock crossed with the familiar device of a group of people stuck together, which gives it a thriller set-up with a sci-fi/horror premise. That the threat is time and age, gives the story an extra twist, opening the door to a host of intriguing possibilities. As you expect, the people on the beach have a number of issues and getting them to work together to solve their mutual problem is a challenge in itself.
Sadly but maybe not surprisingly, Shyamalan largely passes on the social commentary potential and just goes for interpersonal conflict and ticking-clock terror. The film starts out well but then problems develop.
Here’s the problem: the sci-fi premise of M Night Shyamalan’s OLD requires an enormous suspension of disbelief upfront, and I’m fine with that. But then internal inconsistencies keep popping up that you have to keep overlooking. Then there is the surprising passivity of the people trapped in this situation. They quickly become consumed by internal concerns, like the parents’ panic over their children growing up. The few attempts at escape fail but there seems to be little organized effort and more personal introspection. The children seem to age faster than the adults, who hardly show a wrinkle, and there seems to be something about the food. While they hardly show external age, hidden medical conditions advance.
The gifted Gael Garcia Bernal and Vicky Krieps carry most of the dramatic load, creating a touching, layered portrait of a relationship evolving under pressure. Rufus Sewell is good as the arrogant doctor but both he and Abbey Lee as his looks-obsessed trophy wife have one-note characters. The children are played by several actors, including Thomasin McKenzie, who did impressive work in LEAVE NO TRACE and JOJO RABBIT, and Alex Wolff, who play the couple’s children in their teenage years. Embeth Davidtz and Emun Elliot are also good as grown versions of the characters. Ken Leung is a standout in the supporting role as a nurse who tries to bring others together, with strong backing by Nikki Amuka-Bird as his caring psychologist wife.
OLD has a good premise, something with a lot of potential for a thriller – even a thinking person’s thriller – and a very good cast. The film is based on the graphic novel “Sandcastles” and certainly graphic novels have been the basis of some excellent movies and television – think “Watchmen” for example. Unfortunately, OLD abandoned its more interesting potential early, to embrace nonsensical plot elements that are riddled with internal inconsistencies. It is that lack of consistency nags at the viewer, making one ask “but if that happened, why didn’t this happen” – over and over. The repeated suspension of disbelief is exhausting, and patience is quickly exhausted as well. Add in multiple false endings and a revealed conspiracy filled with so much false anti-medicine and anti-science messaging that it is the truly scary thing in this film, and you have a hot mess. Clearly, Shyamalan has never heard of either informed consent laws or medical ethics.
If you can ignore all the inconsistencies, and clearly from the audience reaction at the screening, there are plenty of people who can, then you may be entertained by OLD. But if you can’t stop noticing inconsistencies, wondering why this happens but that doesn’t, and why they do that but not this, or gag on the preposterous villainous reveal, you won’t enjoy this disappointing film because it makes less and less sense as it goes. Shyamalan’s clunker script seems to try to blend teen horror tropes and grown-up thriller ones but the emulsion proves a challenge to keep mixed, or suspended – much like your disbelief.
It’s disappointing because the premise had potential. Most disappointing, even disturbing, is the final reveal, a nauseating false message particularly unsettling in the middle of a pandemic.
OLD is not the worse film Shyamalan has ever made, and many will find it entertaining enough, as did about two-thirds of the audience at the screening. But those hoping the director will strike visionary gold again, like in THE SIXTH SENSE or UNBREAKABLE, will find more of a strike out. OLD opens wide Friday, July 23, at multiple theaters.
If there’s anyone that truly believes in the expression, “Everything old is new again”, they probably live in Hollywood. And they are probably a movie studio exec. That’s because there seems to be a reboot, remake, or (the marketers coined this new phrase) a “re-imagining” of a familiar story or concept. Now, this week, the “old” part of that adage is really being put to the test…or stretched thin. After all, the last one hit theatres less than four years ago, And as for the original 2004 entry, it was followed up by six sequels every year, reminding us of the “B” movie franchises of the 30s and 40s, in which you could count on a yearly visit from Andy Hardy’s family, Tarzan, and Boston Blackie. I’m referring to the SAW series. This weekend we’ll see a new spin (sorry) on them via a new thriller whose original subtitle included “From the Book of Saw”, but will now appear on theatre marquees and box office listings as simply SPIRAL. And around it goes…
…until it lands in the middle of a crowded celebration (with the fireworks, it must be July Fourth). In the packed carnival midway, a woman screams that her purse was snatched. A “plainclothes” cop pursues the thief to a “porta-potty”. But the “perp” has vanished…or so it would seem. The er, “seat” has an opening that leads to a ladder that empties into a subway tunnel. It’s then that the cop becomes the prey of a “pig-mask” wearing fiend with a distorted voice and a knack for gruesome torture devices. The next morning we meet another cop who’s having a bad day (though less deadly). The drug bust that Det. Zeke Banks (Chris Rock) worked solo goes sideways. Which leads to a “dressing down” by his boss, Chief Garza (Marisol Nichols). Zeke tells her that he has to work alone since many of the other cops have branded him a “rat” for helping to take down a “dirty” officer. Even though he’s the son of the precinct’s former captain, Zeke will be assigned a partner, a “green” rookie right out of the academy, Will Schenk (Max Minghella). The two are sent out to work a weird subway death of a homeless guy. But later that day, Zeke gets a special delivery package that ID’s the “vic”. Next to a grisly appendage is the badge of Zeke’s only “work buddy”, Boz. Oh, and there’s a flash drive with an image of a red spiral sprayed on the courthouse door along with an audio message from that same distorted voice claiming that Boz has paid the price for his sins. Everyone in the squad room believes it’s the return of “jigsaw”, or a “copy-cat’. That night Zeke goes over the case with his dad Marcus (Samuel L Jackson), who is also his landlord as Zeke’s marriage is crumbling. The news springs Banks Senior into action, though he shares little with his son. As the investigation continues, the packages and bodies pile up. But why do the deliveries always go straight to Banks? Could there be a connection? Or could he be the killer’s ultimate final goal?
Carrying the dramatic weight of this thriller is the always entertaining Rock, who builds upon his recent much-lauded character work in the FX “Fargo” series. The years have given the celebrated stand-up comic a real sense of gravitas making us believe in his Zeke, a man who strives to be just but is frustrated at nearly every turn, by fate and his surly co-workers. Yet, somehow his humor shines through the somber situations as Zeke spouts endless cynical observations and even tosses off an “inside joke” over a very early Rock screen role (30 years already). His work really elevates the often flimsy material. Much the same can be said of Jackson, who makes a most compelling “tough love” pop for Rock’s Zeke. He shows us that retirement hasn’t worked for Marcus, as a return to “the life” actually puts a “spring in his step”. Unfortunately, after an early scene with Rock, which just crackles with energy, the two are apart for most of the flick, making us hope for another pairing as prickly partners. As Zeke’s actual partner, Minghella is quite believable as the “straight arrow’ who can be a “sounding board’ for Rock’s rants, but can also stand up to some of the questionable tactics while getting the job done “by the book”. He gives us hope for the soured system, while we root for him and his ideals to survive the constant chaos.
Series vet Darren Lynn Bousman strives to bring a gritty sense of reality to the often far-fetched fantasy set-pieces. He sets his sights on the classic police/serial killer flicks like SILENCE OF THE LAMBS and especially SE7EN, but is tossed off course by the formula structure of the SAW legacy. The “boiling point” feel is pushed to the limit early as we are told of the city’s “heatwave” and frequent “brown-outs” which layers everyone with a sheen of sweat along with “pit stains” and slowly rotating fans left over from BODY HEAT. But the atmosphere can’t mask some of the script’s extreme “suspensions of disbelief”. We’ve got to accept that the killer can somehow sneak into places (one, in particular, is pretty darn public) and set up and monitor these Rube Golberg-inspired torture contraptions. One somehow meshed broken bottles with what seems to be a sort-of jet engine. The marriage of machine, grime and sticky gore soon becomes tedious as the victims are told via that wonky voice that they have a way out, which never seems to work. It doesn’t help that the mystery elements are so sloppy. There’s a squad room full of suspects, so when the “splatter ” set-ups are disrupted, it’s easy to zero in on the killer’s true identity. An early injection of Tarantino snark, when Zeke does a comic riff on an iconic Tom Hanks role, it doesn’t come close to QT’s pop culture bits (from Madonna to “Green Acres”). All the entrails in “blue boxes” lead up to a climax that’s like a balloon sputtering out it’s last bit of air before its limp plunge to the ground (I was reminded of the last moments of the recent Oscars telecast). Rock is always compelling but the tired gore formula and familiat serial killer tropes just cause SPIRAL to keep spinning its bloody wheel to little effect or real interest. Time to put that worn ole’ saw back in the cinema tool shed.
1.5 Out of 4
SPIRAL opens in select theatres on Friday May 14, 2021
A scene from RIDERS OF JUSTICE (Retfærdighedens Ryttere), a Magnet release. Photo credit: Rolf Konow. Courtesy of Magnet Releasing
Although the title reads like something from a 1930s Western, this is a very contemporary Danish revenge flick with a unique blend of action and comedy, written and directed by Anders Thomas Jensen and starring Mads Mikkelsen (Oscar-winning ANOTHER ROUND, TV’s “Hannibal”). It is also my favorite film, thus far, of 2021. Sneaky excellence in a surprising package.
We open with math geek Otto (Nikolaj Lie Kaas) struggling to explain the commercial value of his algorithm for predictions, factoring far more causal factors than any other program. It is akin to the axiomatic butterfly in Africa fluttering its wings setting in motion a chain of events that result in something quite different across the globe. The tunnel-vision Board fails to see how it will serve their only goal of selling their product, so they fire him and his fellow nerds.
That lands him in a commuter train car (earlier than usual) which explodes, killing a bunch of the passengers. One is a woman to whom he chivalrously gave his seat. Otto and the woman’s teen daughter, Mathilde (Andrea Heick Gadeberg) survive. He learns that the key witness about to testify against the head of a local gang of thugs – the eponymous Riders – is another casualty of this seeming accident.
But filled with survivor’s guilt, and licking the fresh wounds of his rejected program, Otto recalls seeing something that convinces him the blast was a planned hit on the witness, rather than a random bit of bad luck. The police dismiss his speculation. So Otto and his cohorts Lennart (Lars Brygmann) and Emmenthaler (Nicolas Bro) start trying to prove their point via their method. They take this idea to the husband of the unlucky lady, Markus (Mads Mikkelsen), a hard-nosed career soldier who was forced to interrupt his career abroad to try being a parent to his surly teen daughter Mathilde.
From that point on, the movie is a masterful blend of action, slapstick and character comedy as the foursome hunts the perps to right that hideous wrong, while keeping Markus’ daughter from learning what they’re doing. She’s busy trying to convince her angry, taciturn dad to open up and deal with his feelings, not knowing his method is already in process, and about as far from a shrink’s couch as one could get.
This film plays as a welcome novelty in the “Don’t-F***-with- My-Family” genre. Mikkelsen assumes the mantle of a Danish Liam Neeson, who has established himself (and his particular set of skills) as an Irish Charles Bronson, who made a career of being an American Chuck Norris, with the bonus of added range and talent. There is plenty of action, delightful humor and the proper amount of emotional work in this wonderful dark comedy. The four male avengers contribute first-rate performances in fleshing out relatable, complex protagonists. With all the worldwide travel restrictions of the past year, we can be grateful none apply to importing films like this.
RIDERS OF JUSTICE, in Danish with English subtitles, opens Friday, May 14, at Landmark’s Plaza Frontenac Cinema and streaming on demand.
Scene from the opioid crisis thriller CRISIS, starring Gary Oldman, Evangeline Lilly, and Armie Hammer. Photo: Philippe Bosse. Courtesy of Quiver Distribution.
The crisis at the center of writer/director Nicholas Jarecki’s thriller CRISIS is the opioid crisis. The fact-inspired thriller CRISIS runs on three lines – a whistle-blowing scientist, a woman recovering from addiction to prescription painkillers unraveling a tragic mystery,, and an undercover DEA agent trying to break up a drug ring running prescription painkillers across the US-Canadian border. The triple thriller has a lot of threads to keep track of but CRISIS features a sterling cast headed by Gary Oldman, Evangeline Lilly, and Armie Hammer.
Gary Oldman, Evangeline Lilly and Armie Hammer all head up separate narrative threads that represent different aspects of the vicious circle of the opioid crisis. Although the Covid pandemic has pushed all other crises off the headlines, this one has continued to grow and will quickly re-emerge in the public sphere. Jarecki tackles the whole of the opioid problem, from the over-prescribing of drugs deemed safe, often rushed to market by large drug companies more focused on profit than careful research, and then their transformation into street drugs.
The Canadian/Belgian production CRISIS tells its tale through three threads, with different individuals battling the tragic situation from perspectives, story lines that alternate throughout the film. Gary Oldman plays Dr. Tyrone Brower, a university biology professor who also does research for a drug company as a way to fund his lab’s other research, but runs into trouble when he uncovers a problem with the company’s latest painkiller, which is on the verge of FDA approval. Brower is under pressure from the drug company whose research he does but also Dean Talbot (Greg Kinnear) of the university where he works.
Armie Hammer plays Jake Kelly, an undercover DEA agent tracing the illegal movement of opioids across the US – Canadian border. Kelly has infiltrated a Montreal-based drug operation headed by gang boss known as Mother (Guy Nadon). At the same time, he is dealing with his own drug-addicted younger sister Emmie (Lily-Rose Depp). Nicholas Jarecki appears in his own film as Stanley Foster, Jake Kelly’s undercover partner, while Michelle Rodriguez plays Supervisor Garrett, Kelly’s boss at the DEA.
Evangeline Lilly plays Claire Reimann, a recovering opioid addiction, whose addiction started with a prescription after an accident, who is racked with doubts and guilt about that as he raises her son as a single parent, When her son goes missing, she is frantic but when the police suggest her son’s disappearance may be linked to illegal drug trafficking, she decides to uncover the truth.
Nicholas Jarecki’s dramatic thriller with alternating, overlapping stories will remind some of 2005’s CRASH and other overlapping-stories films, although not all of the threads come together so neatly in CRISIS. Still, opioid addiction is such a huge and growing problem that has been overshadowed, like everything else, by the pandemic, so the film takes on a worthy topic
The individuals are fictional but the crisis depicted is quite real. The plot explores the opioid crisis through the whole chain that drives it, including drug companies developing the prescription drugs that are later turned into street drugs, the law enforcement battle against powerful drug runners, and the struggles of those who become addicted through prescription and their families. It is a lot of territory to cover in a single film, and Jarecki does sometimes struggle to keep all the balls in the air, not always completely successfully. Still the film’s important topic, and the parts that do succeed, make the film worthwhile as well as involving entertainment, a good combination.
The film alternates between the three story lines in a balanced fashion, and develops into a thriller of sorts as the complications and twists unfold. Eventually, two of the three threads converge but the lack of integration of the third one, perhaps the most significant one, leaves the film feeling a bit less dramatically balanced than it might have been.
The production was shot in Canada and features some scenic dramatic sequences, particularly the opening one in the snowy mountains as law enforcement chase a young man smuggling drugs across the US-Canadian border. Generally the photography by Nicolas Bolduc is nicely done, and he does a fine job keeping the pace up as the drama moves into a thriller mode.
Acting is very good all around. Unsurprisingly, Gary Oldman is excellent as the scientist caught in a murky dilemma between his ethical standards and practical concerns about keeping his lab running. Under pressure between the drug company that funds his lab and the dean of his college, Oldman gives a moving performance and a man who must sort through his feelings, the facts and potential consequences. Evangeline Lilly is likewise effective as Claire Reinmann, a recovering addict who became hooked on opioids after an injury, whose fragile emotional state is shaken when her son suddenly disappears and the police suggest a link to drugs, a situation that Lilly explores with heartbreaking, nuanced sensitivity in her excellent performance. Even Armie Hammer, who is not in the same acting league as Oldman or Lilly, is well cast in his role as the iron-jawed undercover agent, and does well in the part. He handles both the action hero-type scenes and in the ones requiring more dramatic finesse well, including those with Lilly-Rose Depp, who plays his drug addicted sister.
THE CRISIS strikes the mark unerring accuracy in its exploration of the various elements that fuel the opioid crisis, and provides a timely reminder of this expanding crisis, which may have been pushed off the headlines by the pandemic but has by no means gone away. THE CRISIS is available on demand and on digital starting March 5.
With January finally, in your rear-view mirror, do you still feel part of a sluggish rut, as though one day just blends into the next with barely a change in course? With current events as they are, this may resonate with most folks. Some may wonder if there’s a switch that just needs to be flipped in order to “break out” and go to your “happy place”. That’s certainly true of the hero of a new flick. He’s in a miserable “fog” that seems to haunt his every second. Luckily a chance meeting (or is it) meeting provides that “push” that jolts him out of the mundane and into, what seems, a state of pure BLISS.
That unlikely hero mentioned earlier is Greg Wittle (Owen Wilson), who’s an executive in a big company headquartered in a sprawling urban area. He spends most of his days avoiding the “higher-ups” while he draws elaborately detailed sketches of his dream home in paradise and the exotic beauty who also occupies that “space”. But he’s somewhat “tethered” to reality by his daughter from his previous marriage, who’s adamant about his attendance at her college graduation. Greg assures her that he’ll be there, just as his latest “dodge” fails and he must march into the firm’s top floor suite for a “meeting”. In the first of many surprises, his dismissal ends in a tragedy that propels him into the temporary sanctuary of the bar across the street. There, he’s beckoned by a mysterious woman named Isabel (Salma Hayek) who seems somehow “familiar”. She tells him that he, like her, doesn’t really belong “here’ and can alter events and control behaviors just by concentration and the wave of her hand …which she demonstrates. The couple then quickly departs for her ramshackle “under the highway” home to plot a course of action. After a rest, Greg realizes that she is the woman of his dream-induced drawings. But soon their retreat is over, as they begin a journey to find the source of the rare “yellow crystal” that will set things “right”. Meanwhile, Greg’s daughter Emily (Nesta Cooper) starts her own quest to track him down. Isabel reminds him that the clock is “ticking” and dangerous forces while try and stop them. Can these crystals really be the solution? Will they open his eyes to a different “reality”?
This film is an offbeat “hybrid’, a mixing of romance, futuristic/fantasy, and suspense/thriller. In support of the former, all hinges on the two main leads, who don’t have a “meet-cute”, but rather a meet “odd”. Wilson makes good use of his halting dialogue delivery as the, in the opening minute, befuddled, distracted Greg who seems to be floating above the business (whatever it is) chaos. After a catastrophe “wakes” him, he’s in full panic mode until Isobel “shatters his state”. From there Wilson is the affable, still stunned everyman who’s in a heightened “amazed” mode while enjoying the playful aspect of his new “talents”. Hayek, as in many of her past “rom-coms”, is the other-worldly goddess who “rocks the world” of a stuffy “suit”. But here’s she also the sexiest guide/mentor we’ve seen on screen as she prods Greg to open his mind while exhorting him to sprint to his destiny. With her dreadlocks and “found fashions” Hayek embodies the earthy, free-spirited street sorceress of this urban fantasy. Cooper as the concerned loving daughter helps ground the trippy tale with her passionate performances. And kudos for casting Bill Nye in a small role as,…well, a “super” science guy.
Writing/director Mike Cahill (ANOTHER EARTH) excels in delineating the shift in the tone of the story’s often convoluted structure. In the film’s first half we’re in a place perhaps a couple of years ahead of our own, with a city given over to marauders by night, and whose streets are clogged by economic strife (and protests) by day. After the revelations of Isabel, things take a clunky turn, especially with an extended unfunny slapstick sequence at a “roller disco” as she and Greg decide to dispense some payback via lots of silly pratfalls and tumbles. From there it’s a short sprint to a pseudo-MATRIX “twist” (complete with big bubbling clear tanks with floating braaains) and a sun-washed-out “utopia” that’s a cross between an “all-inclusive” resort infomercial and the “pleasure planet’ where Capt. Picard got his “groove back” in a late 80s STNG. This leads to some goofy SF “gobbled-goop” involving holographic AI breaking out of the “program” and a military siege. And if that’s not enough, we get a ludicrous police stand-off/shoot-out as Greg must make the “big decision”. What starts as an unlikely romance (though Wilson and Hayek seem more like pals) crumbles into a lackluster copy of something that the SyFy basic cable channel would place to fill a weekend timeslot. The duo deserves better than this clumsy clone that inspires the opposite of BLISS.
2 out of 4
BLISS streams exclusively on Amazon Prime beginning Friday, February 5, 2021.
Carey Mulligan stars as “Cassandra” in director Emerald Fennell’s PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN, a Focus Features release. Credit: Courtesy of Focus Features
Carey Mulligan gives a fearless, powerhouse performance as a once-promising young woman who now spends her nights prowling bars, posing as a drunken woman to exact revenge on would-be rapists, in PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN. Director Emerald Fennel’s smart, clever, darkly-funny film is an equally fearless take down of rape culture and its enablers, a film that straddles the lines between thriller, dark comedy and drama genres. The surprising, and surprisingly entertaining, PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN is at once a highly entertaining experience, a hard-hitting attack on rape culture, and an impressive showcase for Mulligan. The film calls itself a comedy, but while there is dark humor, it is more complicated than that. A bracing but unexpected mix of dark humor, thriller tension veering into horror, pointed but indirect social commentary and powerful drama, PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN is hard to categorize, but the whole thing is propelled by Carey Mulligan’s remarkable performance.
We first meet Cassandra (Carey Mulligan) – Cassie for short – as a predator hunting predators. She hangs out in bars and clubs, acting as if she is so drunk she can’t stand. The drunken act draws in a certain kind predator, a man who appears to be a nice guy at first, compared to his openly sexist friends, who seems kind in offering her a ride home. But once they are out of the bar, there is a detour to his place and more liquor for the already-soused woman. But once he gets her on the bed and starts removing her clothes, Cassie suddenly reveals she is not drunk at all – and the would-be predator is now her prey.
By night, Cassie prowls the bars, dressed in low-cut tight dresses and sporting bright red lipstick, on her mission of revenge. By day, Cassie is all little girl innocence, dressing in pink and wears braids, living in a pink and frilly bedroom in her parents’ house. After her nightly outings, she writes in a pink diary, but it is filled with red and black Xs, the meaning of which is left to our imagination.
Her name is a tip-off, a reference to the Greek myth of the oracle whose prophetic warnings are always ignored. But this revenge thriller is tricky, turning tables on us in scenes where we expect graphic sex or violence, cutting away from a presumed bloody revenge to jump forward to Cassie sauntering home in the morning light, with a stripe of red dripping down her arm as she dines on hot dog bun filled with….something. The scene is horrifying and darkly funny at the same time, with a comic book twist.
This is a revenge thriller for the Me Too hashtag era, an intelligent and hard-hitting satire. The darkly comic switch up seems to point us towards horror/comedy but while PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN bills itself as a comedy, albeit a very dark one, there is more going on here than just humor – far more – with a swerve towards psychological drama and damning commentary on rape culture. PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN is hard to categorize, but the whole thing is grounded by Carey Mulligan’s striking performance.
Cassie dresses like a teenager but close-ups of her face show she clearly is not. Her parents are puzzled by what their brilliant daughter, once a “promising young woman,” is doing with her life. She is working a coffee shop since suddenly dropping out of medical school, after her best friend, and fellow med student, was raped by another student, an event that devastated the friend. Cassie’s parents have no idea where she goes at night or her secret revenge missions. For her thirtieth birthday, her parents give her a suitcase – pink, of course – a not-so-subtle hint about what they want to happen.
Cassie’s one friend appears to be her boss (Laverne Cox) at the coffee shop, where they engage in rounds of sarcastic humor with little concern for customers.
The candy-colored, little-girl life Cassie lives by day and the “bad girl” disguise she adopts by night, donning black leather and red lipstick, are part of the satirical feminist commentary on this bold film, which was also written by director Fennell. It is a brave performance by Carey Mulligan, whose face is lit to emphasis that she is no longer as young as Cassie acts, yet Mulligan pulls this off brilliantly, in a perfect mix, as she sarcastic blends the little girl world of pink bows with the seething anger of a woman bent of revenge. Besides its lists of red and black marks, her pink diary also has a list of men’s names, fellow med students who were there when her friend was raped or were complicit in the cover-up.
Mulligan is perfectly cast, with her sweet face and deep well of talent, and delivers a tour-de-force performance that mines the depths of this character and squeezes out every nuance and detail. By turns, Cassie is terrifying and heart-tugging, someone so broken yet so human. It is no mean feat for any actor to pull off, yet Mulligan does so brilliantly.
Director Fennell has a lot of fun with the art direction, filling the screen with shades of pink and little-girl themes, used in ironic fashion. At one pivotal point in the story, when isolated Cassie reconnects with Ryan (Bo Burnham), a former med school classmate who seeks her out at coffee shop and a tentative romance begins, the color shifts from pink to a mix of baby blue and pink, and becoming more blue, as Cassie seems to relax her focus on vengeance. At times it feels as if the colors are struggling for dominance, the angry pink versus the peaceful blue, as Cassie struggles with her inner demons and past betrayals.
Fennell also makes good ironic use of the soundtrack, peppering it with tidbits like “It’s Raining Men,” musical choices that either sharpen the humor, the heartbreak or the horror. From time to time, the film does seem headed for familiar horror film territory, only to swerve away and take us somewhere unexpected, then veer back. It all makes the ending all the more shocking.
PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN is on the year’s best, a complex film that is both entertaining and thought-provoking, with a strange but hypnotic mix of satire, social commentary and human drama. It is in theaters and streaming on demand on Jan. 15.
A certain odd feeling probably crossed your mind as you’re dashing past a building. You might still experience this occasionally. That is if the building sports a glass front entrance or window. Catching your reflection, you might first think,” Ugh, bad hair day” or “ I’d better just have a salad for lunch.”. But if you’re not in a mad hurry you may wonder if you’ve got an exact twin somewhere. Or taking it further, what if there’s another “me” in an almost identical “now”. And is this reflection a window into that duplicate world? That’s an idea that’s been explored in many fantasy anthology TV shows, though an even more famous use of that idea was on the original “Star Trek” TV show, you know the one with an evil Spock sporting a sinister goatee. Now that notion is taken up a few notches in the new thriller concerning the dangers of crossing into the dimensions that run PARALLEL to ours.
Of course, this tale begins on familiar “terra firma”. Two plucky twenty-something tech promoters Noel (Martin Wallstrom) and Devin (Ami Ameen) are pitching their “game-changer” app to a big CEO. He likes it but gives them an impossible deadline. Why? The software whiz the duo had hired, has undercut them with his own pitch. And without him, there’s no way to meet that deadline. So naturally, the pair returns to the house they’ve rented with old college pals, gaming geek Josh (Mark O’Brien) and aspiring artist Leena (Georgia King), and proceed to get roaring drunk. When Devin tosses a glass at the laundry room wall, the resulting hole reveals a surprise. There’s a hidden attic. With a weird telescope-like device that peers into every room. In addition to an exit door that leads to the outside of the house (like an old-time coal bin/shoot). While checking out the dusty old furniture, Josh bumps into a long wardrobe mirror. And his hand pushes into its rubbery surface. They all gasp as he puts more of his arm inside it. After pulling it out, Josh backs up and then strolls right into it. His entire body vanishes. When Josh opens his eyes, he’s near the backyard, watching himself and his pals having a BBQ. Josh returns to the attic, thinking he’s been gone for hours. But it was only a few seconds. After some calculations, Noel and Devin enter the mirror in order to finish the app and “crush” that deadline. But that’s only the start. Soon the quartet is jumping back and forth between these alternate worlds (on one, the Mona Lisa has a pageboy hairdo) and reaping the benefits of new inventions and artistic triumphs. But the big profits are soon overshadowed by deadly consequences. Will their magical “portal” cost them their friendships? Or maybe even their very lives…
The quartet of characters at the heart of the story display very different reactions to the discovery of their “realm-hopping” gift and the actors covey these distinct “takes” As Noel, Wallstrom is the “stressed for success” ramrod who will stop at nothing to rise to the top. The greed quickly erodes his morality as he focuses his attention from acquiring riches to rekindling a failed fling with Leena. As the frustrated painter, King portrays her as a woman dealing with an inner battle as she may be the most conflicted of the foursome. She’s ecstatic over being the toast of the art world, but (after a few glasses of bubbly) Leena lashes out at the fawning fans, and at herself for “tracing’ another world’s great talents. But the real moral conscious is probably Ameen’s Devin, who sees the “magic door” as a way to repair his fractured family history, rather than a fast track to big bucks. He’s able to hold on to his notions of right and wrong, but his tendency to “bail” is stopped thanks to his own connection to Leena. Josh, played by O’Brien as a “no filter” carefree spirit, uses his discovery as means to have lotsa’ naughty fun, particularly with Carmen, his next door “lust object”, which leads to a tragic decision. The film also benefits from strong cameos by David Harewood (TV’s “Supergirl”) as the man from Devin’s past along with film and TV vet Kathleen Quinlan in a terrific prologue sequence that sets it all “in motion”.
Screenwriter Scott Blaszak came up with a delicious “what if” premise, making us question our own behavior if presented with a world-switching opportunity. The set of “rules’ he’s crafted (“Don’t interact with another ‘self’!” “The mirror must be at the correct angle”) help get us into “the game”. Unfortunately the plot gets over-convoluted by the 60-minute mark as the trips and double-twists pile on top of each other, often in introducing some “other dimension” gizmos and gadgets (aplenty) that resemble cobbled together “zap guns” from 1980s New World SF drive-in flicks. Director Isaac Ezban does his best as a cinematic “traffic cop” guiding the different subplots and keeping them from crashing. Plus he wrings some genuine suspense in several scenes (he’s coming up the stairs) and orchestrates one of the most gruesome villain demises I’ve seen in a recent release. Too often he hits us with “off-kilter” camera effects to portray a character’s disorientation, but he gives the film an overall sense of impending doom (accented by the gloomy cold Canadian locales). Not really a strong “A’ feature, but for some engaging “B” movie-style thrills and chills paired with a cool central idea, PARALLEL is a fairly entertaining fantasy on any world.
2.5 Out of 4
PARALLEL opens in select theatres and is available as a video on demand via most streaming apps and platforms beginning Friday December 11th, 2020
Diane Lane (left) stars as “Margaret Blackledge” and Kevin Costner (right) stars as “George Blackledge” in director Thomas Bezucha’s LET HIM GO, a Focus Features release. Photo Credit : Kimberley French / Focus Features
LET HIM GO is a Western set in early ’60s Montana, starring Kevin Costner and Diane Lane in a heroic fight, not to save a town as in a classic Western, but to rescue their grandchild. When their son James (Ryan Bruce) dies suddenly, he leaves a hole in the hearts of his parents George (Costner) and Margaret (Lane) Blackledge, as well as a young widow Lorna (Kayli Carter) and infant child named Jimmy. When their daughter-in-law remarries, things change, but then her abusive new husband, Donnie Weboy (Will Brittain), unexpectedly relocates his wife and stepson to join his family in his home state. There was no warning and the young couple left no address yet strong-willed Margaret is determined not to let her grandson go. George, a retired sheriff, tracks them to an area North Dakota. While Donnie’s name rings no bells with George’s law enforcement contacts nor locals in North Dakota, the Weboy names sure does, as a notorious, fearsome family led by a Ma Barker-like matriarch, Blanche Weboy (a fiery Leslie Manville). Despite the unlikelihood of success, Margaret and George aim to bring their grandson back to Montana, and embark on a mission to persuade the Weboys to “let him go.”
LET HIM GO is a bit of fooler, starting
out like a polite family drama with fine Oscar-bait cast and
settings, a drama about loss and a character study of the older
couple – until in the final act, when it transforms into something
more like a violent thriller.
Director Thomas Bezucha adapted Larry Watson’s novel of the same name. At first, LET HIM GO builds up a confrontation over child custody, a timeless topic, along with an exploration of the Blackledges’ anguish over possible loss of their lost son’s only child, as much a character study of the two people in this long marriage as anything else.
This drama is set against the sweeping
vistas of a Western landscape. It makes for a visually-pleasing,
award-minded drama but pretty conventional stuff. But then the film
takes an unexpected move, shifting into something else in the final
act, when the couple faces the wild Blanche Weboy (Leslie Manville),
the fiery matriarch of a violent, powerful family.
LET HIM GO has plenty of visual
references to classic Westerns, including those of John Ford, despite
to it’s mid-20th century setting. The finely crafted films has
gorgeous locations shots (actually shot in Alberta, Canada) that
include plenty of big-sky scenery, and lovingly perfect period
details in sets and costumes. But what seems like a mild, quiet,
thoughtful drama then shakes us up with a sudden turn into crime
thriller violence.
It is a jarring but thrilling shift but
it makes for an heck of an entertaining film, and one that works on
several levels, thanks largely to its sterling cast. That cast is
rounded out by Jeffrey Donovan as Blanche’s henchman like younger
brother Bill Weboy, and Booboo Stewart as a young Native American
hiding out in the North Dakota wilderness, who befriends George and
Margaret.
Both aspects of the film – the dramatic
exploration of a couple’s sense of loss as their only grandchild, the
son of their lost only child, is swept away from them when their
daughter-in-law remarries and what happens when they confront the
bullying Weboys – are well-crafted Yet taking what seems like a quiet
familiar family drama into this dark twist really changes what the
film is saying. The exploration of a couple grappling with loss
reaches a crisis when determined Margaret decides to track their
grandson with a reluctant George in tow, to the home of the
domineering matriarch of his stepfather’s family, Blanche Weboy, who
declares that the boy “is a Weboy now” and dismisses the
pain of the grandparents. But these two are unlikely to go away
quietly.
The reversal of the expected pattern of
the ex-sheriff leading this pursuit is one of many intriguing aspects
of LET HIM GO. The plot is entertaining but what really makes the
film cook are the performances. Leslie Manville plays the
iron-fisted, gangster-style matriarch of the Weboys, a family known
for violence who dominate their little corner of North Dakota. Kevin
Costner plays a steely, man-of-few-words retired sheriff, but also a
man with a dark view of life. At one point he says life is nothing
but a series of losses. He has serious doubts about what they are
doing but loyally determined to stand by his beloved wife. Diane Lane
plays that wife, a bit of a dreamer, who thinks she can talk anyone
into doing things her way, with a confidence in her own charm that
sometimes clouds her judgment. Her dreams about how it will all work
out aren’t always grounded in reality and it takes her plain-spoken
husband to make her see the facts. These flawed but appealing
characters are set on doing what they believe they must do, bring
their grandson back home to Montana.
The film upends expectations over and
over, after building an expectation of the comfortably familiar. The
couple look conventional at first but it is Diane Lane’s Margaret who
is the strong one, the one driving the quest to reclaim their
grandson, while Costner plays the more passive one who goes along,
reversing the expected gender roles. It is Margaret who is too
focused on her grandson Jimmy to see where she has gone wrong in her
relationship with her daughter-in-law.
The wonderful Manville is a glowing
menace in a wavy blond wig straight out of classic Nashville country
music, who brow beats everyone around her, including her younger
brother and three sons. She also dominated every scene she is in,
outshining her more famous co-stars. It is a meaty role and Manville
feasts on it. Manville’s Blanche is just as determined not to “let
him go” as Lane’s Margaret is to take young Jimmy back to
Montana with her.
The final showdown lights up the
screening in a burst of bracing violence, firing up the audience in a
thriller ending worthy of the best of classic drive-in Bs.
Okay, fright fans, Halloween’s just days away, how about a nice dose of the shivers? And maybe a bit of time-trippin’ fantasy. Oh, and just a pinch of social commentary, dished up by a couple of the busiest movie actors around. The commentary, well that’s about the current, now mostly legal, use of recreational drugs. So what if there were unforeseen side effects of an “over the dispensary counter” pill, one that somehow got through all the testing and trials? And you don’t need a souped-up DeLorean to “year-jumping”, but rather a lil’ white tablet. That’s a possibility when several characters in this new flick take a time trip on the “not-so-good” ship/pharmaceutical product called SYNCHRONIC.
After a prologue in which a couple goes on a nasty journey via a rec drug, we meet another couple, childhood buddies and overworked New Orleans EMTs Steve (Anthony Mackie) and Dennis (Jamie Dornan). Steve’s a hard-partying ladies man, while Dennis has a fairly steady homelife, with his wife Tara (Kate Aselton), punk/goth stylin eighteen-year-old Brianna (Ally Ionnides), and a near-newborn. They’ve been getting some weird calls lately, including one “druggie” almost run through with a centuries-old sword. And at each one of the “strange” rescues, Steve notices empty packets labeled “Synchronic”. When he accidentally pricks his finger on a needle, Steve goes in for a required check-up. He gets more than he bargained for. Nothing from the needle, but the doctor detects brain cancer, advanced. He could have weeks or months with treatment. Steve hides it from Dennis, who wonders why his pal is popping so much codeine during their night shifts. With little time left, Steve decides to take Synchronic off the street by buying out the local dispensary. As he leaves, another man arrives and offers to buy the pills from Steve at 2 or 3 times their cost. He declines and is later shocked that night when the same man breaks into his home. He’s the scientist behind the pills, who tells of a strange side effect for anyone under 20. Because of their uncalcified pineal gland, they can briefly “time shift”. Steve assures him that he flushed the pills. When the scientist leaves, Steve digs them out of the trash. Recently Dennis’s daughter Brianna disappeared without a trace. Could she have taken these? Because his cancer has cleaned his pineal gland to a much “younger” condition, Steve pops a tablet. Soon his living room “melts away’ to place him ankle-deep in a swamp, trapped by a gator and a charging saber-wielding conquistador. When his watch shows seven minutes have passed, he returns to his modern-day home. Later he finds that if he stands in different spots, he’ll go to other eras: the Ice Age, the 1920’s, etc. But he’s got to get back to that exact spot before his time’s up. Could this be what happened to Brianna? With the few pills he has left, can Steve track her down and bring her home before his own time runs out?
The audience’s acceptance of the story’s more fantastical elements really hinges on the solid performances of the two leads. Mackie, who is best known as Sam “The Falcon” Wilson in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, puts a tragic spin on this very different movie hero. Even before the awful diagnosis, his Steve goes about his daily life as though he was “half alive”. With the job that gives him all access to humanity often at its worst, he chooses to numb himself with booze and uninvolving “one night stands”. But we see that his limited future somehow gives his life a purpose, one heightened by his pal’s missing daughter. Still, Mackie often makes it difficult for us to “get behind him” as he shuts out his only real human connection. And Mackie, through his confused eyes, shows us that Steve’s just figuring it out as he goes, though he’s a meticulous planner. He tapes off and labels different spots in his house, makes sure his camcorder rolls when the pills kick in, and always dresses in layers in case he returns to the icy past (the first time makes him spend the rest of the night shivering in a warm bathtub). Dorman (who’s breaking out from those wretched 50 SHADES flicks) is more laid back as “workin’ stiff/family guy” Dennis. He too is emotionally wounded by his job, but finds comfort in the “nest” he’s made for his wife and kids. But he begins to crack as his buddy Steve seems to fade out of their friendship. And when his Brianna vanishes his “rock-steady” life quickly begins to crumble. Dorman conveys this man adrift with his downturned vision and sluggish pacing, making us hope that Steve will throw him a “lifeline” and pull him back in from despair. Aselton as his wife Tara goes from Dennis’ soothing partner to wounded matriarch striking back at him from hopelessness and fear. Ioannides as Brianna makes her a sweet but confused teen that still adores her folks despite her snarky retorts.
Veteran thriller directors Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead (working from Benson’s script) lull us into a sense of unease in that opening sequence as we have a curious dread about the effects of the pills a couple has popped. Is it a hallucination that makes their bodies react with simulated wounds? This question plagues the doctors and the “5-0” as the “freaky fatalities” increase. The pacing of the first act tests our patience as our EMT duo drifts into one messy dwelling to an old theme park in a moonlit haze while the camera glides from room to room and body to body. But as Steve becomes pro-active the film gains more focus as it sets up its own set of “time rules”, though the “space dissolves” are fairly unsettling and woozy, perhaps to convey Steve’s disoriented state. At times it plays as an affectionate riff on “strange science” flicks like ALTERED STATES and time-changing thrillers like SOURCE CODE and FREQUENCY, but has an “off-putting” vibe all its own. If you’re in the mood to take a chance on a fantasy/horror hybrid, then a dose of SYNCHRONIC may be just what the cinema doctor prescribed.
PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN – Review
Carey Mulligan gives a fearless, powerhouse performance as a once-promising young woman who now spends her nights prowling bars, posing as a drunken woman to exact revenge on would-be rapists, in PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN. Director Emerald Fennel’s smart, clever, darkly-funny film is an equally fearless take down of rape culture and its enablers, a film that straddles the lines between thriller, dark comedy and drama genres. The surprising, and surprisingly entertaining, PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN is at once a highly entertaining experience, a hard-hitting attack on rape culture, and an impressive showcase for Mulligan. The film calls itself a comedy, but while there is dark humor, it is more complicated than that. A bracing but unexpected mix of dark humor, thriller tension veering into horror, pointed but indirect social commentary and powerful drama, PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN is hard to categorize, but the whole thing is propelled by Carey Mulligan’s remarkable performance.
We first meet Cassandra (Carey Mulligan) – Cassie for short – as a predator hunting predators. She hangs out in bars and clubs, acting as if she is so drunk she can’t stand. The drunken act draws in a certain kind predator, a man who appears to be a nice guy at first, compared to his openly sexist friends, who seems kind in offering her a ride home. But once they are out of the bar, there is a detour to his place and more liquor for the already-soused woman. But once he gets her on the bed and starts removing her clothes, Cassie suddenly reveals she is not drunk at all – and the would-be predator is now her prey.
By night, Cassie prowls the bars, dressed in low-cut tight dresses and sporting bright red lipstick, on her mission of revenge. By day, Cassie is all little girl innocence, dressing in pink and wears braids, living in a pink and frilly bedroom in her parents’ house. After her nightly outings, she writes in a pink diary, but it is filled with red and black Xs, the meaning of which is left to our imagination.
Her name is a tip-off, a reference to the Greek myth of the oracle whose prophetic warnings are always ignored. But this revenge thriller is tricky, turning tables on us in scenes where we expect graphic sex or violence, cutting away from a presumed bloody revenge to jump forward to Cassie sauntering home in the morning light, with a stripe of red dripping down her arm as she dines on hot dog bun filled with….something. The scene is horrifying and darkly funny at the same time, with a comic book twist.
This is a revenge thriller for the Me Too hashtag era, an intelligent and hard-hitting satire. The darkly comic switch up seems to point us towards horror/comedy but while PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN bills itself as a comedy, albeit a very dark one, there is more going on here than just humor – far more – with a swerve towards psychological drama and damning commentary on rape culture. PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN is hard to categorize, but the whole thing is grounded by Carey Mulligan’s striking performance.
Cassie dresses like a teenager but close-ups of her face show she clearly is not. Her parents are puzzled by what their brilliant daughter, once a “promising young woman,” is doing with her life. She is working a coffee shop since suddenly dropping out of medical school, after her best friend, and fellow med student, was raped by another student, an event that devastated the friend. Cassie’s parents have no idea where she goes at night or her secret revenge missions. For her thirtieth birthday, her parents give her a suitcase – pink, of course – a not-so-subtle hint about what they want to happen.
Cassie’s one friend appears to be her boss (Laverne Cox) at the coffee shop, where they engage in rounds of sarcastic humor with little concern for customers.
The candy-colored, little-girl life Cassie lives by day and the “bad girl” disguise she adopts by night, donning black leather and red lipstick, are part of the satirical feminist commentary on this bold film, which was also written by director Fennell. It is a brave performance by Carey Mulligan, whose face is lit to emphasis that she is no longer as young as Cassie acts, yet Mulligan pulls this off brilliantly, in a perfect mix, as she sarcastic blends the little girl world of pink bows with the seething anger of a woman bent of revenge. Besides its lists of red and black marks, her pink diary also has a list of men’s names, fellow med students who were there when her friend was raped or were complicit in the cover-up.
Mulligan is perfectly cast, with her sweet face and deep well of talent, and delivers a tour-de-force performance that mines the depths of this character and squeezes out every nuance and detail. By turns, Cassie is terrifying and heart-tugging, someone so broken yet so human. It is no mean feat for any actor to pull off, yet Mulligan does so brilliantly.
Director Fennell has a lot of fun with the art direction, filling the screen with shades of pink and little-girl themes, used in ironic fashion. At one pivotal point in the story, when isolated Cassie reconnects with Ryan (Bo Burnham), a former med school classmate who seeks her out at coffee shop and a tentative romance begins, the color shifts from pink to a mix of baby blue and pink, and becoming more blue, as Cassie seems to relax her focus on vengeance. At times it feels as if the colors are struggling for dominance, the angry pink versus the peaceful blue, as Cassie struggles with her inner demons and past betrayals.
Fennell also makes good ironic use of the soundtrack, peppering it with tidbits like “It’s Raining Men,” musical choices that either sharpen the humor, the heartbreak or the horror. From time to time, the film does seem headed for familiar horror film territory, only to swerve away and take us somewhere unexpected, then veer back. It all makes the ending all the more shocking.
PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN is on the year’s best, a complex film that is both entertaining and thought-provoking, with a strange but hypnotic mix of satire, social commentary and human drama. It is in theaters and streaming on demand on Jan. 15.
RATING: 4 out of 4 stars
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