I don’t write movie reviews as often as I used to. Heck,
I don’t write anything as often as I
used to.
Since I started the Needless
Things Podcast I’ve discovered that I like talking a lot more than I
like writing. Or, more to the point, I like interacting
a lot more than I like writing. As I’ve pointed out several times over the
years, doing stuff on the internet is often a lot like yelling into a void. I
just throw it out there and hope that people read it and like it. Who knows?
Anyway, This past weekend was a lazy one. The
Troublemaker family pretty much just sat around the house enjoying one another’s’
company. And watching TV and movies. Here are a few that I want to comment on.
I’ll keep things as spoiler-free as possible.
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"The
Hive Poster 2015" by Source (WP:NFCC#4). Licensed under Fair use via
Wikipedia -
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The Hive
I’ve been wanting to see this forever!
And by “forever” I mean something like a year or so.
I don’t remember exactly what the image was, but one of
the artists that I follow on Instagram posted something from The Hive that intrigued me. He said
something about it being awesome, as well. Since then I have been wanting to
see it, but it’s been unusually elusive for an independent horror flick.
Nerdist.com recently distributed it as their first-ever movie, so it’s finally
available On Demand. Since that Instagram post, though, it has gotten a lot of
hype.
The
Hive
is a solid, competently crafted movie. The cast is fantastic and the effects
are made all the more great for being so simple. Pacing-wise things move right
along. From beginning to end there was no filler. I felt like I was watching the
narrative move forward with every frame. So this thing covers the basics.
Here’s the thing – I felt like that was all it covered.
This is a slick, competent flick, but there’s not much compelling. I sat there
and watched it and enjoyed it, but there was nothing remarkable or particularly
interesting. It told a solid story and it felt like everyone did their jobs and
went home. I didn’t feel any soul from this movie. The love story is fun and
the leads have great chemistry, the mystery of the virus that’s afflicting the
characters is interesting until you figure it out, but there isn’t much here.
The
Hive
isn’t a bad movie by any means, but it doesn’t do anything particularly new or
exciting and it certainly isn’t one to own.
Unfriended
If you had told me a few months ago that I would be far
more excited about the experience I had watching this than I was by The Hive, I would have laughed in your
face. But that’s exactly what went down.
I feel bad for people that saw Unfriended in the theater because this is not a theatrical movie.
We watched it in the TV, and it’s fine that way, but if you really want to get
into this one I recommend you watch it on your computer or laptop or even
tablet. This thing is all gimmick, and it is so perfectly executed that days
later I am still marveling at how well the filmmakers pulled it off.
This is not, by the way, a great movie. It’s a typical,
hacky story about teenagers getting killed by a mystery entity. But the
presentation is so clever and unique that I thoroughly enjoyed watching it. The
whole thing takes place on the screen of the main characters’ laptop and is
told through use of Skype, Facebook, YouTube, and various messaging services.
The key thing is that the film licensed all of the actual services for use, so
you don’t have stupid stuff like a “YouFace” logo taking you out of the story.
Speaking of, the story isn’t bad. Just because it’s clichéd
doesn’t mean it isn’t good. There are some nice little twists and it is
certainly executed well enough to keep you invested. The cast is as good as any
teen horror cast, but you don’t necessarily get to know them beyond their
archetypes, which doesn’t matter too much because the whole point of Unfriended is to immerse yourself in the
chosen medium of storytelling.
Everything is perfectly executed. Watching the user click
from window to window or switch services or even just mistype something is very
real. The interaction between all of the kids and their various devices and
programs is incredibly fluid and was clearly directed by someone that is familiar
with the technology. There were many moments where I related to what the
characters were doing, if not the characters themselves.
As someone who spends more time Skyping and whatnot than
I particularly want, it was effective for me. I think if you’re a teenager or
someone that uses a lot of social media and networking you’ll get a kick out of
this just like I did. I don’t know that I’ll ever watch it again and I don’t think
it calls for a sequel (which it is getting), but I enjoyed the experience of
something fresh and different.
Dark Places
I’m glad that I hadn’t heard of this one, because apparently
it tanked and I probably wouldn’t have watched it if I had known that.
We turned it on for two reasons – the description on
Amazon sounded good and just about anything Charlize Theron chooses to be in is
at the very least interesting. Here’s that blurb:
“From
the best selling book by Gillian Flynn (Gone Girl), Charlize Theron stars in
this acclaimed thriller about a woman investigating a family murder with the
help of a secret society obsessed with solving notorious crimes.”
That sounds awesome. It falls far short of describing the
actual plot and actually overplays the secret society thing a bit, but we were
intrigued and put it on.
The thing that all of the movies that I’m talking about
today have in common are dynamite casts. This one stars Theron, Christina
Hendricks, Nicholas Hoult, Chloe Moretz, Drea de Matteo, and some very strong
supporting actors.
The story is about Theron’s character, who physically
survived the murder of her mother and two sisters but is emotionally
devastated. Over the course of the film we learnt he circumstances of the event
and it is some truly compelling stuff. The backstory takes place in the 80s and
involves the media frenzy surrounding Satanism and cults. If, like me, you grew
up then you will remember the feelings of the time all too well – the fear and
paranoia whipped up probably rivaled the McCarthyism of the fifties. Dark Places captures that well and shows
how small town fear can destroy people and drive them apart.
I don’t want to give anything
more away, because I enjoyed how the narrative unfolded so much. I have no idea
why people didn’t like it, but I can see revisiting it from time to time,
possibly even as a double feature with the much better-received Gone Girl (which I bought and loved).
Oh, and I feel that I should
point out that this isn’t a horror movie. It’s really more of a drama. But I
dug it a lot.
Bone Tomahawk
On the one hand this is a badass movie starring a badass Kurt
Russell and if you loved him in The
Hateful Eight, then you’ll love him in this. Tonally it is something of a
cousin to that movie since it’s a violent western with a cast of archetypal
characters. That’s why I wanted to see it.
On the other hand, if you watch it proximal to Tarantino’s
film, you are going to be absolutely smacked in the head by the obvious budget
and style differences. I loved Bone
Tomahawk, but I had to get past what I consider to be some shoddy
filmmaking and poor decisions to get there.
I am fed up with shaky cameras. It’s one thing when it’s
an action scene and the filmmaker is trying to convey a sense of action and
kinetic movement. I still don’t like it and find it hacky and lazy, but I can
accept it. But when Patrick Wilson is laying in a bed talking to Kurt Russell
and neither man is moving, KEEP THAT FUCKER STILL. It is so annoying to have the camera bobbing around all the time.
Are these directors putting their camera people on skateboards or in floats in
kiddy pools or something? What the fuck is going on here?
Bone
Tomahawk’s sole failing is shitty camera work. And by the time the
action got going, I was honestly too enthralled to be mad and was just
occasionally annoyed.
There’s something that’s slightly too modern about the
way the movie looks. The sets and costumes are great, but the visual quality is
just off, somehow. If I were more educated about filmmaking I could probably
tell you what it was, but there was just something about the look of it that
took me out of the story a bit. Like the camera work, though, once things got
going it didn’t really bother me.
The story is about four men who venture into the desert
wilderness to rescue kidnapped townspeople from savages. I say “savages” not as
a pejorative against Native Americans, but because the villains in the film are
truly savage. You’ve never seen anything like this. I don’t want to spoil a
thing because I had a blast discovering just how far Bone Tomahawk would go and which genres it dipped into.
Kurt Russell was obviously fantastic and Patrick Wilson
does his thing that he does (I mean that in a good way – perhaps someday I will
write a post attempting to explain the magical acting phenomenon that is
Patrick Wilson). The other cast members were all very good. The one I enjoyed
the most was Matthew Fox. He plays a cocky, arrogant gunman named John Brooder
and he’s one of those characters that you just can’t wait to hear speak again
or see what he’s going to do.
Bone
Tomahawk has its limitations, but in the end it tells a unique
and original story that combines devotion, partnership, and horror set against
the bleak realities of frontier life.
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