Punk Is Dead

Year: 2016
Director: Jeremy Saulnier
Cast: Anton Yelchin, Imogen Poots, Alia Shawkat
Run Time: 1 hour 35 minutes
MPAA Rating: R

It definitely helps to have been alive during the 80’s to appreciate the punk movement. I mean, it’s not like I’m against liking 80’s pop culture (and boy is that the understatement of the century). Slasher movies form the very core of my being, and I can discuss the intricacies of the Duran Duran discography like it’s my job (Rio might have stronger singles, but Seven and the Ragged Tiger is where it’s at). It’s just that a thorough appreciation of the punk scene requires a certain nihilistic standpoint that could only have sprouted from the fertile loam of Reaganomics under the shadow of impending nuclear doom.

So as much as I’d like to live outside the established norms of society, there’s not a punk bone in my body. This severely limits my ability to connect with Jeremy Saulnier’s Green Room on a superficial aesthetic level in addition to its deeper, thematic underpinnings. That’s no fault of the film’s, just my own bias. But that’s enough dilly-dallying. Let’s knock laced-up boots with that plot!

And then we’ll mosh with some analysis.

In Green Room, down-on-their-luck punk band The Ain’t Rights – led by Pat (Anton Yelchin) alongside Sam (Alia Shawcat), Reece (Joe Cole), and Tiger (Callum Turner) – get a gig at a crummy bar buried in the lush woods of the Pacific Northwest. This club turns out to be a skinhead joint run by Darcy (Patrick Stewart). After accidentally witnessing a murder, The Ain’t Rights and defector Amber (Imogen Poots) are trapped in the club’s Green room, forced to fight their way out through a crowd of Neo-Nazi thugs with guns, knives, and attack dogs.

Wow, the new Benji movie is DARK.

What Green Room has going for it is a strong directorial hand. Although Saulnier’s ponderous, nihilist indie milieu isn’t exactly in my wheelhouse, he lets his frame breathe, vividly displaying the majestic expanse of his exteriors in widescreen and reversing that aesthetic to highlight the cramped claustrophobia of our trapped heroes indoors.

And when that pace tightens up and sh*t hits the fan, we get some of the most well-realized gore I’ve seen in years. I’ve always said that movies can cut off heads and dismember limbs with abandon, but where it gets truly grisly is when the gore gets intimate. That’s the mode in which Green Room operates almost exclusively, slashing flesh with box cutters, smashing small but vital bones, and just generally showing its characters a pretty bad time. There’s a lot of it, but it’s never over-the-top.

There are no cartoonish geysers of blood in Green Room (if there were, it would be called Red Room. Eh? Eh?). There are no bombastic, gooey rippings and slashings. It’s all up close, personal, and so well made that your stomach won’t unknot for hours.

The popcorn will just start piling up in your esophagus like it’s rush hour.

Green Room also has a sly comedy edge, perhaps given away by the casting of Alia Shawcat (who, to be fair, gives a very serious, convincing performance). There are jokes slipped in so subtly that you barely even notice that your disgusted grimace has converted into a grin. Most of the greatest material is delivered under her breath by Imogen Poots, whose careless character is disconnected from our main group and thus totally unpredictable.

Frankly, it’s the best performance of her entire career, effortlessly cool but with splinters of “at the end of her rope” vulnerability. It’s the first time she’s ever stood out in any of the many great ensemble casts she’s somehow found herself in (28 Weeks Later, Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping, That Awkward Moment, Fright Night, V for Vendetta – she’s been everywhere and never made a mark, like a pretty blonde Where’s Waldo).

I suppose since we’re talking about the acting, I should bring up Patrick Stewart. His villainous turn is definitely a change of pace for the much-typecast actor, but to be completely honest, he’s not given much to do here. He imbues his role with a chilling, soft-spoken menace, but his scenes are so separate from the bulk of the plot, it reeks of Three Days on Set-itis. His antagonistic reversal is solid, but honestly I’d prefer either the ecstatic vamping of a Juliette Lewis in Jem and the Holograms or the intimately involved participation of a Heath Ledger’s Joker. As it stands, Stewart is performing well, but he’s pointed in the complete opposite direction of the movie itself.

At least he didn’t have to shave his head for the role.

While many individual elements of Green Room are strong, they never really cohere into a full, satisfying story. An intensely erratic lot is eventually drowned in a bucket of blood as the thriller mechanics take over, and the characters just float through their predicament. The only one who changes or adapts in any way is Pat, but we get so little sense of who he is at the beginning of the film that his descent into madness has zero frame of reference. Although, there is a pretty solid fart joke, so who am I to complain?

Green Room is a tense, effective thriller even if it didn’t make as much of an impression on me as I wish it did. It’s a swell-looking piece made by a talented team. It might not be for me, but that doesn’t mean it ain’t for you. As long as you’re OK with gruesome violence that makes you want to staple your eyes shut, feel free to go ahead and check it out.

TL;DR: Green Room is a well made, tense, gory thriller that lacks a certain sense of depth.
Rating: 6/10
Word Count: 969

Slash From The Past

For our podcast episode about this film, click here!

Year: 2015

Director: Todd Strauss-Schulson

Cast: Taissa Farmiga, Malin Akerman, Adam DeVine

Run Time: 1 hour 28 minutes

MPAA Rating: PG-13

I’ve been waiting for so long to tell people about The Final Girls. Sergio and I got the chance to watch it at a preview screening way back when in freaking January, and I feel like the NDA we signed has been branded on my heart, searing me with every beat. But now The Final Girls is here for all the world to see! I mean, in limited theaters, because distributors are too busy patting themselves on the back about Star Wars to bother putting effort into an indie horror-comedy. But VOD is a thing, so you can still watch it.

Oh, happy day!

If you haven’t seen The Final Girls yet and you are in any way a fan of slashers, horror, comedy, or movies in general, please ignore me and go watch it right now. Go in unmarred by any spoilers or expectations, thank me later. If you still need convincing, I’ll drum up a little review for you:

In The Final Girls, Max (Taissa Farmiga) is a high schooler living in the Valley. Her mother, Amanda Cartwright (Malin Akerman) is a struggling actress whose biggest credit is appearing in the 1986 cult classic slasher Camp Bloodbath. Unfortunately she doesn’t get do live out her dream and dies in a tragic accident. 

Cut to three years later. On the anniversary of her mom’s death, Amanda is coerced by her friend Gertie’s (Alia Shawcat) brother Duncan (Thomas Middleditch) to make an appearance at the movie theater where he works, which is hosting a Camp Bloodbath double feature. When a fire breaks out, the three of them plus Max’s crush Chris (Alexander Ludwig) and his crazy ex-girlfriend Vicki (Nina Dobrev) attempt to escape through the screen, which transports them into the world of the movie.

Now, this “classic” slasher might be fictional, but it’s still 1986, so let’s revive that Census Bloodbath standby and Meet the Meat of Camp Bloodbath. There’s Kurt (Adam DeVine), the horny jock in a crop-top; Blake (Tory N. Thompson), the New Waver with plenty of flair on his suspenders; Tina (Angela Timbur), the ravenous slut; Paula (Chloe Bridges), Camp Bloodbath’s über cool Final Girl; and Nancy (Amanda Cartwright), the shy girl who gives Kurt her flower and gets murdered. To escape the film, the teens need to make it through to the end, surviving the onslaught of masked killer Billy Murphy (Dan B. Norris) and making sure he gets slaughtered by the Final Girl.

Their appearance alters the natural course of the movie, leading to Paula’s death. A new Final Girl must be appointed, and Max sees this as an opportunity to save Nancy, the character her mother played, from yet another grisly demise.

You know, the usual lighthearted horror comedy stuff.

The Final Girls does many things, nearly all of them very well, but the one that’s foremost on my mind is that it has solved the problem of the post-Scream slasher. After the subgenre’s death in 1989, it faced a resurgence thanks to Wes Craven’s pop horror masterpiece, but the wave of slashers that followed inadequately forced themselves into that postmodern, self-referential framework. Then the genre was drowned beneath a tsunami of dour remakes, making hardly a peep since them.

TV shows like MTV’s Scream reboot and Ryan Murphy’s Scream Queens are attempting that same winking style in a long form medium with varied success. People have tried, but the knowing slasher has prevented the genre from being traditional or particularly good. But The Final Girls slips right into that framework while keeping it totally fresh by marrying the leering satire to a genuine love for the genre, an organic incorporation of classic tropes, and a heartfelt, incredibly impactful storyline.

The Final Girls is a dazzling effort, cobbling a wholly original film from age-old tropes and situations. But context and structure be damned, it’s just plain good. It’s far more of a comedy that it is a horror film, but it’s a pretty funny one. With an exquisite cast at the wheel, the laughs flow freely, the best zingers coming from Middleditch (as the Randy-esque horror nerd, AKA me) and DeVine (whose over-the-top portrayal of the worst kind of stock character reminds one of the time that Jim Carrey used to be truly great). The fish-out-of-water antics come at the viewer from two angles (the characters don’t realize that they’re fictional and they’re trapped in the 80’s, history’s largest exporter of disposable pop culture), lancing their funny bones at every opportunity and incorporating familiar film conventions in unexpected ways.

The direct parody of the slasher genre is also effective, avoiding the pop culture-laden clunkiness of other entries in the genre. It does reference specific films (including, astoundingly, Pieces – these people know their stuff), but in a subtle manner that doesn’t obviously call itself out. Slasher veterans will intuitively recognize these clever nods, but it won’t distract from the overall narrative. This quality is decidedly important because, though it is undoubtedly funny the truth strength of The Final Girls lies in a surprising dimension.

Dun dun dun…

The beating heart of The Final Girls is the mother-daughter storyline that drives it. It’s an unflinching, heartbreaking look at loss and grief that hides tender emotion beneath the glittering comic sheen. While all slasher necessarily depict death, this is one of the only ones in history that’s actually about death. [SPOILERS/AWESOME MIND-BLOWING ANALYSIS In a way, The Final Girls is a slasher analogue to last year’s Big Hero 6 – a young protagonist (Max, Hiro) loses a beloved/hot family member (Amanda, Tadashi), then encounters a surrogate for them (Nancy, Baymax). Through the loss of this surrogate, they learn to cope with their grief and accept the tragedy (Nancy sacrifices herself to save Max and end the movie, Baymax is launched into an evil space portal, saving Hiro). Where Big Hero 6 has a cop-out happy ending, The Final Girls is a heart-wrenching parable that has me crying real man tears.]

I don’t think I’ve ever seen a horror-comedy as sensitive and meaningful as The Final Girls, nor one that juggles those three disparate tones so well. Nor one that makes me want to listen to “Bette Davis Eyes” on repeat quite so much.

That said, as much as I passionately adore this film, there are some minor issues that need airing out before we move on. First, the movie hobbles itself by taking on a PG-13 rating, which prevents it from really digging into the sex and violence inherent to the slasher genre. The story it tells is absolutely good enough that this absence doesn’t derail it, but they missed a big opportunity to really dive into bloody goodness. There’s also two extremely shoddy pieces of FX work, both of which mar the all-important opening scene, which sets the tone for the entire piece. One is just some cheap but blissfully brief CGI, but the other is the ludicrously unconvincing wrinkle makeup requited to get Malin Akerman to look her own age.

That woman is an immortal goddess.

Those aren’t damning flaws by far, though they’re enough to knock my rating down a point or so. But you can’t knock down my heart. Or my eyes. Because, damn does The Final Girls have some visual splendor. The film is shot like a fairy tale, with a bold color palette, a lush forest tapestry showered with glowing daffodils and cheerful fecundity, and slick camera work that elegantly frames even the simplest of shots. And those shots that aren’t so simple? Some of them are frankly breathtaking works of art.

Just look at this! I think about this shot every night before I go to sleep in the hopes that my dreams are this gorgeous.

I love The Final Girls. I don’t know what more I need to say. A film this sweet, silly, and impeccably spectacular deserves to be seen and I hope I got through to you. Make this your Halloween treat and you won’t be disappointed.

TL;DR: The Final Girls is an utterly impressive horror-comedy, mixing sentimental heart with strong laughs.

Rating: 8/10

Word Count: 1372

Stocking Stuffers

With Christmas and New Years approaching with their promises of Yuletide slasher mayhem and 2013 roundup lists, it's getting hard to focus on the other reviewing responsibilities I have. Especially the films I didn't have any particular love for.

You see, 2013 was a year filled with mildly promising female-led indie comedies, two of which I watched recently and found mildly enjoyable. That doesn't quite earn them a thousand word review of their very own so I'm gonna slam these two together in one post.

Check them out in between mad dashes to stores for Christmas shopping! You have 14 days, if you need to order something online, do it now!

Year: 2013

Director: Maggie Carey

Cast: Aubrey Plaza, Johnny Simmons, Bill Hader

Run Time: 1 hour 44 minutes

MPAA Rating: R

What could be funnier than a high school sex comedy set in Boise, Idaho in 1993 and cast with TV actors who are by all appearances a decade out of high school? A lot of things, but against all odds The To Do List is actually pretty good.

Brandy Klark (Aubrey Plaza) is a virginal valedictorian who, in the summer after graduation, decides to  learn as much as she can about sex before she heads off to college. With the help of her friends Fiona (Arrested Development's Alia Shawkat) and Wendy (Sarah Steele), she puts together a list of sex acts that she intends to complete during the ensuing months.

As she navigates boys, men, her summer job as a lifeguard at the community pool, and pursuing her studly coworker Rusty (Scott Porter) while avoiding the affections of her nerdy friend Cameron (Johnny Simmons), Brandy learns about love and sex and whatever. It's all very teen movie but at least the love triangle goes somewhere unexpected.

Sex is pretty much always funny no matter how terrible the joke is, so the film has that going for it as well as some stellar 90's gags about skorts, Beaches, and grunge bands (featuring a spot on cameo by Andy Samberg). There are several truly hilarious moments and a great honest message about the nature of teen sexuality by the time we reach the end.

However, a lot of the film's time is spent on the alarmingly numerous side characters in an attempt to squeeze in cameos by Clark Gregg (SHIELD's Agent Phil Coulson) as the obligatory sex-hating father stock character, the lovely Connie Britton (of American Horror Story Season One and Nashville) as Brandy's sex positive nurse mother, Bill Hader (SNL) as a slacker lifeguard, Jack McBrayer (30 Rock's Kenneth Parcel) as a rival pool owner, Rachel Bilson (The OC) as Brandy's older sister, Adam Pally (Happy Endings) as her triflin' fiancé, Christopher Mintz-Plasse (Kick-Ass and Pitch Perfect) as Cameron's best friend, and Donald Glover (Community) as the world's least essential character. He just sort of exists sometimes.

That paragraph is just as bloated as the film, but the pleasant comedy manages to overcome the cameo overdose through sheer amusingness and 90's nostalgia. It's nothing to write home about, but it's a good way to kill 90 minutes while on a plane or avoiding studying for finals.

Rating: 7/10

Girl Most Likely

Year: 2013

Director: Shari Springer Berman, Robert Pulcini

Cast: Kristen Wiig, Darren Criss, Annette Bening

Run Time: 1 hour 43 minutes

MPAA Rating: PG-13

The two directors would probably explain the abrupt tonal shifts Girl Most Likely suffers through, but that doesn't alter the fact that they're there.

Imogene (Kristen Wiig) is a struggling playwright who fakes a suicide to get her ex-boyfriend to come visit her. He does not and Imogene is forced by the hospital to live with her gambling-addicted mother (Annette Bening) with whom she has been estranged for some time. 

Also living with them are her developmentally stunted brother Ralph (Christopher Fitzgerald in a role very probably written for Zach Galifianakis) who owns a crab stand on the boardwalk, her mother's new boyfriend George Bousch (Matt Dillon), a sketchy man who claims to both be a CIA agent and a samurai, and Lee (Darren Criss), a handsome boarder who is renting her old room.

She is living in a blanket fort in the living room and if that doesn't spell "indie comedy" to you, I suggest you watch a couple more of the things. It's all very lowest common denominator indie fare and it's peppered with Wiig's usual schtick, but luckily Wiig's schtick is one of the best around so it livens up what could have been a terminally bland affair.

Unfortunately she has to work extra hard to keep up the audience goodwill with a character who is selfish and makes a shocking variety of terrible decisions (an especially notable is one near the end where she seemingly contemplates abandoning her entire family and leaving them to die).

Although the film doesn't cover any ground that Bridesmaids hadn't already - and better - standout scenes like Imogene stealing a book from the library and the totally out of left field final ten minutes are funny enough to justify the film's existence, but not much more than that.

Rating: 6/10

Word Count: 858