The Maze Runner

The surprisingly suspenseful The Maze Runner breaks the mold of what audiences have come to expect from Young Adult adaptations

There’s something incredibly refreshing about going into a movie blind.

By that, I mean sitting down in the theater without knowing any details about the plot (aside from the basics) of the film you’re about to see and without having seen any trailers, TV spots, or other bits of revealing marketing which, in this media heavy and trailer-for-a-trailer age, can be a difficult thing to achieve. But somehow I made it happen for The Maze Runner. And I’m glad that I did.

I had seen the trailer back when it was first released, but enough time has passed so that I had pretty much forgotten about it. With theaters already inundated with Young Adult novel adaptations, I wasn’t interested in another and just assumed that The Maze Runner would be another one of them.

I was wrong.

For every YA adaptation that has failed to attract an audience, The Maze Runner should serve as a blueprint for what to do right.

The film revolves around a group of boys of various ages living inside a rural area called the Glade which, despite its pastoral name and imagery, is not as peaceful as it seems. The Glade is surrounded by stone walls hundreds of feet high and it becomes clear that the boys are prisoners there rather than willing residents. They don’t know how they got there or why, but despite this, they’ve managed to create their own little society (which will no doubt invite comparisons to Lord of the Flies).

But everything changes when Thomas (Dylan O’Brien) enters the Glade. Through his eyes, we learn that the stone walls beyond the Glade form a maze that contracts and expands every night, with a group of boys (called “Runners”) going out each morning to try to find an exit.

As Thomas arrives, he serves as the viewer’s entry into the film, asking all the questions that we’re wondering ourselves. What’s the purpose of the Maze? Who put them there? What’s on the outside? These questions are constantly at the forefront of the film and it’s the pursuit of their answers that makes it so edge-of-your-seat exciting.

Whether exploring the relationships of the characters or the mysteries of the Maze itself (which is both simple and visually impressive) as Thomas & Co. get closer to figuring out what’s really going on, the action and tension starts early and never lets up throughout its wonderfully paced near two hour runtime; and, in exploring the maze and the mysterious creatures that plague it (with an eerie combination of organic and mechanical sounds, they’re evocative of Lost’s smoke monster), and fleeting memories of the characters’ pasts, The Maze Runner is a master class in creating suspense not just for YA films but for films in general.

What’s especially impressive about the film is that—although viewers will notice a few hallmarks that reveal it as a YA movie (such as a focus on, well, young adults)—it never really feels like it’s meant for a younger audience by avoiding the pitfalls of YA adaptations: love triangles, cringe-worthy teenage dialogue (and its delivery), and overacting, to name a few.

There are some interesting characters in The Maze Runner so I wish they had been given the chance to develop more aside from the broad strokes (but it’s also tricky since the characters don’t remember anything about themselves). As a result, a little too much is left undeveloped character-wise. The same goes, to a point, for the film’s mysteries. With the film’s central hook—who put them in the maze and why?—front and center, it’s obvious that there’s going to be questions posed. However, too many are left unanswered (which, to a point, is understandable since the book series the film is based on is a quadrilogy), giving the viewer a lot to ponder until the next installment rather than resolving a few questions while leaving some smaller ones unanswered.

The Maze Runner will still be snubbed by those bored with the YA-heavy market, but with its non-stop suspense and excitement, it breaks the mold of what theater audiences have come to expect from YA films, showing that the genre is full of surprises for those willing to be surprised.

9/10

Coherence

Whoever says that there aren’t any more original Sci-Fi movies obviously hasn’t seen Coherence.

Release Date: September 19, 2013 Runtime: 89 minutes

In James Ward Byrkit’s feature-length directorial debut, eight friends gather together for a dinner party on the night that a comet is expected to pass overhead. While they’re together, strange things begin to happen. The power goes out. Cell phones suddenly crack. There are knocks at the door. However, they notice that there’s one house in the neighborhood with power and, hoping to use the house’s phone, go to investigate. To give away any more than that (and what they find when they get there) would only spoil the fun of unraveling the film and its mysteries for yourself. With a film like Coherence that carefully pieces out its reveals as the suspense builds, it’s best to go in cold.

Made on a shoestring budget and shot over the course of five consecutive days, Byrkit allows the focus of the film to be on the characters as they attempt to unravel the mystery around them. Gone are the special effects, big set pieces, and bombastic musical scores of recent blockbuster Sci-Fi films; Coherence is pruned down to its essence: its characters and how they react with each other in the face of an uncertain future.

In the beginning, the amateurish-looking picture and editing feel cheap. However, that slight turn-off is easily forgotten as soon as we’re introduced to the characters. Very early on in the film they feel incredibly genuine. There are no cookie-cutter stock characters here, serving as background or filler. Instead, they each have separate and distinct personalities that are only heighted by the cast’s fantastic acting. With a low-budget indie film like Coherence, it would have been incredibly easy for it to succumb to the pitfall of bad acting. So it’s a pleasant surprise that it doesn’t. The acting is fantastic and the authenticity of the characters is due in part to the actors’ skillful improvisation. Byrkit purposefully shot without a script so the actors would have genuine interactions with each other and mirror the characters’ journeys of discovery. And it works. The character actions have a fresh spontaneity that films that try to script spontaneity can’t seem to achieve (basically any Paranormal Activity-like found footage-style horror), and the film’s free-flowing dialogue is both tantalizing and authentic as it ranges from humorous to tense, and hints at the current and past relationships of the characters.

This is especially admirable since high-concept, speculative films always seem torn with their focus: characters, or style? Coherence doesn’t choose. The characters are developed, while the stylistic choices such as the house’s (which happens to be the only setting, aside from the street) warm lighting creates an inviting atmosphere for the viewer to enter into this fictional world. Because of this we’re tricked into a false sense of security and the tension, suspense, and horror builds and builds until you begin to feel as if you, too, are part of the group trying to figure out what’s going on.

Despite its scientific ideas and mind-bending premise, Coherence has few faults (though ending each scene ending by cutting to black gets old). Though the ending ends up getting tied up in itself by getting a little more complex than it needs to be, it’s almost forgivable since the rest of the film is such a treat. Its premise is original and its plot and execution captivating throughout.

With style and content reminiscent of 2011’s Another Earth and old Twilight Zone episodes, the well-paced 89 minute film manages to focus on characters and plot without skimping on either. As the tone goes from humorous, to tense, to suspenseful, it’s (cleverly) built to keep you guessing where the story’s headed. And though the film’s mystery is ultimately revealed, the film’s characters, ideas, and masterful execution guarantee that you’ll be thinking about Coherence long after the answers are given.

8.5/10

Suspect Zero

There are some films that when I’m halfway through I ask myself, why am I still watching this? Suspect Zero is one of those films. While this 2004 release boasts itself as a “thriller”, it plays as anything but.

The premise of the film is intriguing enough and revolves around a serial killer (hunted down by Aaron Eckhart’s particularly dull Thomas Mackelway) who has an unusual MO: his targets are other serial killers—an interesting twist in a pre-Dexter era.

That certainly sounds thrilling, right? There’s no way that a movie about a killer targeting other killers could be dull (the action! The suspense!)! Well, think again. It is; it’s boring and confusing (and not in a good way) and it only gets more and more convoluted as it inches along at a snail’s pace through its 100-minute runtime.

Though Suspect Zero’s central premise is a good one, it’s executed extremely poorly. This failing, among others, goes to show that the duration of Suspect Zero is a strand of really good ideas but when joined together like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle that just don’t fit, they destroy whatever shred of genius that they had by themselves to begin with. To put it simply: it’s a mess (and apparently the people of 2004 thought the same thing, since the film didn’t even recoup half of its budget).

The only saving graces here are the Breaking Bad-esque Albuquerque landscape (though BB’s cinematography is better) and the moody, almost Saw-like atmosphere of the FBI scenes peppered throughout the film that give it a jolt of some much-needed tension. But in a film with so many faults, it’s a case of too little, too late.

4.5/10

(For anyone that’s interested in how Suspect Zero COULD have been, take a look at this article:

http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/004/595hsjaq.asp?pag

Sound of My Voice

Brit Marling as enigmatic cult leader Maggie in “Sound of My Voice”

In her second run tackling the dual role of screenwriter and actor, Brit Marling follows up the 2011 sci-fi tale, Another Earth, with the equally mind-bending, speculative film, Sound of My Voice.

The film follows a couple, Peter and Lorna (Christopher Denham and Nicole Vicius, respectively) as they attempt to infiltrate and expose a mysterious cult leader, Maggie, as the fraud they belief she is. But who is Maggie exactly? Is she from the future as she claims? Or is she a delusional woman with a Jim Jones complex, gathering followers to drink her Kool-Aid? As Peter and Lorna struggle with their teeter-tottering beliefs regarding the truth, so does the audience. We never know who (or what) to believe, and just as a clue to the truth is dangled in front of us like the metaphorical carrot and you think you know where the story will go next, bam! The rug is swiftly pulled from beneath your feet, a true testament to the finely crafted suspense and what’s-going-on-here? feeling that the film boasts.

To put it simply, Sound of My Voice is minimalist filmmaking at its finest. Gone are the flashy set pieces, big-name actors, and million-dollar special effects of big-budget Hollywood blockbusters; instead, director Zal Batmanglij chooses to focus on the small, the quiet, and the intimate. The majority of the film takes place in a plain, near-colorless basement, cult members decked in white as they sit in silent reverence of Maggie herself. However, this stylistic move is a far cry from a failure; in doing so, the film manages to give off feelings of both claustrophobic sterility as well as intimate comfort.

The acting here, especially from Marling, is a pleasure to watch, Denham and Vicius playing off the psychological nuances of their characters well on-screen, while nonverbally communicating their thoughts to the viewer. The real highlight of the film, however, is Marling’s performance as Maggie, able to completely captivate the viewer using the delivery of her words and slight mannerisms. For every scene of Maggie as a soothing, calm, nurturing figure, there’s one displaying her as a harsh and defensive woman. Whatever side of Maggie we get, the one constant is her intriguing nature. And it is in these switches that Marling not only shows off her acting shops, but paints the picture of an incredibly interesting (if not totally reliable), multi-faceted character.

The film is a pleasure to watch as it unfolds but could have certainly benefited from a slightly longer runtime (clocking in at just under an hour and a half) to expand on some scenes and a more fleshed-out, less abrupt ending. But for every scene or character action or bit of dialogue that is left unexplained, I can’t help but going back to everything that the film did right (which is a lot) and in the end, the lack of total decisiveness of the film’s ending in general serves to mirror the characters’ similar uncertainty of what’s going on, while allowing viewers to go back to watch and contemplate the film again and again.

Marling’s next project is entitled The East, and while details are scarce and the question remains of what questions will and will not be answered, I can’t wait to find out.

8/10