The Perfection

The Perfection ups the ante in originality and intensity

It takes a lot for a movie to surprise me these days, and I’d be lying if I didn’t go into Netflix-distributed films with more than a bit of skepticism. My mindset tends to be, Well, even if it’s terrible, at least I didn’t pay for it. The same was true before watching The Perfection, a film released by Netflix back in May with little fanfare or pop cultural chatter. And man, I’m kind of glad because what a fantastic surprise it turned out to be.

Without getting into spoiler territory (which is incredibly difficult given how many surprises are packed into every turn), the film revolves around a cellist (Allison Williams) who returns to the music academy she had to leave to take care of her sick mother ten years prior. It’s hard to nail down what the film’s focus will be going into these opening scenes, though we are able to get a feel for the characters—Lizzie (Logan Browning), another cellist, and Anton, the academy director, each giving us reasons to be suspicious of their actions—as well as the intensity, seriousness, reverence (and possibly obsession) with which everyone at the academy treats classical music. (Who would’ve thought the cello could sound so ominous and creepy?)

It’s not long before it becomes clear that the magic of The Perfection (and part of why its structure works so well) is that even though the viewer doesn’t know where the story is headed, in the way each scene builds on the last—in intensity, originality, and tension—it’s clear the filmmakers (especially director and co-writer Richard Shepard) do. The film has enough layers, character work, twists, fake-outs, and flashbacks to completely disable the viewer’s ability to predict where the story and characters will go next, each scene a new treat to unwrap and dissect while cringing and thinking, horrified, I can’t believe they just did that. Though it’s easy to see its influences in the intensity and rivalry of creation of Black Swan and the body horror of David Cronenberg, anyone who watches The Perfection and says they knew where it was going is lying.

Though pretty tonally consistent, the moments of tension, comedy, shock, and hands-over-face disbelief all work well in the capable and confident direction of Richard Shepard (which is especially impressive given the amount of story, material, and tension packed into the film’s trim 85 minutes). But none of this would work without the completely convincing, captivating lead performances of Allison Williams and Logan Browning who give so much to each emotion they’re tasked with playing—terror, shock, disgust, anger, and more—that it’s hard to imagine they weren’t physically drained after each day’s filming (especially Browning, who has some of the most intense, wrenching, visceral scenes in the film…and maybe I’ve seen in a long time). They’re so mesmerizing here that it makes me wish we had gotten to spend more time expanding on their motivations for their actions or reflecting on their pasts and the circumstances that brought them to this point.

The Perfection is what all good horror/thrillers should be—tense, relentless, expertly paced, surprising, and original. It also doesn’t hurt that it has a satisfying (and totally brutal) ending, its message of choosing to take ownership of trauma over victimization feeling earned rather than sappy or preachy. The film isn’t quite perfect (pun not intended), but it’s pretty damn close. So if Netflix is looking for ways to improve their film content, they should take a look at what makes The Perfection work. I’ll gladly take another one of these, please.

9/10

Ma

Octavia Spencer’s captivating performance elevates Ma from just another “teen” thriller.

Octavia Spencer is captivating as Sue Ann Ellington—Ma to her new friends—a middle-aged veterinarian who spends her spare time winning over the neighborhood kids by buying them alcohol and letting them party in her basement. She couldn’t stand to see them drink and drive, she says. Why is a well-adjusted woman worried about making friends with kids? Is she really that well-adjusted after all? We soon find out, as Ma’s backstory is peppered in throughout the film’s present-day action.

As Ma begins to further insert herself into their lives, her character necessitates Spencer to bounce from comedic one-liners to batshit crazy on a dime, and she handles it with all the authenticity and believably we’ve come to expect from her. She is both Annie Wilkes terrifying and Carrie White empathetic. The story shares some threads with both Carrie and Misery but, for all Ma’s violence and dark turns, it plays it a little too safe, a little too by-the-numbers. Regardless, it’s a fun thriller with a great performance by Spencer (and not too shabby ones from the teen actors).

Ma is in the upper tier of “teen” horror, for sure, but with a quicker pace and more intensity, it could’ve been a home run.

7/10

Atomic Blonde

Charlize Theron brings a relentless intensity, dominating physical presence, and icy coolness in this action-packed spy thriller

Move over James Bond, there’s a new spy in town…and her name is Lorraine Broughton.

For the holdouts who believe a woman can’t kick as much ass as a man, well…let’s just say you wouldn’t want to meet Lorraine in a stairway.

MI6 agent Lorraine Broughton (Charlize Theron) is tasked to go to Berlin in order to retrieve a top-secret list of undercover operatives. The only problem is she’s not the only person who wants it…and her cover is blown early on…and Germany is in social turmoil preceding the toppling of the Berlin Wall. So it’s safe to say she’s got a lot on her plate.

Theron is fantastic in the role of Lorraine, capably portraying an iciness while still letting the viewer know she hasn’t completely lost her humanity. She has a job to do, and while she’s working, that’s her priority (“I’ve never lost a package,” she says with pride to an asset she’s protecting). Theron reportedly did most (if not all) of her own stunts, and it shows. Her precision in the action scenes along with her ferocious intensity is captivating, so much so that you almost forget there’s an actual plot behind all the action. Then again, the whole film could’ve featured nothing but close-ups of her feet as she walks down Berlin’s sidewalks, pours glasses of vodka, and soaks in porcelain-white bathtubs filled with ice, and it still would’ve been captivating.

From the film’s opening seconds it’s immediately clear that in Atomic Blonde, mood itself is a character as big and important and dominating as Lorraine herself: the chilly atmosphere mixed with 80s German grunge of baggy shirts, leather jackets, and mohawks; lighting in muted blues, greens, and reds interspersed here and there with neon; grimy stairwells and buildings in disarray that somehow look…glamorous. And we can’t forget that killer soundtrack.

The music was a huge part in setting the mood of the trailer, so I was extremely glad to see it wasn’t just a marketing gimmick and was applied to the entire film. And you know what? It works. I didn’t know that seeing Charlize Theron banging spies’ heads against freezer doors to the tune of 80s pop like Depeche Mode’s “Personal Jesus” and After The Fire’s “Der Kommissar” was something that I needed, but I do! The songs are never intrusive or weirdly placed and will most assuredly have your feet tapping along as operatives are shot and strangled. Tyler Bates’ original tracks are pretty great, too, almost as if they’re unused, unearthed music from the 80s. It all works and it’s all fantastic.

The action is definitely one of the film’s main highlights, fully commanding your attention with its ferocity and skillfully long takes, so it’s a shame that there’s not more of it. There’s plenty, believe me—freezer door head-banging, exploding vehicles, ice picks to the head, and more bonkers ways to threaten, maim, and kill that will have you covering your mouth with equal parts shock and glee—but Atomic Blonde is definitely more of a spy thriller than a straight up action film. We have covert operations, double crossings, and assets to protect, everyone with their own motivations and worries about who to (and not to) trust. Unfortunately, it’s the spy parts of the “spy thriller” that ends up slowing down the action train Lorraine’s driving. It would’ve been a real treat if the entire movie had the same frenetic energy as its action scenes and set-pieces, but unfortunately the pacing is one of its downfalls. Even an action film needs to have some semblance of plot, but Atomic Blonde could’ve done more with less. If the spy aspects were not completely complicated, per se, they were unnecessary. The scenes of espionage, interspersed with a present-day Lorraine retelling her time in Berlin, tends to slow the film down and take the audience down from the high of whatever action sequence preceded it.

Aside from the pacing, my other problem (which could also be a compliment) is that it needed more Lorraine. As much as I appreciated the supporting characters and their actor counterparts (James McAvoy as Lorraine’s Berlin contact, Sofia Boutella as a French operative, and John Goodman and Toby Jones as her present-day interrogators), I couldn’t help feeling that every time they showed up, they were only taking away time we could’ve been spending with Lorraine, diving deeper into her plot, backstory, and what makes her tick. I understand having a well-rounded supporting cast of characters, but I almost feel like director David Leitch wasn’t completely aware of how much of an awesome character he had in Lorraine. Plus, since some of the double-crossings and character motivations were a bit hard to keep straight (or nonexistent), nixing some of the characters entirely in favor of additional ass-kicking time with Lorraine would have been more than welcome, killing two birds with one stone.

Theron’s Lorraine fills Atomic Blonde with such a relentless intensity, dominating physical presence, and an icy coolness, that it’s not difficult to imagine her coming back for a few sequels. It also doesn’t hurt that there’s still a good chunk of intrigue about her backstory to unpack. But if an Atomic Blonde franchise is on the horizon, to paraphrase an artist whose songs aren’t featured in the film: a little less espionage, a little more action, please.

7.5/10

The Guest

Initially I wasn’t too excited about checking out The Guest after finding out that it was directed by Adam Wingard, who directed the terribly overrated You’re Next a few years back. Thankfully, The Guest is much, much, better.

Release Date: Sept. 17, 2014
Runtime: 99 minutes

Dan Stevens plays a solider named David who abruptly shows up at the family house of his friend, Caleb, who died in combat. He knew Caleb well (at least he says) and promised him that he would tell his family that he loved them. David fulfills his promise—and more.

What is great about the film is that it works on many levels, mainly as a keep-you-guessing thriller, as it poses the question: who is David really—and what’s his true purpose injecting himself into the Peterson family? Dan Stevens is great as David, all at once polite, warm, cold, and calculating, so much so that we’re never quite sure of his true motives. Is he truly who he claims to be—just a family friend, looking to relay a message? Or is he hiding something, a secret of some kind, and looking to use the family for something sinister? With all of the Halloween visuals, could it be something supernatural? The fun of the film is trying to figure it out since so many conclusions seem possible. Unfortunately, the reveal isn’t quite as interesting or creative as some of those that viewers will no doubt come up with in their minds.

The actors that make up the Petersons are also solid as well (though Sheila Kelley as the mother is a little distracting with her constant state of surprise) and Wingard manages to give us insights into their personalities with a few scenes. The always reliable Lance Reddick also has a role as someone who crosses paths with the family.

Though the majority of the film is a solid thriller, where it falls short is its fairly abrupt transition from tense and suspenseful to scenes of all-out action. Tonally, it doesn’t seem to fit with the rest of the film and cheapens the preceding scenes of well-crafted uncertainty and dread. The film’s cat-and-mouse climax also drags on for a little too long and runs the risk of being something out of a generic slasher film. The same goes for the techno music that plays throughout the film. It’s annoying at first, but works to the film’s advantage—heightening the sense of dread—when utilized in small doses. As for the ending, I would have preferred a real conclusion rather than one that’s open ended. There are some stories that benefit from having a little ambiguity, but this isn’t one of them. It’s frustrating rather than artsy.

In the end, The Guest is a solid, intriguing, and (for the most part) well-paced thriller. It keeps you guessing until the end and although the reveal of David’s background isn’t as satisfying as the buildup, it deserves credit for making the journey getting there so much fun.

8/10

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

The Purge: Anarchy

By focusing on the outside world of Purge night, Anarchy is a definite improvement over its predecessor.

Any sequel with the same premise as its predecessor runs the risk of being a little tiresome. This, too, would be the case with the follow-up to last year’s surprise hit, The Purge—that is, if it weren’t so exciting.

This time around, in The Purge: Anarchy, the focus has shifted away from the home invasion set-up of the first film—and it’s a smart decision, too. Rather than being confined to one location, the stakes are automatically raised by allowing the characters to go out into the streets on Purge night. After all, who knows what kinds of lunatics are out and about on the night of the year when all crime is legal (think Halloween night but with machine guns and torches in place of costumes and trick-or-treat bags), looking to commit murder, exact revenge, or just cause mayhem?

Anarchy also expands on many of the concepts brought up in the original film, shining a spotlight on various demographics and class systems, critiquing both government, class, and offering an insight into human nature and the horrible things people will choose to do—for revenge, for love, for fun—if given the opportunity. Whereas the first film was heavy on promises and light on delivery of exploring these ideas, Anarchy really expands on the concept and morality brought up by the Purge itself; and, as a result of this and the film’s inclusion of a central mystery, the suspense never lets up.

Anarchy also uses its open-aired setting to introduce the film’s characters in an interesting way. The film spends some time with each of them (a mother and daughter, husband and wife, and a machine gun-toting stranger), almost in little Purge vignettes, before eventually bringing them all together. Like most horror-thriller hybrids, the characters are somewhat one-dimensional, but they’re given just enough motivation and sympathetic qualities that you want to see them make it through Purge night.

By overcoming the mistakes of its predecessor, The Purge: Anarchy has proven that there’s viable potential (and material) for a Purge franchise; and, with the plot threads seen in the film, it seems like we’ve barely scraped the surface of the suspense and story possibilities that Purge night has to offer.

8/10

Captain Phillips

Tom Hanks gives an Oscar-worthy performance as Captain Richard Phillips

Take a cargo ship, a crew manned by a no-nonsense captain, and an approaching boat of armed Somali pirates, and what do you have? For the most part, the plot of such a movie would be predictable (obviously the crew would overcome the pirates using their bravery and technology and resources, right?), but Captain Phillips—although we already know the outcome of the real-life 2009 event—does a fantastic job of keeping you guessing and making you think that anything could happen.

Tom Hanks plays Captain Richard Phillips. He’s smart, resourceful, and quick-thinking, and it’s refreshing to have a protagonist that makes good decisions. There’s no dumb decision-making to make for interesting plot shake-ups here. When the pirates board the ship, he’s calm and quick to ensure the safety of his crew, but at the same time we can almost feel him rapidly run through possible scenarios and analyze the various possible outcomes in his head. It’s also worth mentioning Hanks’ acting. Seeing his role as Rich Phillips makes the Oscar snub hurt that much more, and his final thirty minutes on screen are some of the most powerful in the film and, quite possibly, the most powerful in his career.

As the action leads to suspense (and vice versa), the surprising nature of the film continues. The pirates are unpredictable and as the minutes tick past, they become unhinged, never really letting the viewer in on what they’re going to do. Will they follow the orders of their leader, Muse (played by first-time actor Barkhad Abdi), or will they rebel against his orders and kill Captain Phillips to end the situation without any complications? Early in the film Muse says that the hijacking is just about money, that they’ll get the ship’s money and be on their way. But as the film progresses, it’s clear that the mission isn’t just about money. There’s a certain level of thrill in the pirates’ hijacking of the ship, an empowerment in holding power over Americans whom, the Somalians feel, are partially to blame for their country’s financial difficulties.

In high-tension scenes like these, Captain Phillips asserts itself as both an engaging drama and thriller, not the generic bad-guy-keeps-good-guy-hostage situation that I was expecting. Part of this is because the film never stays put for too long (whether on the various levels of the ship, the lifeboat, the SEAL’s mission center, etc.), which instills a sense of frenetic energy into the plot. And when paired with the sharp editing, the film feels like a series of long shots and doesn’t let the action let up—though I do wish that a little more of the film’s runtime to took place on the ship (the plot moves to the lifeboat fairly quickly).

For the most part, the two-hour runtime flies by and, like any good film should, ties up the story while also leaving you wanting more. Also, bonus points for ending on a high-note and not a drawn-out, sappy one. I will say that it could have benefitted from an additional ending scene, though, to make it not feel so abrupt.

It would’ve been extremely easy for Captain Phillips to succumb to the pitfalls of generic action filmmaking and, while it does have action, there’s also many other layers to it. And while there’s been some talk about whether or not the film portrays the actual situation authentically, who cares? It’s a movie, and they did it damn well.

9/10

Gravity

When I first saw the trailer for Gravity back in May, I laughed. Out loud. In the theater. The much-tread subject of space exploration combined with Sandra Bullock screaming and flailing her arms and spinning around in zero gravity looked, to put it plainly, like a joke. I thought, okay, she’s trapped in space. Where can it possibly go from there? Judging by my own preconceived notions about the “trapped in space” subgenre of Sci-Fi films, my immediate thought was that she encounters an alien planet or alien race because, of course, what else could happen? She’s floating around in space, after all. And besides, isn’t that how it always works in space-set films? However, the way Gravity ignores the ground tread by its predecessors and becomes something original is what makes it so captivatingly brilliant. It challenges you to predict its course and, in turn, shatters your expectations. Because mine were wrong, so very wrong.

The film’s plot is as basic as it gets in its human vs. nature set-up—and yet, it’s so much more. Sandra Bullock plays space newbie Ryan Stone on a mission with veteran astronaut Matt Kowalski (the juxtaposition of the film being Stone’s first mission and Kowalski’s last is notable in its significance). One misfortune leads to another and before either character knows it, anything that can go wrong does.

But Gravity isn’t the film that its marketing campaign portrays it to be. While there are breathtaking action-packed scenes, at its core Gravity is a film about more than just eye-popping visuals: loss, rebirth, the will to live, redemption. More importantly, none of these themes are displayed to the audience in an obnoxious, obvious way. They’re clearly there, but lovingly weaved into the film so that the themes are a part of the film itself rather than clumsily disjointedly from the plot with a neon sign advertising: “THEME HERE!” during scenes of emotional significance.

The execution of such is no-doubt attributed to the co-writing and masterful directing of Alfonso Cuarón, but a good chunk of it also has to be attributed to Bullock’s performance. As Stone, she’s mentally stripped-down, weary, and vulnerable, such a raw performance allowing the film to convey a higher level of realism and emotional weight. While Bullock’s performance is nothing to criticize, the writing for her character needed a little sharpening. Stone’s a strong (yet, at the same time, weak) individual, but the script seems to have her waver back and forth between the two. Though, among a sea of so many things the film does right (dare I say, perfect?), it almost doesn’t seem to matter.

While there’s no sound in space, Gravity wouldn’t be the same without its spectacular usage of sound—or its absence. With a score by Steven Price that is both amazingly assaulting and emotionally nuanced, the film has music that—no matter the tone—is matched perfectly to whatever is happening on screen.

Along with its score, stunning cinematography by Emmanuel Lubezki leaves Gravity’s end result as not merely a film but a rich cinematic experience that offers the clearest, breathtaking visuals and a sensory experience that gives the viewer the feeling of actually being in space along with Stone and Kowalski. While I’m not a supporter of the seemingly endless strain of post-production 3D conversion, Gravity’s 3D is utilized at a near-flawless level. Here, it’s used for depth and conveying the beauty, mystery and yes, horror, of space rather than for cheap shots. To put it plainly, there are no asteroids flying at your face half-way through the movie. The picture is crystal clear, there’s no graininess of the film (maybe partially because I saw it in IMAX 3D) and no shaky shots or any of the usual pitfalls of 3D viewing.

It’s been a long time since I’ve seen such an intense, gripping, emotionally draining film like Gravity and hope I won’t have to wait as long to see another of its caliber. Until then, I can only describe the film itself as Clooney’s Matt Kowalski describes the view of Earth from space: “beautiful.”

9/10

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

6 Souls

What do Julianne Moore, cursed souls, and some really bad mountain-people juju have in common? What, you don’t know? Yeah, well after watching 6 Souls, neither do I.

6 Souls—originally released under the title of Shelter—was first released in 2010 and just hit DVD this past April after spending a good three years in DVD release purgatory. The film stars the ever-dependable Julianne Moore as a…wait, did the film ever make that clear? Suffice it to say that she works to help patients unravel (and manage) their mental disorders. One day she comes across a patient (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) who appears to be faking a multiple personality “disorder”. But here’s the kicker: he takes on the personalities of previous murder victims. Is he faking? Or is there something more to the story?

The first half-hour or so that revolves around this premise is quite good—moody, intriguing, with just enough questions and hints to keep the audience guessing. Sadly, after that, it just kind of plummets from a genuinely interesting psychological thriller into one of the lamely supernatural.

The two saving graces here are Julianne Moore and Jonathan Rhys Meyers, both playing their respective roles with passion and elevating the mind-numbingly confusing script into something more accessible. The real highlight of the film is seeing Meyers’ play multiple “personalities”, each different—yet equally tantalizing and masterfully acted—from the rest.

Unfortunately, the end product is a film that, while trying, ends up being a bit—okay, a lot—of a mess. Which is a shame because there are some really good concepts/ideas (the validity of psychological tests and religion, among others) and scenes peppered throughout the near-two hour runtime.

Once you can get past its faults (and there are a lot), 6 Souls ends up being a fun movie…even if, at times, I had no idea what was going on.

5.5/10