Category: Amazon Prime

The Running Man

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https://www.out.com/

Rating: 3 stars out of 5
Starring: Glen Powell, Josh Brolin, Colman Domingo, Lee Pace, Michael Cera
Where to watch: Prime Video
To watch or not to watch: Even though it is a much anticipated movie by the most creative director of last decade, this movie fails to do justice to it’s subject matter

This movie is set in a dystopian world where the country is almost ruled by a broadcasting network (creatively) called the Network in the parallel with the government. Most of the population lived below poverty line, in squalor and money and power resides with a select few, as is with any authoritarian/totalitarian regime. Network has a reality show called The Running Man where a contestant fights to survive for 30 days in exchange for $1 billion. In this world, there resides our hero Ben Williams (Glen Powell) who is not able to afford flu medicine for his 2 year old kid. He then decides to play for The Running Man, if it meant saving his daughter and giving a better life to his family. He is joined by 2 other contestants, who are a little more naive/optimistic than him. As the “game” progresses, we learn how rigged it is, with well-equipped hunters doing everything to ensure the contestants do not win. The game is hosted by Bobby T (Colman Domingo) who is removed from the plight of the people and is only a show piece. The real muscle behind the Network is Dan Killian (Josh Brolin) who is the scary kind of evil – calm and too self-assured. The contestants don’t have any chance of bettering the game or the Network as all the stakes are against them. But our hero Ben fights against all the odds, or at least tries to.

A few years ago, there was a movie called Jackpot starring Awkwafina and John Cena which was on the similar lines, without a dystopian world and all powerful Network, but hilarious nonetheless. It is not meant to be taken seriously and the makers are self-aware. This is exactly the problem with Edgar Wright’s movie – it doesn’t know what it wants to be. It is equal parts Scott Pilgrim and a socialist’s manifesto. The cinematography of the movie by Chung Chung-hoon is on point and does elicit an emotional response from the viewer. The 80s aesthetic with the sci-fi future is shown on point. But that’s where the movie’s promise ends. The world setting of the movie in act 1 is very quick and effective, leaving a huge margin to develop the story and characters, but that is sacrificed for style, which leaves the viewers quite apathetic towards the characters. It also fails to prove a point or even instill hope in the viewer as most of the people in the movie are portrayed to be too desperate to be good, too selfish to be considerate, which does not land the point home of hope, and hope is a good thing. Maybe the best of things.

Edgar Wright is one director who is not pinned down by genres – be it horror movies like Hot Fuzz and Last Night in Soho, or action-packed Scott Pilgrim, etc, and that too with a blend of genres. Even in movies where he was associated tangentially, his signature style of quick zooms and pans were visible and made for great storytelling. But here where the story was already in place by the great Stephen King, the execution is bland. One would be hard-pressed to determine if the movie was an Edgar Wright work. But that is ok, he has proven himself more times that he hasn’t so there is no cause for worry, he will be back soon and better for it (“calm down heart. all is not lost”). In other news, has anyone else noticed how Josh Brolin is in everything these days? Anyway, give The Running Man a miss, and if you are looking for fun escapism, opt for Jackpot.

Ghosts UK

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https://www.thepennmoviegoer.com/

Rating: 5 stars out of 5
Starring: Charlotte Ritchie, Kiell Smith-Bynoe, Lolly Adefope, Mathew Baynton, Simon Farnaby, Martha Howe-Douglas, Jim Howick, Laurence Rickard, Ben Willbond, Katy Wix
Where to watch: BBC/Prime Video
To watch or not to watch: Of course it is a must watch! Why is that even a question!?

Alison (Charlotte Ritchie) and Mike (Kiell Smith-Bynoe) are an average couple looking for a new place to move into. As luck would have it, Alison’s distant relative passes away, and Alison being the only living relative left, she inherits an estate manor. Of course it seems like lady luck has finally shone her light on the couple and their life can finally take off, but no no, not so soon. There are a (couple of) group(s) of ghosts living their best afterlife in that manor who would rather the manor be left to themselves. In this pursuit, they try to push Alison from a first storey window (and this works only in this series) and she wakes up with the ability to see and hear the ghosts as if they were a real people! Ooo! Excitement galore! Now Alison’s life has been changed forever. Since that land has been on earth since life began, there are ghosts from neolithic, regency, World War, etc time periods. We also have a Tory MP who dies in questionable circumstances and is destined to die out the rest of his death without trousers. We also have an Edwardian era royalty who was beheaded and is constantly losing his body. And wait, there are a bunch of ghosts living in the basement from the time they lost their lives to the plague, but then we can ignore them.

This series is super cool and funny. It moves and evolves along with the characters, and the said characters have depth, width and everything in between. We have a closeted war colonel, an enlightened milkmaid, and a politician who missed the birth of his child because he was busy cheating on his wife. This is handled with finesse, calling a spade a spade, but still maintaining a levity throughout. There is never a dull moment in the series, if it is not the fantastical money making schemes of the married couple, it is the opportunistic neighbour who adds excitement. There is also exploration of the themes of death and life. And it is this charm which wins the heart of Alison and the viewers too.

This series, like The Office, has been adapted into a US, German, French and Greek version too, with Australian production on the way. It is a good story, and comparing it with the American version, it is a tighter script with 5 seasons and 6 episodes each. It keeps the story rolling and viewer invested, and left wanting more. The actors and humour are also quintessentially British, without annoying pauses for laughter tracks. It can also be classified as absurd situational comedy. A must watch, and ensure it is the UK version.

Heretic

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A worthy attempt to subvert a genre, but loses its way halfway through
https://www.latimes.com/

Rating: 3.5 stars out of 5
Starring: Hugh Grant, Sophie Thatcher, Chloe East
To watch or not to watch: It is a decent first watch, and has a lot of shock value, but take that away, and you have any generic thriller

2 LDS missionaries are trying to spread the word of their lord and saviour from home to home, come over to an isolated house near the end of a road. The house is occupied a Mr. Reed (Hugh Grant) who had previously shown interest in learning about the LDS church. Since Mormon women can’t enter a house without a female present, the sisters Barnes and Paxton (Sophie Thatcher and Chloe East) check with Mr. Reed if he has a girl roommate. It starts raining heavily and after Mr. Reed’s confirmation that his wife, his soulmate is inside, the sisters enter Mr. Reed’s home, away from the torrential rain and a promise of pie. They discuss how religion is not the centre of culture anymore (which we witness in the initial few minutes where some young adults harass the two sisters). The three talk about how important it is to believe in a doctrine and find out through testing what one true religion is. And that is the whole premise of the devilry of Mr. Reed.

This is a clever movie, no denying that. In the typical horror movies we have seen, religion has been used as a weapon to ward off evil, be it The Exorcist, or the more recent Conjuring universe. This movie flips the trope on a tangent and raises the question – which is the correct, true, highest, purest religion? And theoretically, the road to the answer is paved with evil deeds by Mr. Reed (clever, right? *eyebrows wiggling*). And this is also the point where the movie loses its spiel. It begins as a debate on the truth taught by religion, which mostly asserts that that religion is the first religion, the one and the only. But what is first – The Landlord’s Game or Monopoly, Radiohead’s Creep or The Air That I Breathe by The Hollies or Get Free by Lana Del Ray. That is the debate, which gets lost in the rest of the movie. Or if it is present then it is only in words, not in action. Which kinda makes the whole premise lose steam.

The real pull of the movie is seeing Hugh Grant, the rom-com heartthrob who could star opposite Julia Roberts and make people wonder who is prettier of the two, as an old, wrinkled, charming man, with the signature Grant smile and the disarming look of dismay, as a conniving, heartless, sadistic misanthrope. Since this movie is essentially a three-hander chamber piece, it would have been a total dud if it wasn’t for Thatcher and East. They both have given themselves to their characters from beginning to end, and also developing themselves along the way. East being born into the church, but still curious about the world outside it and Thatcher being a convert and dedicating herself to it totally, completely. So strong is her conviction that she has converted 8-9 people through proselytising! It is interesting to see the two young women tackle their belief against a formidable opponent. But it doesn’t mean the story is strong, infallible or that its flaws can be written off as foibles. A worthy attempt in the age old genre, but needs improvement. Watch it with popcorn, but prepare to be disappointed.

Novocaine

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https://www.cinemablend.com/

Rating: 3 stars out of 5
Starring:  Jack Quaid, Amber Midthunder, Ray Nicholson, Jacob Batalon
Where to watch: Prime Video
To watch or not to watch: It has only one joke, but it plays it well!!! A high dose of entertainment for all action movie lovers

Nathan Caine (Jack Quaid) works as an Assistant Manager at a local bank, leads a simple, quiet life, has an unassuming personality, and has a crush on the teller by the name of Sherry (Amber Midthunder) who has the opposite personality of Nathan, being extroverted, a spitfire and full of spark. One day, some lowlives decide to rob the bank, and kidnap Sherry. Nathan being a one-woman-man, has ro rescue his woman from the thugs, even though they are not a real couple. But unbeknownst to people at large, Nathan has a superpower – he doesn’t feel pain. At all. Not even the bladder sensation to pee, or biting tongue while chewing, for example, which means that he has led most of his life sheltered and limited. Now with the love of his life (even if it was only one date) being kidnapped, the curse he has led most of his life threatening his very existence becomes his power where he can fight the bad guys without restraint (luckily he has some good fighting skills without ever learning them). So, that’s what happens – Nathan Caine, aka Novocaine to his bullies, becomes the knight in a bloody body armour to rescue his princess.

It is a good movie, it is fun, it doesn’t take itself seriously, and neither should you. It is a typical light-hearted movie where the trope is the underdog becoming a hero. That’s it. That’s the review.
Well, the last part can be explained a bit more. There are multiple moments where the plot is only a hole, where the cringe is high and gore is more. But then again, it did not promise to be a high intensity thriller with morals and takeaways. It is a plain and simple action comedy, which is hastily thrown together to make it a quasi-cohesive movie which delivers on entertainment. There is much to be said about self-awareness in the movie making world and it is almost always a positive character trait.

It is fun to see Quaid in a The Boys+Punisher mash-up of a role. He is good at it, and after The Boys, it is easier to see him in movies where things blow up and there is blood and gore. Maybe we are seeing him too much in this genre? He is a decent actor by all accounts, his role in The boys is nothing to sneeze at, and maybe because of the success of the series, he is not getting any other scripts? This is of course, only conjecture, unless Jack Quaid himself comments on the website (wishful thinking). This is only to say that he has potential to be more than one role, one character typecast into this. It will be fun for us, but maybe not so fulfilling for an actor of his calibre. Watch Novocaine on a movie night with a bunch of friends and have fun!

Juror #2

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https://www.primevideo.com/

Rating: 2 stars out of 5
Starring: Nicholas Hoult, Toni Collette, J. K. Simmons, Kiefer Sutherland
Where to watch: Prime Video
To watch or not to watch: This is movie is like a motley teenager who thinks they are the President of the United States. The result is the same. The fact that it is directed by the acclaimed Clint Eastwood can be easily ignored.

In a small town in Georgia USA, a murder trial is going on to determine whether James Michael Sythe, abusive boyfriend of the victim Kendall Cater is the perpetrator or not. On the jury are people from different walks of life, with different life priorities, including Juror #2, Justin Kemp (Nicholas Hoult), whose wife is in a high-risk pregnancy, and he would like nothing better to be excused so he can spend time with her. But as luck would have it, he is a part of the jury nonetheless, and he is a sticky situation, because it turns out he is real perpetrator of the crime, but the police stuck to the theory of the abusive boyfriend being the perp. A fellow juror Harold (JK Simmons) has doubts about the police investigation and he mistakes Justin’s discomfort with the case as doubt into the conviction. The public prosecutor Faith Killebrew (Toni Collette) is standing for elections and is determined to convict Sythe to win the votes basis the fight against domestic violence. The defence attorney Eric Resnick (Chris Messina) is helpless because even though he is convinced of his client’s innocence, there is no way to prove it. It is upto to Justin to sway his fellow jurors away from a guilty verdict all the while walking the tightrope of not implicating himself.

This movie is thankfully not the swan song of the brilliant Clint Eastwood, it would have been a tragedy otherwise. This is a not a good movie. There is no other way to put this.
It might be a spiritual remake of 12 Angry Men, and it does turn into that movie during jury deliberations, it is trying too hard. On the one hand, the importance is on the fact of the situation of Justin Kemp, of course, who could have thought a juror is the very criminal in the case!? Brilliant premise, but somehow the reveal of the fact in the beginning (so early that it is also in the trailors) takes way from the fact. Now Justin is not a slick human like Danny Ocean that he can get away from the scrapes he gets into. He is a recovering alcoholic and a doting husband. And that is another problem – while the fact he is real perp is bang in the beginning, his recovering alcoholism is like a big secret that is hinted at for a long time till it is told (“in case you didn’t get the hints, here is what we were trying to tell you all along”). Weird, confusing, unnecessary and totally unproductive.

A movie with the promises of Eastwood, Collette, Hoult, being disappointing makes one feel hopeless for other releases which are much low on the star power. To be fair, it wasn’t the star power which was a let down, it was the writing. Or rather the confused vision on what the movie wanted to be. Lack of clarity of thought has brought down nations, and this is just a movie. And acting is not a cure, contrary to the movie makers’ belief. They are a tool to bring the vision to life, a face to the written word. There are many instances where a now popular character was earlier planned for a big star, but was given to someone less known and now we cannot imagine that character being played by anyone else. Because actors in a movie can be replaced, thanks to make-up, direction and writing. But there is no cure to bad writing. If anything, a good actor will make bad writing stand out in stark relief.
Not a good movie. Watch 12 Angry Men instead.

Wicked Little Letters

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https://www.primevideo.com/

Rating: 3.5 stars out of 5
Starring: Jesse Buckley, Olivia Colman, Timothy Spall, Anjana Vasan
Where to watch: Prime Video
To watch or not to watch: It is a funny movie starring some of the best actors telling a story on a deep subject. Why not to watch!

The movie is based in 1920 England, where a lonely, devout spinster Edith Swan (Olivia Colman) lives with her overbearing father and gentle mother, next door to a single, Irish immigrant mother Rose Gooding (Jesse Buckley). Not only is Rose a single mother, but she is also living in sin with her partner Bill, swears like a sailor, and has a jolly good time at the pub with the other patrons, all actions not approved by the tight laced Edith. But Edith has another problem, she has been receiving poison pen letter, filled with profanity, which disturb her parents to no end, that too 19 in total! And not just Edith, the who’s-who of the village have had something vile said about them! The nerve! Who could have done such an evil trick, and who has such a potty-mouth? Why, Rose of course, with her new age ideas and little regard to propriety, she is the right suspect for this deed which has troubled the good Christians no end. Rose is thus arrested and having no money for bail, has to spend time in jail, more now that Edith’s poor mother died of a heart attack upon reading one such letter. There is also Gladys (Anjana Vasan) who is assigned this case, pays little attention to this claiming there is more serious crime to be investigated – and rightly so, she is very good at her job, but her misogynistic boss doesn’t recognise her talent. That is, until she decides to give this quickly spiralling case her full attention.

The premise of the movie is hilarious and the execution even more so. Anything which has either Colman or Buckley is a treat in itself and this one has them both. Add to this mix Vasan (of We Are Ladyparts fame) and you get a cherry on your cake you did not know you needed. This movie has some fantastic dialogue writing and a bit of on-time slapstick comedy which makes it an ideal viewing pleasure. The movie touches on a topic, or rather, a side to human nature we all know and talk about but has never given the center stage or a de-facto position it deserves. And that is the real feat of this movie. Anyone who has ever had someone out to get them should come back to this movie and understand the underlying reason for such malice. It might help to understand the other person and maybe lessen their burdens a bit.
On the other side, the story and performance can only do so much. They are not the salve for the wounds caused by sloppy screenplay. Things suddenly take a turn and it is revealed who has been actually writing the letters, and while it deserves a slow camera pan-up to the face of the criminal, and its own crescendo in the background, it gets none of that, but rather a reveal which is more matter-of-fact. That take away from the almost 50% of the runtime build-up we have been viewing and waiting for. And the climax, while totally funny (ngl) is make out to be this big curtain drawing moment, which we saw coming a mile away.

It is confounding to realise why people can be so bitter about themselves and their lives that they have to take it out on others who have absolute zero contribution in their misery. Their only sin is that they have something the bitter person covets. And don’t all humans covet something they see others enjoying? So when does this scarcity give rise to such acid in their nature? Is there a trigger or is this something that builds up slowly, was always there and was only looking for an opening to rear its ugly head? On the flip side, what is stopping anyone from changing their lives, little bit at a time, because afterall it is the little things that matter, that one can control? Or is the effort in making that change so daunting, so scary, and turning into a harmful part of humanity so easy and satisfying, that it becomes the immediate choice? Is it a choice? Maybe it is. Comment if you have any answers to these questions?
This movie is a light-hearted, but deep movie which comes rarely on the screen, and has all but one pillar working for it. It can be a family movie too, if the family has members above the minimum age of voting, or driving, at the more adult’s discretion. The dialogues and the letters are so ridiculously out-there, they are laugh-out-loud. Jesse Buckley’s character’s free way of life is so inviting, all of us would want to be there with her, but we would need to build our characters strong enough. It is uplifting. Watch it!

No Gain, No Love

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https://www.imdb.com/

Rating: 4 stars out of 5
Starring: Shin Min-a, Kim Young-dae, Lee Sang-yi, Han Ji-Hyun, Lee You-Jin
Where to watch: Prime Video (12 episodes, 60-odd minutes each)
To watch or not to watch: An example of progressive Korean drama which maintains the light-hearted tone throughout

Son Hae-yeong (Shin Min-a) has always shared her mother’s love with her various foster siblings, which has made her evaluate everything in her life in terms of give and take. In a separate development, her workplace is hosting an idea competition with very lucrative benefits and a position that reports directly to CEO Bok Gyoo-hyeon (Lee Sang-yi) at the end of it. But due to the bias against females in the workplace, which doesn’t take the fact that they might bear children and have monthly periods, positively, she knows she won’t be evaluated fairly for the position. To circumvent this issue, she decides to rope in Kim Ji-wook (Kim Young-dae) to be her fake husband, complete with a sham wedding and all. In the parallel, we have Nam Ja-yeon (Han Ji-hyun) who lives with Hae-young, is her foster sister and works as an adult web-series writer, and is very popular. Bok Gyu writes malicious comments on the series, Ja-yeon plans to sue him, and they have their meet-cute. Hae-young’s ex-boyfriend is in the same company and is totally jealous of her husband who has also joined the company and is reporting to Hae-young. The CEO’s secretary turns out to be Nam Ja-yeon’s school friend, who doesn’t know about her adult literature writing career, nor of her run-in with the CEO, and he is looking to transfer departments. All in all, there are much entangled connections sprinkled with hilarity and a bit of conflict regarding Ji-wook’s past and present which might disrupt his tender relationship with Hae-yeong.

In the majority of K-dramas, the story takes an angular turn at the middle point. While the first half is easy-going, funny, with the story about how the main actors fall in love with each other, the second half focuses on the lead actors’ relationship, tone is serious, the main conflict becomes the story. Not in this one! Well, not totally.
The series focuses on Son Hae-yeong primarily, followed by Nam Ja-yeon and then the third foster sister (who is mostly an after-thought). Compared to other K-dramas, the FL doesn’t suffer from main-character-syndrome (too much), and there is an explanation for the times she takes priority in the supporting casts’ lives. She is as caring for the people around her as they are for her. There is some really good humor in the enemies-to-lovers sequence between ML and FL. And the fact that they don’t demonise the non-virginal FL. There is some real progress in the series.
There are some things which might leave the viewer unsatisfied too – like the fact that her calculation only set the sequence of events in motion but did not feature in the story anymore. The story of the third sibling had weight to it – her becoming pregnant out of wedlock, with a cheating boyfriend. (Spoiler alert – she decides to live her life with him despite him being a cheat. Which is Ewww!) Her story would come on in the middle of another scene without any foreshadow and made it very jarring. Almost as if we are forced to remember she exists, which is unfair to the actor who is actually good at her job. Then there is this arc of Hae-yeong’s mother who is suffering from dementia, which is a secret, but not really?! This is one of the reasons the ending left the viewer unfulfilled and without proper closure.

There are many things this series does well and only a few it doesn’t. It is a real step forward towards progress in the field of women’s rights and feminism. The lead is a strong woman who takes unconventional steps to grow in her career. Her career is important to her and she is good at her job. She doesn’t take that for granted. She worked towards what she has received, and not because a chaebol took interest in her. In fact, she helped her ex-boyfriend and current husband in their careers, in small ways. She is undaunted in the face of adversity and retains good humour. What a character!
This series is different in the right way from other K-dramas and just for that reason it merits a watch. The fact that it has only 12 episodes is a bonus!

Ela Veezha Poonchira

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https://www.cinemaexpress.com/

Rating: 4.5 stars out of 5
Starring: Soubin Shahir, Sudhi Koppa, Jude Anthany Joseph
Where to watch: Prime Video
To watch or not to watch: A must watch for your Friday night intense watch! Fresh and brilliant!

Madhu (Soubin Shahir) is a police constable posted at a hilltop to maintain the lines for wireless signals and keep people away from the area as it is frequently struck by lightning. He is accompanied by another younger constable Sudhi (Sudhi Koppa) who has a rather cavalier attitude to Madhu’s more serious, withdrawn, quiet persona. Madhu cooks chicken curry for Sudhi, cleans up after him, tells him off from watching a couple having a private time among the bushes on the hill, all in all, a fair balance. In the opening scene we learn that there are dismembered body parts found all around the hill, and leads to an investigation that the two constables can follow through the wireless. But along with this, there is a simmering tension under the surface of Madhu’s quiet exterior visible through his furrowed brows, pinched mouth and staring eyes. With that is the mounting tension of the murder investigation, which then reveals itself to be the one missing puzzle piece which makes sense of the seemingly simple narrative.

This movie is largely a two-parter with very few supporting cast members, in fact, it won’t be wrong to say that Soubin Shahir is the Atlas who carries with him the weight of the narration. It is such an easy, simple narration, driven by dialogues, daily life events and, as mentioned before, a simmering tension. People complain about unfaithful wives, upset stomachs, normal police functions, etc. with nothing indicating the weight of the world waiting for the viewers at the end of the movie. But there are breadcrumbs spread all across the movie – from the opening scene, to a seemingly innocuous pregnant woman, a man masturbating, and so on. And when it all comes together, it is such a revelation to see the entire picture come to light. Very satisfactory.

In this era, when everyone blames huge productions like MCU for the high budget and claim the difficulty in products, we have a simple, poignant and deep movie like Ela Veezha Poonchira. The screenplay and cinematography are so tight and well executed, it is a masterclass in filmmaking. It is one of the best directorial debut movies and one of the reasons it feels so authentic is Shahi Kabir, the director, has been a police officer himself. Add to that the acting by Soubin Shahir – man! He conveyed so much by just subtle expressions – expressions of a man trying to hide his emotions in a setting where emotions have little place. This movie is a study in humanity and yes, filmmaking. Film makers, take note. Film viewers, don’t miss this one.

Strange Darling

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https://www.primevideo.com/detail/

Rating: 4 stars out of 5
Starring: Willa Fitzgerald, Kyle Gallner
Where to watch: Jio Cinema/Peacock Network and Prime Video
To watch or not to watch: This non-linear, largely two-hander is using your conscious mind and societal standards in the best way possible to give this fun ride of a movie

The movie opens with Willa Fitzgerald’s character named Lady running away in a car from Kyle Gallner’s character (Demon) who is snorting coke and loading a gun to shoot at Lady. They both met through a dating app and decide to hook up and things turn for the bad. What follows is a chase littered with cold-blooded murders, car chases, makeshift bandages for gaping wounds, and basically a short sprint for survival (the movie covers barely 2 days).

This movie has the shortest summary in the history of this website till now. And that is because the real meat of the movie is revealed in the first few minutes of the movie, and any description beyond that would be a buzzkill. But still this movie works and the reason is the non-linear storytelling style employed here. The whole movie is divided into chapters and the opening chapter sets the tone of the movie while some of the following chapters are shocking and thrilling. It is true that the non-linear storytelling is a cop-out making an otherwise bland, run-of-the-mill story into something more than what it is, simply by jumbling the parts that make it a whole. But this movie, and by extension the director, is aware of it. The parts are labelled as chapters and are revealed in piecemeal basis the emotion that needs to be extracted from the viewer. It is this awareness which subconsciously sets the expectation from the movie, and the movie rises to meet it.

Finally Kyle Gallner gets some of the recognition he deserves. He was brilliant in The Haunting in Connecticut, which happens to be one of the best horror movies (Rotten Tomates and IMdB disagree), and he is perfection in this one. This movie also does something which is turning to be commonplace and that is subverting the genre (anymore said on this will be a spoiler). It is not not done before, nonetheless, it is being done quite refreshingly here. There are multiple (intentional or unintentional) instances which have a deeper meaning to the scene and it is fun to rewatch and learn more about it. All in all, time well spent. Highly recommended.

Longlegs

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https://www.imdb.com/

Rating: 2 stars out of 5
Starring: Maika Monroe, Nicolas Cage, Blair Underwood, Alicia Witt
Where to watch: Amazon Prime Video
To watch or not to watch: What the hell! Stitch together incoherent pieces together and you get this rag doll. Yea… no.

The movie is set in the 1990s where Agent Lee Harker (Maika Monroe) is with the FBI, is awkward, socially inept, a loner and is discovered to have uncanny “psychic” powers. For this ability, she is pulled into the investigation of a crime 3 decades running, where the patriarch of a totally normal family suddenly goes violent on his family and butchers them all. Her supervisor William Carter (Blair Underwood) wants to solve this case and things that Harker’s psychic abilities might aid in the endeavour. And she does help, as she is able to crack the code on the letters left by an unknown entity known as Longlegs at the murder sites, claiming credit for the murders. The investigation takes Harker to one of the survivors of the annihilation, an in-execution annihilation where a life size doll of the girl child is discovered with a mysterious metal ball in its brain, and back to her own childhood. We do see Longlegs before long and its… interesting? Anyway, the movie is not.

What an utter ridiculous farce of a movie. A wanna-be Silence Of The Lambs, without the substance. Or rather scattered substance which changes tone without so much as a “Hey” and goes about as if nothing has happened. Kinda like that co-worker who has made a mistake which affects the project but is entirely unbothered. (Mild spoilers follow)
The villain/evil character has a Satanic bend and is able to twist the patriarch against the family with the girl child in some sort of trance. But why? Is the agenda to kill all normal families? Why? Is the idea to kill God fearing Christians? Again, why? And these questions stare into the abyss which is the travesty of a horror movie. So much so, that it might have been slightly better if it had stuck to the tropes and made it a cliche. It starts ok, you can see there is something off about Harker and Carter is like a father figure to her, looking beyond the awkwardness and seeing the person, but then enters Alicia Witt as Harker’s mother and then it is throw-everything-to-the-wall-and-see-what-sticks.

The direction of the movie is good. Genuinely. It is specially visible in the first act with the dark yellow and brown tones, slow pace, few dialogues. The choice of a wide angle camera for shooting most of the movie was a good artistic choice, without which they wouldn’t have even enough marketing material. And it so far removed from the promises made during marketing that a case can be made for false advertising. “The sample doesn’t match the final product delivered”. The wide angle remains throughout the movie but it cannot take the place of a story or script or screenplay or agenda. Cage has turned out a good performance (though not many people agree with this), it is not creepy. It gives the vibes of a sad, lonely, retired circus performer who is fighting to make ends meet and is losing sanity due to loneliness. This theme is a social issue, not necessarily a horror movie subject matter. Go back in time and undo this movie. It should not have happened