As life becomes more lived in, I notice I have less time to spend at the movie theater, so when I’m finally able to go, I really like to take advantage of it and stuff as many movies into one visit as humanly possible. One of the worst parts of doing that? Spending eight or so hours at a theater. The best part? Watching a wide variety of disparate movies together that makes my brain feel like I’m in my own mini-film festival. Recently I caught four movies in a row at the theater and now my whole entire brain feels funny. Here’s what I saw:
The Wild Robot
At the bookstore I work at, we’re constantly selling copies of the 2016 novel by Peter Brown to kids so excited to read it that they’re bursting to get out of the store and bury their brains in the book. Now I understand. From Chris Sanders, the director of How to Train Your Dragon and a few other stone classics, The Wild Robot tells the story of a helper robot named Rez who accidentally ends up in the forest trying to do things for animals that are only terrified and confused by her. Obviously, they all eventually become close, but it’s done in ways that are genuinely lovely and filled with gorgeous lessons for kids. Any film that tries to teach the youth lessons about non-violence and how to cultivate a peaceful existence is OK by me, and even though the plot is sometimes very YA, it works in ways I found at turns very moving and wonderfully charming.
Grade: B+
Smile 2
The first Smile was easily one of the spookiest movies I’ve seen in the last couple years, so maybe I was unrealistically excited for the new one, but I found the sequel to be a bit of a mixed bag. From a bravura opening sequence done in one shot, to a genuinely disturbing first act that almost gave me a panic attack, I initially thought Smile 2 was poised to be even better than the original. But then it feels like the film just stops taking itself seriously and leans into campy horror… and not in a good way. While writer-director Parker Finn has serious talent and is definitely trying to infuse modern, dread-soaked horror with a formalist Kubrickian vibe, he’s still so new as a filmmaker that the seams are still showing in his influences. Fun in the moment, but ultimately nothing too memorable.
Grade: C+
Venom: The Last Dance
Look, can we accept that these movies are ultimately really fun and entertaining, while also being complete and absolute nonsense. All three Venom films feel like products of massive amounts of editing and deleted scenes in post-production, leading to plot lines that are either dropped halfway through the movie or that don’t give the film a spine to hang the great Tom Hardy performance upon. The series has always been buoyed by astonishing talents (the first film was shot by the great cinematographer Matthew Libatique and scored by certified genius Ludwig Göransson, while the second was directed by Gollum actor himself, Andy Serkis, and shot by one of the two or three greatest living cinematographers, Robert Richardson. Nothing about the Venom movies seems to have earned this level of talent behind the camera, but their presence easily makes the films so much more than they could have otherwise been. Too bad that level of talent was curated for the screenwriters who, led by Kelly Marcel, do a great job crafting a funny and charming relationship between Eddie Brock (Hardy) and his alien parasite (voiced by Hardy), but the stories they’re asked to participate in are ridiculous. And I don’t mean ridiculous in the way a lot of superhero movies are, but in a generally nonsensical type of way. Basically, I like these movies more than I actually respect them.
Grade: C+
Heretic
Why hasn’t Hugh Grant been making creepy psychological thrillers for years? Imagine his droll and charming smirk that he has employed since Four Weddings and a Funeral, Notting Hill, and Sense and Sensibility, but then weaponized in a way that makes him scarier than he has ever been before. Heretic follows two young Mormon women (the flawless Sophie Thatcher and Chloe East) who visit an Englishman in his deceptively large home in an attempt to win him over to the church. What begins as a discussion between the three about the history of organized religion and its effects on society as a whole ends up slowly twisting into a dangerous game of cat, mouse, and mouse. From the tightly written and unpredictable script to the three excellent central performances and the assured direction from Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, Heretic is an absolute blast. While the third act doesn’t tie things together in the most satisfactory of ways, the film still feels like a startlingly original thriller that’s almost impossible to look away from. I see a future where Hugh Grant is in a lot more movies where his charm curdles and becomes something much scarier.
Grade: A-
