Yes, another batch of movie reviews. But if you're into full-length reviews, fear not--I'm seeing The Girl on the Train and The Birth of a Nation later this week and will give them each their own blog entry.
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Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children
Based on the novel by Ransom Riggs (which I have not read), Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children is an entertaining, yet forgettable fantasy film with beautiful visuals and a confusing, overstuffed plot
Directed by Tim Burton, Miss Peregrine is a step up from some of the director's more recent fare, such as the Alice in Wonderland movies, but it's also not among (or even close to) his best work. At his best, Burton uses his signature quirky storytelling style to help audiences connect emotionally to the characters in his film--think of innocent, yet scary-looking Edward Scissorhands trying to fit into a candy colored suburb, or endlessly optimistic Ed Wood getting his awful movies produced. More recently, Burton used some restraint in his movie Big Eyes and the result was the heartfelt story of a female artist manipulated by her domineering husband. Burton knows how to tell a story and get audiences to care. He has proven it time and again.
At his worst, however, his movies forsake plot and nuance for wacky visuals and cartoonish characters (see: both Alice in Wonderland films). Miss Peregrine is only barely on the "right" side. Visuals are valued above all else, and what visuals they are! In Miss Peregrine, teenager Jake (Asa Butterfield) honors his grandfather's dying words to find Miss Peregrine, the woman who ran the home for children that Jake's grandfather grew up in. According to stories his grandpa told Jake as a child, Miss Peregrine had the power to turn into a bird, and all the children she watched over were "peculiars"--they all had abilities or quirks, such as the girl who was lighter than air and had to wear lead shoes to keep from floating away, or the boy with a hive of bees living in his stomach.
Jake and his disinterested father (Chris O'Dowd in a thankless role) head to the Welsh island where the grandfather grew up. Jake finds Miss Peregrine's home--it's a pile of rubble since the Germans dropped a bomb right on it in 1943. But when he explores the shell of the house, he runs into the peculiars who lure him through a passage and into a "loop"--basically, they live the same say--Sept. 3rd, 1943--over and over, setting back time right before the bomb lands on the house.
From here, the movie brings together a mishmash of fantastical themes: time loops (one can't help compare certain scenes in the movie to Groundhog Day), children with supernatural abilities, evil scientists, and grotesque monsters. While the film is enjoyable enough, it's difficult to 1) follow the plot, especially when the gang of peculiars starts traveling to *different* time loops and 2) really care about any of the characters. There are any number of relationships to be explored in this film: Jake and his beloved grandfather, Jake and his barely-giving-a-shit dad, Jake and his peculiar love interest. But there's not enough time or space in the movie to truly explore these relationships. Too much plot gets in the way.
I can't compare the movie to the book, as I haven't read the book...but books are able to juggle multiple themes over the course of hundreds of pages. In directing a movie adaptation of Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, Burton may have bitten off more than he (or the audience) could chew.
Grade: C
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Knock Knock
The Eli Roth film Knock Knock is garbage, plain and simple. It's really just an awful movie on so many levels.
In Knock Knock, Keanu Reeves plays Evan, a 40-something married man with a lovely wife and two adorable children. The artistic family--Evan is an architect and his wife, Karen, is a sculptor--live in a fancy home filled with art, music, and love. But when Karen takes the kids on a beach trip and leaves dad at home for the weekend, temptation strikes.
By temptation, I mean two scantily clad young women, Genesis (Lorenza Izzo) and Bel (Ana de Armas), who knock on Evan's door and beg to be let in from the thunderstorm outside and to use his phone to call an Uber. The two young ladies become increasingly flirtatious with Evan, who behaves like a complete gentleman--avoiding the ladies' flirtatious caresses, turning his head away from their nubile bodies, etc.
Ultimately, the two women practically force themselves on Evan, who succumbs to temptation and has a threesome with them. But what's super gross about all this is that Evan is literally saying "No! Stop!" over and over while Bel and Genesis shove their hands down his pants. What is this, dear readers? The correct answer is, of course, sexual assault. But the movie doesn't see it that way. Instead of presenting the women as fucking rapists, they're presented as naughty nymphs sent to tempt a happily married man. Sure, eventually Evan "participates", but only after saying "no" eleventy-billion times.
Knock Knock is labeled as "erotic horror". That's a fucking laugh. There is nothing erotic about this movie, or the women who are INCREDIBLY annoying. Sure, they have nice bodies, but OH MY GOD they are awful in every other way.
My advice is to read the wikipedia article on Knock Knock is you want to know what fate befalls Evan. Don't bother watching the movie, which is an insulting waste of time.
Grade: D+
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Holy Hell
Yes, it's another cult movie! Unlike The Invitation and The Sacrament, which I reviewed recently, Holy Hell is a documentary about a real life cult. Director Will Allen was in the Buddhafield cult for 22 years before he left (along with many others who had been in the cult since the 1980s) in the mid-2000s.
Led by a bizarre and charismatic man, Michel Rostand, the Buddhafield started out as more of a hippy-dippy commune where young people lived together, worked together, and by all accounts lived happy, healthy lives. Allen interviews a number of ex-cult members who recall wonderful friendships and experiences that came out of being part of Buddhafield.
But as the years went on, Michel, the leader of the cult who claimed to have a direct connection to God (don't they all?), became more and more narcissistic and strange. It became less about searching for God and looking inward and more about worshipping Michel, who was obsessed with his own beauty and ego (he underwent so much plastic surgery he began to look flat-out scary). The ex-cult members recall feeling angry and dissatisfied but unable to leave. Indeed, it was as if Michel was in an abusive, co-dependent relationship with all of them.
The big reveal, which isn't really a surprise if you know anything about cults (or hierarchical religion, for that matter), is that Michel was raping/sexually abusing dozens of the young men in the group for years. They would come to him for "therapy" sessions, he would fuck them against their will (Who can say "no" to a living god, which Michel believed he was), and then make them pay for the sessions. An interview with one of the ex-cult members is particularly distressing as he bitterly recalls being forcibly fucked by Michel weekly for 5 years.
What makes Holy Hell unique is that many of the members ended up leaving the cult (although Michel is still out there with a gang of followers) and now can look back with sober clarity at the years they wasted following a rapist and a fraud. The members, now in their 50s and 60s struggle to find meaning in the two decades they spent in the Buddhafield and realize that their friendships with other members gave meaning to those decades. Allen directs Holy Hell with sensitivity and understanding--he, too, believed in Michel and was raped by Michel. The ex-cult members are not portrayed as foolish weaklings or crazy people, but as complex human beings who see both the positive and negative in their experience with Buddhafield. Although many of them ended up traumatized by the emotional, psychological, and sexual abuse, Holy Hell shows that many of them are now on a path of healing and acceptance.
Grade: B
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