Malignant
The best way to watch James Wan's latest horror film, Malignant, is without knowing anything about it. You may spend the first half of the film thinking it's fairly mediocre, but just wait. So if you're interested in seeing it, stop reading right now and go watch it. Then come back and finish reading the review.
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HAHAHAHAHAHA HOLY FUCK, WASN'T THAT SHIT INSANE??
So, Malignant rests on a bat-shit crazy twist that is hinted at, but only fully revealed in the final third of the movie. The first part of the film follows Madison Mitchell (Annabelle Wallis, a regular in James Wan's films), a pregnant woman married to an abusive man. When hubby goes too far and pushes Maddy into a wall one day, a mysterious black figure shows up later than night and makes quick work of hubs, breaking his neck. The cops have their eye on Maddy as a potential suspect, even though she seems timid and harmless. Things get even more complicated when Maddy begins to have visions of murders. Basically, she's in her own home, but she can see the murder take place in real time.
It's important to note that Maddy was adopted at age 8. Before the adoption, she can't remember much of what her life was like. However, she would speak to someone named "Gabriel" who would tell her to do bad things. Her adoptive parents always assumed Gabriel was Maddy's invisible friend, and once Maddy's sister, Sydney, was born, Maddy stopped mentioning Gabriel.
Well, the twist is that Gabriel is/was Maddy's parasitic twin. You know how some people are born the like a lump on their neck and when it's removed, there are teeth in the lump? That's basically Gabriel, except WAY more developed, and also happens to have supernatural powers which he uses for evil. Maddy's mother gave her up to a hospital that observed Gabriel and Maddy, and eventually excised Gabriel from Maddy's body. However, since the two shared a brain, they could only "suppress" Gabriel...and when Maddy's husband banged her head against the wall, it awoke the dormant Gabriel. So all those murders were Gabriel's will, using Maddy's body. Gabriel put Maddy into a sleep-like state while murdering people, which is why Maddy could sort of see the murders, but thought she was at home.
Does any of this make any sense, medical or otherwise? Fuck no! Unlike The Human Centipede, this film is NOT medically accurate. But it is fun as hell, especially the final third. If Gabriel had been like, a ghost or demon or something, this movie would be getting a C/C+...but the twist is so bonkers, so hilariously wild, that it bumps it up a whole letter grade. Don't misunderstand: Malignant is not a "good" movie. But it's really, really fun. It recalls cheesy, gruesome movies of the 80s, like Basket Case and Dead Alive. Some critics have also said it's reminiscent of giallo films, but I'm not quite seeing the connection there. It definitely has a vintage feel, for sure. And the poster is great!
Well, if you have read this far, you either already saw it, or I blew the twist. But here's the thing: I knew the twist going in and it was still fun as fuck! So if you're a horror fan at all, please watch this movie.
Grade: B+
***
The Card Counter
Directed by Paul Schrader (writer of Taxi Driver and director/writer of First Reformed), The Card Counter is a bleak meditation on whether or not one can be redeemed after one commits heinous crimes. Specifically, torture.
Oscar Isaacs, in a career-best performance, plays William, a man who spent 10 years in prison where he learned to count cards. He now spends his days pulling in modest winnings at casinos around the country. William is careful to never win so big that he draws attention to himself, and he is always on the move. He stays in cheap motels and he covers all the furniture in sheets. Why does he do this? Is he running from someone or something?
The reason William was in the clink is because he was convicted of war crimes. He was an interrogator at Abu Ghraib (or a similar facility). We see flashbacks as William tries to sleep at night. These scenes, shot in a distorted fish-eye lens, are the most powerful scenes in the film, and indeed are among the most visceral scenes I have watched in a long time--and they're not even that explicit. Schrader is careful to capture the environment, filled with noise, naked men in stress positions, barking dogs, and feces covering the floors and walls without using violence as entertainment. This film's take on torture, specifically the torture administered by American soldiers on Muslim men in the post-9/11 world, is unflinching and unsparing in its condemnation. William tells a young man, Cirk (Tye Sheridan), whose father was also an interrogator, that even though he is bitter that his superiors were never punished he is not justifying what was done. The camera pushes in on Isaacs deep-set, tired eyes as he says, "Nothing will ever justify what we did."
William is a man with very little reason to live or to forgive himself. He makes a connection with a woman named La Linda (Tiffany Haddish), who runs a "stable" of gamblers who have outside financial backing. Around the same time, William meets Cirk--a young, troubled man who blames Major John Gordo (Willem Dafoe) for his father's suicide. Gordo is essentially a stand-in for the real life John Bolton--basically one of the bigwigs in charge of "advanced interrogation techniques" for the US military. Cirk's father never forgave himself for what he did during the war and became and alcoholic who abused his wife and young Cirk before taking his own life. Cirk's plan is to capture Gordon, torture him, and kill him.
William believes that if he can win enough money--using La Linda's backers--to help Cirk pay off his debts, that he can convince Cirk not to go through with this plan. If he can only give Cirk the hope that he himself never had, maybe he can save Cirk from his own hatred and anger. But is William being played for a fool?
I have a few criticisms of this film. Namely, a good amount of the dialogue is clunky and unnatural. I hate to say it, but Tiffany Haddish and Tye Sheridan don't seem to be strong dramatic actors (Haddish is, of course, a gifted comedian). The way they delivered their lines felt like they had simply memorized them and then said them back, with no cadence or anything to help make their delivery feel lifelike. And when compared to Isaacs, who is an incredibly gifted dramatic actor...well, it felt awkward.
However, the overall messages of the film, which are 1) that America sold its soul during the Iraq war and cannot be forgiven, and 2) some individuals who seek redemption may never find it, are so powerful that I can overlook some of the clunkiness. And, again, the scenes in the Abu Ghraib prison are perfection at capturing the literal hell that both the prisoners and their tormentors found themselves in. I recently watched all the Saw movies and as I watched these prison scenes I thought "America basically created its own Saw in these prisons, only worse because at least in Saw you could hope to win the game."
Bleak, unrelenting, and deeply emotional, I recommend The Card Counter.
Grade: B
***
The Guilty
I watched this 2018 Danish film in preparation for the 2021 remake starring Jake Gyllenhaal. Jakob Cedergren stars in a nearly one-man movie as Asger Holm, a police officer awaiting trial for killing a 19-year-old. He is taken off his usual beat and assigned to work an emergency hotline. One evening, he receives a call from a woman named Iben (voiced by Jessica Dinnage) who at first talks to Asger as if she's talking to her child. Asger figures out that Iben is in a car with a man she does not feel safe with, and the two devise a code so Iben can give Asger clues as to where the car is going.
To say much more would spoil the plot, which slowly reveals additional details (I'll give you one detail: the man she's in the car with is her ex-husband) and the tension ramps up and up, as Asger becomes fully invested in the woman's situation.
It will be interesting to see how the American remake takes on the issue of police brutality. One could possibly see this film (and maybe it's remake? I haven't watched it yet) as "copaganda" since a supposedly bad cop does a good thing for the woman on the phone...but the film ends on such an ambiguous note that I don't really think it's trying to be like the movie Crash (where the bad guys are good and the good guys are bad and moral lessons are spoon-fed to us!).
Overall, it's pretty good. Not great, but good, Jakob Cedergren "gives good face" in this movie, which is important since 90% of the movie is just...his face. In one INCREDIBLY tense scene, his eyes well up just a tiny bit, and damn if that's not some good acting. Check it out!
Grade: B
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