The Invisible Man (2020)
Cert: 15 / 124 mins / Dir. Leigh Whannell / Trailer
Written and directed by Leigh Whannell, The Invisible Man is a contemporary reimagining of the H.G. Wells novel; the tale of crazed inventor Adrian Griffin (Oliver Jackson-Cohen), who perfects a means of vanishing - this time told from the perspective of his domestically abused partner, Cecilia Kass (Elisabeth Moss). As befits its setting, the movie is more psych-thriller than outright Horror™, but Whannell has enough cinematic grounding to confidently play notes from both.
This new version of Griffin resides and works in an East-coast cliffside mansion, complete with built-in laboratory, very much a dark-side image of Tony Stark. The Invisible Man doesn't play on this element too much, but it would have been another interesting route to take. Like every portrayal of the character, stillness is truly how Griffin disguises himself, so the film is by necessity a bit quiet-quiet-BANG, but even that doesn't become as self-indulgent as other Blumhouse offerings.
CLASSIC Because although Universal managed to keep hold of the classic property for distribution purposes, this is very much A Blumhouse Joint™ and was arguably always going to be. Luckily for us, it's one of the bloody good ones. By the time the effects-shots kick in properly (after an admirable period of restraint), the film becomes more interesting on a technical level than a narrative one, but the sense of tension at reaching a clear-cut finish line remains suitably high.
Suspension-of-disbelief is the main hurdle to clear with this sort of thing, of course. Even within the confines of a darkened auditorium, certain levels of internal logic have to be maintained. And while there is ostensibly a supernatural element to the central plot device, the antagonists's motives and flaws are very, very human.
GLACIER Will you buy that this particular method of invisibility could work as well as it's shown? Not necessarily*1. But will you buy Elisabeth Moss' performance in believing that Cecilia believes? 100%. As much as Whannell deserves all the plaudits he'll receive for this telling of the story, full credit goes to Moss; an actress who can create a sense of palpable dread using only an empty room. Okay, Stefan Duscio's claustrophobic cinematography and a brooding minimalist score from Benjamin Wallfisch also have their part to play, but this film would be nothing without its lead performer.
There's the feeling that perhaps Cecilia begins to suspect the incredible truth far more quickly than someone doubting their sanity actually should, but Moss does the spiral of 'crazy' perfectly, and the supporting cast of Aldis Hodge, Harriet Dyer and Michael Dorman do well to minimise the sense of staginess (Storm Reid seems to be in this by virtue of her screaming-ability - an absolute waste of talent, but hey).
Considering the almighty mess Universal could well have made of this under their own steam (a studio where even the mighty Dracula's not safe), The Invisible Man is an incredibly solid retooling of a fable almost older than cinema itself...
The film will lose emotional punch on repeated viewings, but yes.
Everyone is on fine form, here.
That's possible.
There isn't.
Level 2: Elisabeth Moss was in Us with Lupita 'Kanata' Nyong'o.
*1 No spoilers in this review, but this particular aspect is intended as a metaphor. It's just a metaphor which isn't really expanded upon to its full potential. [ BACK ]
DISCLAIMERS:
• ^^^ That's dry, British humour, and most likely sarcasm or facetiousness.
• Yen's blog contains harsh language and even harsher notions of propriety. Reader discretion is advised.
• This is a personal blog. The views and opinions expressed here represent my own thoughts (at the time of writing) and not those of the people, institutions or organisations that I may or may not be related with unless stated explicitly.
Hell's Kitchen, New York, 1978*1. The put-upon wives of three mobsters (Melissa McCarthy, Tiffany Haddish, Elisabeth Moss) find themselves struggling when their husbands are jailed following a failed store robbery. At first they decide to take up the reins of the business themselves, then the idea occurs that the ladies could be players in their own right. As their operation grows, they find themselves rubbing up other underworld figures the wrong way, and eventually decisions have to be made about how far each is prepared to go to assure their success...
POINT Now. I've heard a few folks comment that the premise of this movie is a blatant rip-off of 2018's Widows, and I feel the need to point out that this is definitely not the case. The Kitchen is in fact based on the 2015 comic from DC/Vertigo, and that was a rip-off of 1983's Widows. Come on people, really. Flippancy aside though, this is closer in tone and structure to a sort of Grand Theft Auto '78, since they're not pulling off One Big Job but building a sprawling criminal empire.
And although the levels of intensity feel right, the setup for the central premise itself feels a little linear. "Hey, y'know we could do The Crime, right?" - "Shall we do The Crime?" - "Yeah, let's do The Crime!!". Structurally this isn't a million miles away from Hustlers, except here it's a fight for identity and survival, rather than entitlement (obviously there is a bit of entitlement). Also, the vintage soundtrack is better in this movie, even if the best tunes have appeared in numerous other soundtracks over the years).
PRISON The central cast all do well with roles which don't tonally overlap too much, joined by Margo Martindale in full, glorious gangster-pantomime mode. Each of trio are individually flawed outside of their base criminal aspirations, with their own hurdles to clear before the credits roll. Two of our gang take to the life of crime like ducks to water, while the third still gives it one hell of a crack before becoming uncomfortable with the consequences of her new responsibilities. I've said it before and I'll say it again, Melissa McCarthy is far better at drama than she is comedy, even if she plays both almost identically*2. And it turns out that the same appears to be true of Tiffany Haddish. Elisabeth Moss is great as always.
As well as the strong - borderline caricature - 1978 production design*3, we're treated to some fantastic establishing scenery shots courtesy of cinematographer Maryse Alberti and the effects team who brought them to digitally enhanced life. At times this feels a bit like an early Guy Ritchie flick (no bad thing) in that the police are mentioned, but fire a handgun a few times in broad daylight and they're nowhere to be seen. This isn't their manor, and the players in this tale don't take them seriously anyway.
BIG The film drags a bit in its third act, and the whole thing ends up feeling like it could easily lose around twenty minutes. When the final plot tie-up arrives, it feels like something which has been dropped in because it's expected for the format, rather than the thing which has been driving the story all along. As escalating crime-sprees go, The Kitchen is a relatively nuts-and-bolts rendition, but one made with conviction and no small amount of style...
Buy it, but maybe wait for the price to come down first.
Not particularly, but there are strong and surprisingly nuanced performances all round.
Unlikely, since while The Kitchen won't be for everyone, it'll be a difficult to movie to actively take against.
No.
Level 1: General Hux is in this (and whose deadpan comic timing is superb, by the way)
*1 While obviously I'm aware that the title is location-specific, I can't help but feel that putting three women in a movie called "The Kitchen" in 2019 is playing into the wrong hands, somewhat. [ BACK ]
*2 I'll be honest, a small part of me was hoping Melissa McCarthy would be dreadful in this so that I could say "If you can't stand The Heat... stay out of The Kitchen!!1!". Alas, that cheap pun doesn't apply because her turn here is absolutely solid. We can only play the cards we're dealt, right? [ BACK ]
*3 Mate, it's 1978 and no one mentions Star Wars? At all? It'd only been out for six months and was still massive. You have a scene in a street full of movie theatres and the most recognisable name you've got splashed on the hoardings is Grease? ...what do you mean 'this isn't a documentary'? [ BACK ]
DISCLAIMERS:
• ^^^ That's dry, British humour, and most likely sarcasm or facetiousness.
• Yen's blog contains harsh language and even harsher notions of propriety. Reader discretion is advised.
• This is a personal blog. The views and opinions expressed here represent my own thoughts (at the time of writing) and not those of the people, institutions or organisations that I may or may not be related with unless stated explicitly.
Us (second-pass*1)
Cert: 15 / 116 mins / Dir. Jordan Peele / Trailer
I'm always in awe of any film which manages to convincingly show a maze of mirrors without also revealing the camera crew. And here, that's not even the cinematic finale, it's on the starter menu...
So as well as sounding like one of the nicest and most erudite people you'd ever want to meet, Jordan Peele goes from strength to strength artistically, using the tempered fury of Get Out then changing direction a little (without dropping down a gear) for his new film, Us.
Peele creates a movie which can be simultaneously enjoyed as a slickly assembled, surreal home invasion horror, and also a bitingly acerbic breakdown of repression, duality and societal paranoia. Best of all, he makes this look effortless. Us is a film about reflections, shadows, the differences between the two and the places where they overlap. It is almost oppressively intricate.
ESCALATING Cinematographer Mike Gioulakis makes great use of the 360° sets, escalating the claustrophobia and submerging the audience right in it. And even with the everyone gradually dialling things up to 11*2, there's not a dud performance int the entire movie. It's excellently cast and Peele brings them all together like a conductor at the top of his game. First and deservedly foremost among these though is Lupita Nyong'o, with what could well be a career-defining turn as both Adelaide and her counterpart, Red. She manages to take what in any other production would be a pantomime partnership and instead produces a sinister dramatic ballet of unhinged threat.
STAIRING Us sells its absurdist concept so well that even when the established beats of conventional horror flicks occur, they still work in the heat of the moment*3 - because 'reason' becomes theoretical when you can't tell what's real. Much like Get Out, when the plot mechanics are finally revealed in the third act of Us, the inherent silliness of the premise means that the film arguably makes even less sense than it did earlier. But anything which can be cinematically brilliant and still raise a plethora of 'how would that work?'*4 questions long after viewing is clearly doing a lot of things right.
A thematic kaleidoscope meets an absolute masterclass. We do not deserve Lupita Nyong'o, and we do not deserve Jordan Peele
Well let's start with Get Out, even though Us comes from a markedly different direction.
It is.
It is - repeat viewings are in order.
Jordan Peele will go from strength to strength, but this is (another) high watermark.
*1 My first-pass of Us was captured in a belated micro- review because as much as I loved the movie, I couldn't quite pull everything together into a full piece (pretty much the point of the micro-reviews, to be honest). Anyway, this second-pass is now late too, but let's just say that Us is every bit as tense the second time it's viewed. The threat, the intensity, the intrigue, every bit. And if that's not a sign of a fantastic flick then what is? [ BACK ]
*3 You know the drill: Why would they investigate where that noise is coming from? Why would they peek out from that open door? Why would they not just run the absolute fuck away at the earliest opportunity? That sort of thing. [ BACK ]
*4 Spoilers, but: Yeah the rabbits are an easily renewable source of food for The Tethered, but what do the rabbits eat? How can a society the same size as the population of the US survive living in tunnels without dying from vitamin deficiency and scurvy from just eating raw rabbit meat? Where did they get all the red fabric to make the outfits from? If the project was long-abandoned by the government, how come there are doubles of the kids? That's not how genetics work, otherwise all brothers/sisters of different ages would look identical. Is the system meant to be running itself down there? What happens to a double when its surface-dweller is killed accidentally? The '11:11' guy carried on living after his counterpart died. What happens when a surface dweller's life is saved with an operation from a naturally occurring genetic condition like cancer, but the double doesn't undergo that operation? What about people arriving in the country via immigration? Where are their doubles? What about Americans leaving the US? This can't work on any technical level, surely? The best part is that I still unconditionally love Us and have still barely even begun to unpack it. [ BACK ]
*5 Seriously though, so much of this movie makes no fucking sense that I cannot in good conscience award it full marks. But I do love it, though. [ BACK ]
DISCLAIMERS:
• ^^^ That's dry, British humour, and most likely sarcasm or facetiousness.
• Yen's blog contains harsh language and even harsher notions of propriety. Reader discretion is advised.
• This is a personal blog. The views and opinions expressed here represent my own thoughts (at the time of writing) and not those of the people, institutions or organisations that I may or may not be related with unless stated explicitly.
Well, it's certainly turning out to be a week for it. Only a day earlier my eyebrow had been raised by how top-end a 12A film 10 Cloverfield Lane is, and this was followed by one of the hardest 15 Certificated movies in recent memory. Ben Wheatley's adaptation of JG Ballard's High-Rise is not for the psychologically squeamish.
Truth be told (and without wanting to sound snobbish, I promise you), High-Rise will be 'not for' quite a wide swathe of mainstream audiences, I think (although I've also got to add that the film's more provocative moments are also the least necessary to the film). The story itself, about a barely completed tower block with social divisions across its many floors descending into tribal chaos, is relatively straightforward as allegories go, but its telling is more challenging. Which is where director Wheatley comes in. With each film in his catalogue, he toys with his audience in a slightly different way, and the more I see, the more I admire him as a film-maker. I don't necessarily enjoy all of his work, but I respect the fuck out of it.
By making the tableau decidedly unreal in the first place, the film's audience are already detached bystanders by the time everything in the tower-block goes monumentally downhill. Although Tom Hiddleston's Laing is initially an outsider to the world, we're still not 'on his side' (at least that's what we tell ourselves) as his own behaviour becomes no less extreme than his fellow residents, even if he considers his own standing to be markedly different.
Ballard's setting of the tower-block (which we rarely, but occasionally, step outside of) is like being trapped in a lift with The League of Gentlemen and Scarfolk, except that they're too close for you to feel comfortable laughing at. Or making eye-contact with. Crucially, Wheatley understands the surreal landscape, and so do his cast, minimising the amount of leg-work required between them to bring the vision to the screen. There are no real standout performances*1, but that's largely because the cast aren't competing for attention here (even if the characters are).
Audibly, the film is just as disquieting as the visuals, and includes the most emotionally-distressing use of Abba in a soundtrack since Mamma Mia. Massive props also go to cinematographer Laurie Rose, not least for filming repeatedly in an elevator full of mirrors without showing the camera to the audience. I know that's part of the job, but still.
I definitely enjoyed High-Rise, and I even think I know what some of it was about. Just don't ask me to explain it in any detail.
Part metaphor, part lesson, part cheese-dream, in all likelihood.
The film left me intrigued, but not really affected in any emotional sense.
Although I suspect that could well be intentional.
More viewings required…
.
The cinema will make this movie all the more surreal, and all the more uncomfortable being surrounded by strangers while you watch it. So yes.
…I think so?
It's up there, certainly.
I won't.
There isn't.
Level 2: The film features Julia Deakin and Tony Way, both of whom were in the sitcom Spaced, starring Simon Voice of Dengar / Unkar Plutt / Semi-Pro Star Wars Hater Pegg.
*1 That said, this could be Luke ('Dracula Untold' / 'FF6') Evans' first prominent performance where I didn't want to see him taken outside and flogged with his Equity card. Turns out he can act, he just chooses mostly not to. #meeow
DISCLAIMERS:
• ^^^ That's dry, British humour, and most likely sarcasm or facetiousness.
• Yen's blog contains harsh language and even harsher notions of propriety. Reader discretion is advised.
• This is a personal blog. The views and opinions expressed here represent my own thoughts (at the time of writing) and not those of the people, institutions or organisations that I may or may not be related with unless stated explicitly.
Written and directed by Leigh Whannell, The Invisible Man is a contemporary reimagining of the H.G. Wells novel; the tale of crazed inventor Adrian Griffin (Oliver Jackson-Cohen), who perfects a means of vanishing - this time told from the perspective of his domestically abused partner, Cecilia Kass (Elisabeth Moss). As befits its setting, the movie is more psych-thriller than outright Horror™, but Whannell has enough cinematic grounding to confidently play notes from both.
