Review: Knock At The Cabin

Knock At The Cabin (Spoilers)
Cert: 15 / 100 mins / Dir. M. Night Shyamalan / Trailer

It's the quintessential case of Cause And Effect™; a 300lb wrestler swings a home-made battleaxe in Pennsylvania, and a series of tsunamis destroy the Caribbean. And if you're fine being told these events are linked without actually being shown any evidence, you are going to love Knock At The Cabin.

Adapted from Paul Tremblay's 2018 novel by Steve Desmond, Michael Sherman and M. Knight Shyamalan, the story centres on Eric (Jonathan Groff) and Andrew (Ben Aldridge), on vacation in the eponymous remote cabin with their young daughter Wen (Kristen Cui). Their rural tranquility is shattered when four religious missionaries (Dave Bautista, Rupert Grint, Nikki Amuka-Bird, Abby Quinn) arrive, warning of the end of the world and the choices which need to be made to avoid it...

DUTY

Credit where it's due, the cast are fully committed here and Shyamalan's directorial work is superb at ramping up tension. The first act in particular fizzles, not because the quartet of interlopers are shouting, violent maniacs, but because of how reasoned, reluctant and ultimately resigned they are to their duty. This is thanks in no small part to Bautista's lead antagonist, Leonard, and the actor is the note-perfect mix of intellect and braun*¹ to carry the sense of conflict over to an audience trying to make sense of it all. Rupert Grint, Nikki Amuka-Bird and Abby Quinn are great as Leonard's cohorts Redmond, Sabrina and Adriane, but ultimately lose out in the battle for screen-time.

Over on the sensible side of the fence, Jonathan Groff and Ben Aldridge are very solid in balancing parental protectiveness, survival instincts and blind panic as their (personal) world is threatened seemingly out of nowhere and for no poetically-viable reason*². And as above, Kristen Cui brings an assured performance as their daughter (the one who should be losing it completely, but somehow isn't), even if that's overshadowed by everything else that's going on in the film.

WILD

The problem is that the mechanics of film itself just don't work. The first act contains perfectly workable scripted allusions to the backstory of Eric, Andrew and their adopted daughter, then the rest of the film repeatedly cuts to needless flashback scenes showing the audience what they've already been told. This feels like a deliberate attempt to temporarily move the action out of the cabin, and destroys the necessary sense of claustrophobia as a result.

Outside of the central premise of the story (more on that very shortly), the screenplay presents a mashup of contemporary issues, from societal homophobia and victim-culture to social echo chambers, confirmation-bias and online radicalisation. Precisely none of these are explored properly (and really can't be due to the urgency of the main narrative), so they add no texture to what is a very straightforward plot. Although at least this follows traditional horror movie conventions by having protagonists under duress make exceedingly stupid decisions, like hoping a locked bathroom door will contain brick-shithouse Leonard, having just watched him commit three murders with a five-foot axe...

MUNCH

Okay, gloves-off, heavy spoilers from this point in. I won't bury them in the footnotes with highlight-to-read tags, since these are the intrinsic problems with Knock At The Cabin. The strongest setup, frowniest chin-stroking and best performances count for little when a screenplay spells out the why in small words, but blithely skips over the gaping holes in the how.

The central premise is this: Leonard explains that the four of them have had visions of the end of the world, and that they've been told in these how to avert it. The visions have drawn them all to this cabin (not knowing exactly who they'd find there), and told them that the three family members have to decide amongst themselves which one of them is to be sacrificed by the other two. This will stop the world from ending. The prophets can't kill the family member, and one of them can't choose suicide. It has to be a willing sacrifice. When asked by the strangers who they nominate, failure of the family to make a choice means that one of the strangers will be killed by the others (in front of the family), and a catastrophic event will be unleashed upon the earth as a punishment. The family will then have time to reflect upon this until being asked again, and the cycle repeats until they either choose one of themselves to die, or all the prophets are killed and the world finally ends in screaming flames and disease.

The central problem is this: We see all of this happen - more than once, as the film escalates its drama - with Eric and Andrew unable to make a choice (obviously, since in the first instance this is all at the word of four nutjobs who have just shown up at the front door). Redmond (Rupert Grint) is first to forfeit his life as part of the prophecy, desperately furious but ultimately accepting his part of the larger picture as he kneels at the family's feet while Leonard swings his home-made axe (a broom handle tied to an array of meat cleavers, by the looks of it) into Redmond's ceremonial white hood*³ and ending his life in no uncertain terms. The remaining members of gang switch on the TV*⁴ where news channels are swamped with reports and mobile-footage of tsunamis and tidal waves wreaking global havoc. Except the family made their non-choice less than 90 seconds earlier, and all of these social media videos have already made their way onto broadcast television*⁵. Meaning these events have already happened and have nothing to do with what's going on in the cabin. Eric and Andrew even point this out in the scripted dialogue and it's still roundly ignored. And even if the news was somehow a superbly organised real-time commentary, Leonard and his mates could avoid the end of the world by simply not killing Redmond. After all, Len states that it's their subsequent actions which unleash the disasters, no matter how piously they try to shift blame onto the family. Big shades of 'look what you made me do', here...

MASH

In another weird failure to commit to responsibility, every time one of the film's close-quarters murder-shots occurs, the moment of deadly impact happens just out of frame. This is often with the camera purposely drifting away from the action, leaving it up to the sound designer and audience's imagination to complete the gory puzzle. It would be easy to say that unflinchingly showing such violence on-screen would be exploitative (not to mention expensive for the effects teams), and that the actions of the antagonists should be implied rather than demonstrated. But ultimately, this is an exploitation flick; it's certainly not a post-modern examination of Western morality in a godless 21st century. Shyamalan gleefully sets up the most brutal sacrificial deaths with one hand, and then chickens out of showing them with the other, acting as if no-one in the audience has seen Midsommar. It's almost as if he wants to make a provocative film without upsetting anybody.

Speaking of which, the script here talks heavily of prophecy and sacrifice, but barely mentions God at all. And the disasters which beset humanity - earthquakes, tidal waves, pestilence - are distinctly biblical, and yet the actual Bible doesn't get a look in. It's possible that this pseudo-religious imagery transcends organised religion of course, and is instead a more primal force hitherto unrecognised by millennia of clergymen, but tapping into the same superstitious fear of natural disasters. I mean it's possible but it's not likely because the film never addresses this. Shyamalan just uses a narrative divine hammer to punish, while being too fearful to name the one who's holding it. It's almost as if he wants to make a provocative film without upsetting anybody.

That said, the entire subtext of Knock At The Cabin is that a same-sex couple adopting a child has angered an unnamed deity to the point where the world is going to be destroyed if the pair don't renounce their ways by irretrievably breaking up the family unit. So at least no-one was worried about upsetting the gays, then?

It would arguably be interesting if it wasn't all so pathetic.*⁶

W*A*L*T*E*R

One would imagine that with a cast of seven people, even M. Knight Shyamalan wouldn't be able to crowbar-in one of his legendarily awful cameo appearances. WRONG. Ironically, it was at this point that even an old atheist like me developed enough faith to start praying for the end of the world to come early. I've had a more convincing sense of the apocalypse listening to Keeper Of The Seven Keys, and at least Helloween managed to keep it all to under a quarter of an hour...

As should be apparent by now, I have not read the source-novel for Knock At The Cabin, so I don't know how much of the above is a problem with author Paul G. Tremblay or co-screenwriter M. Knight Shyamalan. But since ultimate responsibility for the content of a film falls upon the shoulders of its director, let's go with the latter.

*¹ I have a lot of time for Dave Bautista. He's got good range, great timing and with the right script he's a joy to watch. Thankfully he seems to have coasted through the Schwarzenegger-route of faintly sub-standard action comedies and got to a place where he can actually concentrate on the acting. But - so far - he's always playing Dave Bautista™, and that charm is definitely limited. When it runs out, the industry and audience alike will turn on him, and I have to admit that I will probably have run out of patience even before that point... ^{[ BACK ]}

*² As great as they are, this is atrocious casting since Jonathan and Ben look just like the same actor on different days. And when the four antagonists have such intrinsically distinct appearances, it means the two leads essentially become one character whenever both of them aren't on-screen, which I'm pretty certain runs against the whole idea of having a same-sex couple at the centre of the story. Well done everyone. ^{[ BACK ]}


*³ This isn't a 'KKK' style white hood by the way, but a close-fitting, featureless whole-head mask. If anything, I suspect the production-design of this has something to say about face-masks in the COVID pandemic, but any pointed meaning gets lost in the directionless noise of the rest of the film. Although ironically enough, the character of Redmond probably is a racist. He's certainly shown to be a red-neck homophobe, after all... ^{[ BACK ]}


*⁴ Because the cabin is so rural and remote that there's no mobile signal meaning that they can't call for help once the land-line has been cut , but there is a hi-def TV signal and/or broadband connection? Okay M Knight, got it. ^{[ BACK ]}


*⁵ And while Knock At The Cabin is far from the only cinematic culprit in this regard, TV stations don't just broadcast anonymous unedited phone footage of ongoing disasters where people are dying on-camera. Even in America. And it's not out of good taste or respect for privacy, but because they'd get sued to absolute fuck by the families of the deceased. ^{[ BACK ]}


*⁴ And they do it in the end, obviously. The sacrifice. The world needs to be saved, and this film just isn't misanthropic enough to admit that humanity's had its turn. Andrew, who took the knock on the head in Act I and has been concussed for the entire film, convinces Ben in a state of blunt-force trauma and extreme situational stress to kill him, so Ben does it. We don't get to see that kill either. More worryingly though, the end of the film features an extended and badly assembled faux-BBC News report once all the apocalypses have stopped, involving a nurse standing outside an Intensive Care Unit saying that nobody in there has died for over two hours and how unusual that is. Is this the happy ending, M. Knight? Judgement day has been averted and now there's no more death any more and everyone's going to live forever? The planet can barely support 7.9 billion people as it is; I really don't think that the accelerated destruction of the Earth's resources which comes from the inevitable overcrowding of an exponentially-increasing global population is a cause for celebration. I imagine that'll get blamed on the gays as well, will it? Fuck's sake, M. Knight... ^{[ 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.

Review: Frozen 2

Frozen 2 (Spoilers / Language warning)
Cert: U / 103 mins / Dir. Jennifer Lee & Chris Buck / Trailer



With much fanfare and much expectation comes the first, full-length, sequel to Disney's 2013 smash, Frozen. And it's fine. To be clear, compared with a lot of other animated content around at the moment, it's pretty great. But for a tentpole Disney production - it's fine. The animation is fantastic and the voice-performances are note-perfect, but the storyline is slight and more than a little fairytale-autopilot, while the songs just aren't as finely crafted this time round (although they're mercilessly over-produced all the same, and feature more key-changes than a drunk locksmith*¹).

Jennifer Lee pens the screenplay and is assisted by co-director Chris Buck with the story. But they're also joined by three other writers for that story, and that shows. Mainstay characters from the first film are relegated to supporting-status, with other smaller roles drafted in as points of familiarity. It never 'doesn't work', but feels as if it's not really putting in the effort, like a Disney writers-room trying to hit all the same notes as last time without stopping to consider what made the song so special to begin with. Olaf - the comic-relief character - has the most touching moment of the whole movie.

If you were to stack up all the amazing Disney standalone and part-one movies even from the last decade, then make a separate pile of comparable follow-ups, how close to 'even' do you think they would be? And so it proves. Coasting on charm and visual gags, this latest seat-warmer is enjoyable enough in a disposable way, but it's definitely a bolted-on sequel rather than a narrative continuation. Disney are better than this and Frozen deserves more. Either stick to spin-off shorts or just give Olaf his own feature-length adventure, you cowards.

And is the repeated (and apparently demonstrated) insistence from certain characters that "water has memory" a message to impressionable children from a US-based global media giant pertaining to the wonders of homeopathy? You can fuck right off, Bob...*²

Well, y'know, Frozen.



If you have padawans tugging your sleeve, sure.



It is.



Nah.



Likely.



There isn't but that default hawk-screech is there.



Level 1: The voices of LT-319, K-2SO, Kit Fisto and Cham Syndulla are in this.





*¹ And credit where it's due, Christoph's Peter Ceter-a-long number 'Lost In The Woods' with its accompanying power-ballad video is hilarious - one would hope intentionally so. But the bottom line is that it's not even as catchy as Cetera's songs. ^{[ BACK ]}

*² Seriously, I tried to frame the homeopathy thing like a joke and it doesn't really read like a joke and the more I think about it I don't even care. That is the vibe I kept getting from the film. Repeatedly. ^{[ 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.

Review: Olaf's Frozen Adventure

Olaf's Frozen Adventure
Cert: U / 21 mins / Dir. Stevie Wermers-Skelton / Trailer



As much as I rather enjoyed the new Olaf's Frozen Adventure, I can't help but think that after the undue fuss surrounding the Frozen Fever short from 2015, and this similar hubbub two years later, it'd be nice if the powers that be just cracked on and made a proper sequel to one of the most enduring Disney films of recent times. And with another two years to go, I can't help but wonder how much more padding we'll be subjected to in the meanwhile.

But, as I said, that's not to take away from what is a fun little outing for Olaf the ostentatious snowman, in a production which I'm fairly certain was working-titled 'The Josh Gad Show'. As our diminutive hero patiently waits through a brief setup, he's then cast upon a singing, dancing quest to collect Christmas stories and traditions from the townspeople of Arendelle, with asides and sight-gags thrown into every other shot. I've made it sound dreadful of course, but fans of Frozen should find it enjoyable enough.

Olaf's Frozen Adventure recreates the fun spirit of the original, but not the soul (although every single frame of this contains more sincerity and love than the entirety of some other Christmas films I've seen this year). And while it would be tempting to point to the 21-minute runtime as a factor in this, bear in mind that Disney frequently produce 5-6 minute shorts to front-end their movies with every bit as much emotional punch as their feature-length animations.

And speaking of animation, this is a superb-looking piece of work. The texturing is photorealistic in its detail and depth, and although the models themselves remain stylised, the visuals have now pretty much removed the high-contrast 'black cartoon lines' of the artwork.
For this reason alone, it's worth hunting down on a big screen.

+ + + + +

Olaf was the warm-up feature of course, like we used to get in The Old Days. In the UK, Disney's new short is being packaged with a re-release of 2013's Frozen (whereas US markets are getting it in front of Coco, which I'm now desperate to see). But since they were both under the same BBFC card, you only get one review-post I'm afraid ;)

Truth be told, I don't have that much to add to my original thoughts on the film, other than to say that my 5/7 score seems inadequate for a movie this good*¹. From the opening sequence, its scope is far greater than the (admittedly sweet) featurette which it follows, borderline operatic in tone and symphonic in its recurring themes and motifs (although the story's classical roots lend themselves to this).

Much like The Nightmare Before Christmas, Frozen is a much better musical than it's given credit for. And sure, the songs annoy a lot of parents*², but they're annoying because they're catchy and they're catchy because they're crafted by experts. Kristen Anderson and Robert Lopez are award-winning songwriters for Broadway and Hollywood, and if their work doesn't infuriate you on some level you're not paying attention. But I digress.

Frozen is great; you don't need me to tell you that.

And for the record?
Elsa is totally Dr. Manhattan.*³

Frozen, pretty much.



You'll be lucky if you get the chance, but if you're a fan of the series - yes.



…keep the brand ticking over while the mice pound away at a sequel? Pretty much.



I wouldn't go that far.



Not at all.



No. Bah.
Although that hawk-screech is in it.



Level 1: The star of the show here is the voice of the Controller from an episode of Star Wars Rebels, while full movie features the guy behind K-2SO.





*¹ I don't think Frozen is a 7, but it's definitely a 6. Still, I'm not going to rebadge the score now. I've only done that for one movie before. Besides, I'm marking Olaf's Adventure here, not Frozen. No, you're living rigidly by a set of self-imposed, arbitrary rules which no-one else has even noticed… ^{[ BACK ]}

*² And sure, not being a parent I've never had to endure a car journey with youngsters singing along badly from the back seat. If anyone's going to howl out of tune with a movie soundtrack in my vicinity, it'll be me, thank you very much… ^{[ BACK ]}

*³ Also, I am completely convinced that the snow-monster's bellow of "Don't come ba-a-a-ack!" is a direct reference to the demon-voice at the start of Slayer's Hell Awaits. Imagine what fun it is to live in my head... ^{[ 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.

Review: Frozen

Frozen (3D)
Cert: PG / 108 mins / Dir. Jennifer Lee / Chris Buck



Disney's latest seasonal offering opens with a Mickey Mouse short, Get a Horse! It's a beautiful mixture of black and white hand-drawn animation, and its modern 3D counterpart. Using the best of both worlds, it's intriguing to watch from a production standpoint, as well as being a good old-fashioned funny film. Importantly, the 3D is a part of why it works as well as it does. Featuring Walt's own voice as well as his standard-bearer, it features a layer of warm-familiarity that makes it the perfect opener.

Now, as long as you're on-board with the whole Disney Princess / Power-ballad / Comic-relief / über-family-friendly methodology, there's plenty for you to enjoy. Almost everything, perhaps. The film plays solely to Disney's strengths, taking a fairytale starting point, and adding two female protagonists and host of supporting characters. Co-director Jennifer Lee's screenplay does a great job of rounding out the two princesses, the main bonus being that we get to see more character traits than would realistically be possible with just one heroine. Anyone who's not female royalty is bound for a slightly more one-dimensional portrayal, but even then they fit so snugly into the Disney template that it doesn't matter too much.

The musical numbers are used quite sparingly (ie, it's not completely 'a musical'), and while the vocals are enough to rattle your fillings, some of the arrangements seem unusually contemporary; not that they're badly performed at all, but they can seem at odds with the sweeping, Disney Fairytale aesthetic of the film. Outside of the warbling, Frozen is as funny, charming and sickly sweet as you'd expect from the studio. Kristen Bell and Idina Menzel give great performances as princesses Anna and Elsa, and are ably backed up by Jonathan Groff and Santino Fontana as their respective foils. Josh Gad brings a welcome air of silliness as Olaf the snowman, although in all fairness, the part is basic enough that quite a few actors could have filled that role comfortably. Olaf's great, but has displays as much personality as Sven the reindeer, who doesn't have any dialogue, so go figure.

The animation is everything you'd expect with today's production standards, and again it's lovely to see that meshing of old-school Disney character styling with CGI and 3D (which looks fantastic by the way, but isn't a deal-breaker). The one thing the film is lacking is a really good villain. It's true that the protagonists' struggles are more internalised than older volumes in Disney's library, but there's never any real sense of jeopardy. It makes the film an easier watch, but perhaps robs it of the depth it aims for.

While Frozen won't change any opinions, it should keep fans of The Mouse Kingdom entertained and help to snare the next generation. Although it lacks the iconic appeal of Disney's tried and trusted favourites, the film has a classical feel which should ensure its longevity in the catalogue.

Hang around 'til after the credits for an extra moment or two of icy (if slushy) goodness…




That trailer captures the laughs, but not the feeling.



I did.



Very, very almost.



The 3D's nice, and it looks gorgeous on a huge screen; but the overall effect will work just as well on your TV.



No.



Not right away, but it could make its way into my Christmas rotation by next year.



Not that I heard (plenty of opportunities, must try harder).

…so Anna never finds out that she was mind-wiped as a child and subsequently lied to for years? I can see her going off the deep-end when that one surfaces, reconciliation or not...

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.