Review: The Lodge

Image courtesy of Neon.

Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala follow up their disturbing Austrian horror movie "Goodnight Mommy" - which was well liked by most critics, but left me a little cold - with their English debut, the gloomy, snowbound "The Lodge." Mixing elements of "The Shining" - being locked up in a secluded spot surrounded by snow - and referencing "The Thing" - there's a sequence in which the characters actually watch the film, but the picture also has the sense of characters being trapped with an individual whose motives are unclear - the film has elements that could have made it successful.

Alas, it's not. The picture spends much of its running time trying to convince us there's something else taking place that we can't get a grasp on, only to pull the rug out from under us with a somewhat lame plot twist and culminate with the type of nihilistic ending that has become de rigueur in modern day horror movies.

The film opens with a tragedy - spurned by her husband, Richard (Richard Armitage), from whom she's separated, a woman (Alicia Silverstone) commits suicide, leaving her two children in the care of her ex, but also his new girlfriend, the quiet Grace (Riley Keough).

Suffice it to say, the kids - Aidan (Jaeden Martell) and Mia (Lia McHugh) don't take much of a shine to their soon-to-be stepmother, and feel even less comfortable when they realize that she was the subject one of their father's research projects - a plot element left frustratingly vague - involving cults. Apparently, Grace was the daughter of a preacher who led a death cult to its obvious outcome, and she was the only survivor.

It's a little unusual, for starters, that Richard would leave his two children in Grace's care considering that, first of all, they're wildly uncomfortable around her and blame his liaison with her as the motive for their mother's death, and secondly because, well, would you leave your children with the only surviving member of a cult for a weekend at a snowy, secluded cabin?

From the start, odd things begin to occur. Food seems to be missing from the pantry. Medicine is misplaced. Mia's doll can't be found. And Grace's adorable dog, Grady, runs off. And then things get, well, darker. Grace begins to have visions of her discovering the dead members of her cult, is tormented by a painting on the wall and hears voices speaking to her. Is it all in her mind? Is someone messing with her and the two kids? Is it likely you'll have a sense of where the film is going long before it gets there? The answer is, most likely, yes.

Visually, the filmmakers capture the story's sense of dread and impending doom pretty well, but the film has pacing problems and, much like "Goodnight Mommy," the nihilistic tone of the film can be off putting. It also doesn't help that Grace is a cypher, the two children are mostly defined by their grief for their mother's loss and distaste for their stepmother and Richard is non-present.

"The Lodge" had potential, and its filmmakers obviously have talent. But it's misplaced. There are a ton of horror films flooding theaters right now - and sadly, most of them are pretty bad, especially "Fantasy Island" - and a number of others are on the horizon. This one could have been a standout, but it ultimately doesn't do much other than rely upon the cliches of the genre. It wants too much to be disturbing, but doesn't engage enough to earn that quality.

Review: Zombi Child

Image courtesy of Film Movement.

Bertrand Bonello's "Zombi Child" is in turns compelling and frustrating, hypnotic and languid. There's a reasonable amount to recommend here, but the film never quite coheres into a satisfying whole, even if some of its various parts are transfixing.

The picture opens in Haiti in 1962, where a group of men walk around as if they're - you guessed it - zombies, but not the type you'd expect to see in a George Romero film. No, they're not trying to eat human flesh, but rather ambling around without appearing to notice their surroundings. However, they are able to work, and have entered into a type of slavery with white colonialists. One particular man (Mackenson Bijou) will end up playing a significant role in both of the film's timelines.

Then, we cut to the present at a girls boarding school in France, where a young woman of Haitian descent named Melissa (Wislanda Louimat) is trying to gain entry into a sorority of young women, all of whom are white. The group is led by Fanny (Louise Labeque), who has her own side story - albeit one barely glimpsed - in which she's obsessed with a young man named Pablo - whose hobbies include sitting on a motorcycle shirtless in the woods, and who doesn't seem to have the same amount of affection for her.

We cut back and forth between the two narratives. The one set in Haiti is more compelling, mostly due to the film's eerie synth soundtrack and the moody, hypnotic photography that it accompanies. Much of the Haiti-set scenes take place at night, and include gorgeous shots of trees swaying in the wind with a darkened sky as a backdrop. Although these scenes move at a slower pace, they are entrancing.

On the other hand, the scenes at the boarding school aren't quite as compelling. There, we're treated to long scenes of teachers expostulating on everything from Balzaz novels to the French Revolution. In another film, they might have worked, but here merely slow everything down. And the initiation of Melissa into the group of girls is also only intermittently interesting. Some of the girls begin to find Melissa's behavior odd - such as her making growling and grunting noises in the bathroom late at night - but this plot thread is never given a satisfying culmination.

The film's final quarter is the most compelling as Fanny seeks out Melissa's aunt, a mambo who has fled Haiti and lives elsewhere in France. Her mission is to get a spell cast that would combine Pablo's soul with hers, but the mambo warns her not to get mixed up with voodoo for frivolous reasons. The path down which this story leads is unsettling, psychedelic and engrossing. It's too bad Bonello didn't focus more on this than the scenes at the boarding school.

Bonello's films often carry with them a sense of mystique - take for instance the interesting but also somewhat opaque "Nocturama" - or be more straightforward, such as his "Saint Laurent" biopic. "Zombi Child" has its flaws - and it's certainly not for everyone - but there's enough there that it might compel the adventurous viewer. It didn't exactly work for me, but parts of it piqued my curiosity. It's certainly unlike anything else in theaters at the moment.

Review: Fantasy Island

Image courtesy of Columbia Pictures.

In Blumhouse's reboot of "Fantasy Island," which is based on the TV show that ran from the late 1970s to mid 1980s, visitors on a magical island run by a mysterious man named Mr. Roarke (Michael Pena) get to have one wish that materializes during their stay. While watching the film, my own fantasy involved a refund and two hours of my time back.

This is a rehash that was craved by, most likely, no one. For starters, the original show was more of a fantasy TV drama, while this latest is somewhat of a horror movie - but one that includes a fair amount of gun play, war combat scenes, schmaltzy romance and a character being attacked by sea snakes.

As the picture opens, a group of guests - Melanie (Lucy Hale), whose fantasy involves revenge against school bully Sonja (Portia Doubleday); Elena (Maggie Q), who turned down a marriage proposal and has regretted it ever since; Randall (Austin Stowell), a cop who always wanted to be a soldier but never got the chance; and brothers Bradley (Ryan Hansen) and Brax (Jimmy O. Yang), two hornballs, one straight and one gay, who are just there to party - arrive on the island and are greeted by Roarke, who claims he can make each of their fantasies come true, but with a caveat: they must allow the fantasy to play out in its natural course.

Of course, this turns out to provide a "Monkey's Paw" type of lesson - be careful what you wish for. Before you know it, each of the characters find themselves in over their heads, all the while being pursued by zombie-like figures, armed men wearing masks, cloned versions of themselves and, yes, sea snakes. None of this particularly scary. It makes even less sense that I've described it.

The film was directed by Jeff Wadlow, whose previous horror venture was "Truth or Dare," of which I was also not a fan. Similar to that film, "Fantasy Island" goes long on the jump scares and things lurking in the shadows, but shorts the audience on genuine suspense. There's some character development to be had, but it's primarily to serve the purpose of the plot twist that comes near the film's end that ties together how the various characters came to find themselves in the island.

"Sonic the Hedgehog," which was also released this week but is unseen by me, has been mostly getting panned left and right, and yet "Fantasy Island" somehow manages to be the more desperate attempt this weekend to cash in on a previous entity.

On the original show, the character named Tattoo was often known to shout "de-plane, de-plane," referencing the aircraft that brought visitors to the titular place. In the case of this new film, you might want to deplane - as in, disembark while you still can - before you reach the theater.

Review: Synonyms

Image courtesy of Kino Lorber.

Nadav Lapid's "Synonyms" is an engaging, occasionally maddening and often quite funny satire about the difficulties of shedding one's skin - and there's a fair amount of skin in this uninhibited film - when fleeing one's homeland and starting over elsewhere.

As the film opens, Yoav (Tom Mercier) is an Israeli soldier who has left behind his family to start anew in Paris. When we meet him, he is breaking into a fancy - but empty - apartment that he clearly can't afford, stripping down and taking a shower. Upon arriving back in the apartment's empty living room, he finds his clothes and belongings have been swiped. If Yoav wanted to erase who he was, he's literally at this point lost everything he has.

A young French couple - Caroline (Louise Chevillotte) and Emile (Quentin Dolmaire) - discover Yoav naked and passed out in the apartment's bathtub. They take him to their place and - for much of the rest of the film's running time - take care of him in one form or fashion. Emile can afford to: he's a wannabe writer whose rich businessman father allows him and Caroline to live rent-free in the luxurious apartment. Caroline plays in an orchestra. They ply Yoav with money, clothes and job opportunities.

During the course of the picture, Yoav strives to learn the French language, refusing to speak Hebrew, and he carries around a pocket dictionary from which he frequently repeats various synonyms - hence the film's title - for words he learns as he walks down the Parisian streets. He meets another Israeli man, an angry fellow named Yaron (Uria Hayik) who likes to aggressively tell people he's Jewish in the hope of getting into a fight, and briefly works security at an embassy. Despite fleeing Israel, Yoav is still stuck spending much of his time with Israeli expats.

Yoav lives in a crappy apartment, where he serves himself pasta and sauce from the can every night. To make ends meet, he puts out feelers to become a male model, and is soon hired by a man who photographs him in various stages of undress, all the while forcing him to speak pornographic dialogue - although Yoav draws a line when asked to speak it in Hebrew.

"Synonyms" is an often funny movie about dislocation and isolation. The bath in the opening sequence is symbolic of Yoav's rebirth, although even more important is the fact that in both the opening and closing scenes, he is seen pounding on doors that are never opened to him. No matter how hard he tries - and goes through a citizenship class that involves absurd exercises - he'll always be an outsider pleading to be let in.

The film is stylish, frank, given to bursts of absurd comedy and aggressive, much like Yoav, who in the film's final sequences becomes a brute almost to an off-putting extent. "Synonyms" occasionally revels in the obvious - it's clear that in his relationship with Emile and Caroline that he'll eventually sleep with one of them, while the other merely pines for him - and its final third could have been chopped a little and still gotten the point across. But it's overall an engrossing movie with an impressive central performance and a lot of energy to spare.

Review: Birds Of Prey (And The Fantabulous Emancipation Of One Harley Quinn)

Image courtesy of Warner Bros.

Despite my remaining somewhat burnt out on comic book movie adaptations, Cathy Yan's "Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn)" is a little breath of fresh air in the genre. It's better than the past two years' worth of "Avengers" movies and more watchable than Todd Phillips' heavily Oscar nominated "Joker."

This is due, in part, to the colorful and frenetic visual style of director Cathy Yan, who has graduated from making several small independent films that barely screened in the United States to a major blockbuster film. It also helps that Margot Robbie is the titular character, and she brings more energy and personality to the role than is likely required.

Quinn first popped up in the dismal "Suicide Squad," so her emancipation is not only the result of her being dumped by the Joker - who, thankfully, is not only not inhabited here by yet another actor with stringy hair, but doesn't pop up at all outside of reference - but also from a previously wretched movie.

At the film's beginning, Quinn is attempting to heal a broken heart after the Joker gives her the boot - the film's weakest moments involve her pining over him - when she gets caught in the mix with another criminal, Roman Sionis (Ewan McGregor, playing against type), a sadistic gangster whose trademark punishment is peeling off the faces of his victims. Sionis is in search of a valuable diamond that has been stolen by a pickpocket named Cassandra (Ella Jay Basco), and Quinn agrees to try to get it back for him.

The team of women that Quinn joins - primarily to fight against Sionis and his mercenaries - also includes a chanteuse known as the Black Canary (Jurnee Smollett Bell), a cop (Rosie Perez) and a young woman bent on justice for a crime committed against her family who goes by the name Huntress (Mary Elizabeth Winstead).

Female superhero movies are becoming more prevalent, and despite my being tired of the comic book genre altogether, the films centered on women are among the best in recent years - this one and "Wonder Woman" join "Black Panther" as my three favorites from the past few years (plus, that "Wonder Woman 1984" trailer is pretty fun).

In terms of storytelling, "Birds of Prey" doesn't stray too far from the comic book picture mold, but it's brassier, features more F-bombs than you'd typically expect in such a big budget studio movie and contains a handful of very well choreographed action and fight sequences. Plus, it's loaded with colorful sets, costumes and lighting.

It also doesn't attempt to be deadly serious - as the "Joker" move is - and, thankfully, the stakes are lower than the typical comic book movie go-to: the end of all civilization as we know it. All in all, "Birds of Prey" is a higher quality example of the genre that has become all consuming in Hollywood moviemaking.

Review: Gretel & Hansel

Image courtesy of Orion Pictures.

Much like his previous film, the eerie "The Blackcoat's Daughter," director Osgood Perkins' latest picture, an otherworldly reimagining of the "Hansel and Gretel" fairytale, is long on atmosphere, unforgettable imagery and sense of place, all the while being a little short in the storytelling department. It's the type of film that I can mostly recommend, even if it doesn't completely come together as a whole.

The movie flips the classic fairytale on its head - and in its title, "Gretel & Hansel," letting us know early on which character will be the emphasis of the story - and gives it a feminist slant. In this story, Gretel is the heroine, but also a young woman faced with choices - those dictated by a male dominated society and those of her own.

As the picture opens, we hear another fairytale - that of a very bad little girl with unnatural powers who destroyed everything that came across her path. She's sent to the woods, where a witch took her under her wing. When she returned to her village, the little girl wrought more destruction and was sent back to the woods.

As we meet Gretel (Sophia Lillis), a teenager, and her younger brother, Hansel (Samuel Leakey), they are being thrown out of their home by their mother, who says she can no longer care for them. Gretel has also turned down an offer to act as a housekeeper for a lecherous old man who clearly has other intentions for her.

They head into the woods, where they are saved from danger by a kindly woodsman who points them in the direction he believes to be most safe. But they slightly wander off their path after stumbling upon a home - an oddly shaped structure, almost in the form of some sort of satanic emblem - where they spot a table full of treats through a window.

You may know the rest of the story - although some liberties are certainly taken here - but it's the format in which it's told that makes "Gretel & Hansel" mostly compelling. The creepy woman (Alice Krige) who takes Gretel and Hansel in is, at first, kindly, supplying them with food to their heart's delight, but eventually both siblings begin to notice strange things about the place where they're staying.

The old woman has designs on both children - Hansel is meant to become a snack himself, but Gretel is seen as a type of protege who has the potential for the type of magic that the old lady practices. The film arrives at the conclusion you're expecting, but not quite in the manner you're anticipating.

Although I haven't completely endorsed either of the films I've seen from Perkins, he has a distinctive style and talent behind the camera. "Gretel & Hansel" displays the visual mastery of a filmmaker who seems to know exactly how he wants every shot to appear - in this case, like an old 1970s European horror movie - and the set design and music add to the creepy ambience.

Perhaps, the film's acting is occasionally wooden, and the storytelling style slightly lethargic. The film mostly makes up for those faults through its style, but this is the type of horror picture that will more likely engage a genre enthusiast rather than a casual fan. Regardless, even if "Gretel & Hansel" doesn't completely work, it's worth a watch if you're in the mood for a visually engrossing and atmospheric horror story that will likely sear its images into your mind. And by the way, don't bring the kids.