Movie Review: The Girl in the Spider's Web

The Girl in the Spider's Web ** / *****

Directed by: Fede Alvarez.

Written by: Jay Basu & Fede Alvarez and Steven Knight based on the book by David Lagercrantz and characters created by Stieg Larsson.

Starring: Claire Foy (Lisbeth Salander), Sylvia Hoeks (Camilla Salander), Lakeith Stanfield (Edwin Needham), Sverrir Gudnason (Mikael Blomkvist), Beau Gadsdon (Young Lisbeth Salander), Carlotta von Falkenhayn (Young Camilla Salander), Stephen Merchant (Frans Balder), Christopher Convery (August Balder), Claes Bang (Jan Holtser), Synnøve Macody Lund (Gabriela Grane), Cameron Britton (Plague), Vicky Krieps (Erika Berger), Andreja Pejic (Sofia).

The Lisbeth Salander that Stieg Larsson created is one of the most fascinating characters in recent genre fiction. She is a mess of contradictions and complexities, that cannot be easily reduced to a few traits, like most genre characters. As a character, she has already seen two excellent portrayals on film – Noomi Rapace in a trilogy of Swedish films, that were fine films even if the felt more like TV movies than cinematic – but Rapace was better than the films themselves. David Fincher than made the first in the original trilogy, and Rooney Mara was even better – securing a much deserved Oscar nomination, in a film that raised the quality over the Swedish films substantially. Yet, that was an expensive film, and didn’t make as much as the studio hoped – which is why Fincher and Mara didn’t return to complete the trilogy. But the studio didn’t want to give up on the character quite yet – which is what brings us to The Girl in the Spider’s Web – based on one of the books that the late Larsson did not write, and you can tell this isn’t quite the same character he created. The new, non-Larsson novels are fine and entertaining – but they don’t have the depth that elevated Larsson’s novels. In this movie, Claire Foy plays Lisbeth – and the filmmakers have basically decided that they need to explain her. Doing so makes her a less complex, less interesting character. And the movie, directed by Fede Alvarez, is more generic than any of the other films featuring Salander so far. Perhaps it’s just time to let the character go.

 

Most of the problems with the film are not the fault of Foy – who is a very talented actress, and from what she shows here, could very well have been a good Salander had she been in a better movie. Her Foy is more vulnerable than either Rapace or Mara played her – both of them wanted to show her hard exterior around everyone, only gradually showing any part of her inner life, and never wanting to show her emotions. Foy gets that, but the nature of the story here requires her to reveal more emotions, and more of herself than ever before. She’s quite good – the movie itself, is not.

 

In this film, Salander is in full avenging angel mode – “saving” women from abusive husbands and other men. She has principles, and stands by them. She starts to get in over her head when she agrees to take on a job for Frans Balder (Stephen Merchant), who created a computer program for the CIA – and then was promptly fired, immediately regretting the power the program provided (don’t ask me what the program does – I saw the movie two days ago, and completely forget). By getting the program back, she draws the attention of a CIA agent – Edwin Needham (Lakeith Stanfield) – a former hacker who moved to the light side (kind of) – and a figure from Salander’s past – her sister, Camilla (Sylvia Hoeks). While Lisbeth rejected her abusive father, she embraced her father’s ways – and is now bitter about it. She wants to destroy Lisbeth.

 

The film was directed by Fede Alvarez, who has two very good horror films under his belt – his brutally violent Evil Dead remake (which is very underrated) and the terrific Don’t Breathe, one of the most intense and scary mainstream horror films of the decade. That makes what he does here even more disappointing. His direction here is generic and bland. The action sequences are okay, I guess, although action sequences have never been this series’ thing – and here is a cheap way to goose the intensity that is sorely lacking in the rest of the film. Every scene in the film is either incredibly bright white – he uses the snow to blind the audience, or incredibly dark – every scene inside is in darkened rooms. His previous shows showed a ton of style – this one shows very little.

 

The plot of the movie is kind of silly – but then, the plots of these movies have always been a little silly, but here is also cheap – it wants to pull the rug out from under you a few too many times. Hoeks doesn’t really help as Salander’s sister Camilla – she looks creepy to be sure, but her delivery doesn’t help much. The film pretty much wastes Stanfield, not to mention the great Claes Bang, who was so good in The Square last year. Two of the most interesting characters from the original novels – Mikael Blomkvist (who is really the main character in the novels, but not the most interesting) and Erika Berger do show up here – but mainly because the filmmakers seem to think they’re needed. It’s very disappointing that the great Vicky Krieps, from Phantom Thread, is cast as Berger and then given nothing to do.

 

The Girl in the Spider’s Web is proof that sometimes you either need to do things right, or not do them at all. The studio didn’t want to pay for Fincher’s vision anymore and complete the trilogy – reasonable, if they felt they weren’t making enough money. But if you’re not going to do that, then it’s better to just let things go.

Movie Review: Don't Breathe

Don’t Breathe

Directed by: Fede Alvarez.

Written by: Fede Alvarez & Rodo Sayagues.

Starring: Jane Levy (Rocky), Stephen Lang (The Blind Man), Dylan Minnette (Alex), Daniel Zovatto (Money), Franciska Töröcsik (Cindy).

 

Don’t Breathe is an excellent example of a certain kind of horror movie. It doesn’t have the depth of the best recent horror movies – the parental angst of The Babadook or the sexual fears of It Follows for example – because the film is a much more stripped down thing. It places the audience in a house, along with three morally dubious characters – they have broken in to rob a blind man after all – and that raises the stakes when it turns out that blind man isn’t so helpless after all – trapping everyone in a dark house, in the middle of abandoned Detroit, with no one around to hear or see what is going on. It is a simple premise, but one that is brilliantly executed for at least the first hour of the film. Yes, the last act has an unnecessary twist – pushing the film into less of a moral grey area than I would have liked – and some moments that strain credibility in terms of how a character ends up in the exact right place at the exact right time, but my that point, you don’t care as an audience member. The first hour is so brilliant directed and performed by the two leads, you’re scared shitless, and just go along for the final act. It is easily one of the best horror films of the year.

 

The movie sketches the main character, Rocky (Jane Levy), quickly in the opening scenes – she lives in Detroit, has no money, an absolutely horrible mother, and a beloved young sister she wants to move to California with to save her from the childhood she had. She is dating Money (Daniel Zovatto) and the two of them, along with Alex (Dylan Minnette), who has a not so secret crush on Rocky, rob affluent houses in the suburbs. Alex’s dad works for a security company, which helps them get in and out undetected – and he’s adamant about obeying certain rules, that would limit their time in jail if caught. But Money gets a tip – a Blind Man (Stephen Lang), an Iraqi War Veteran, who lives alone – not in the affluent suburbs, but in one of the many abandoned neighborhoods of Detroit, where no else lives for blocks – and settled a lawsuit for hundreds of thousands of dollars when a rich girl killed his daughter in a hit and run. The money is supposed to be in a safe in that house – and how much trouble could an old blind guy be? A lot, it turns out. Things go wrong pretty much from the start, leaving Rocky and Alex to try to find their way out of the house, with the money – which is a lot harder than it seems.

 

The film is directed by Fede Alvarez – who did the very violent, and quite good, Evil Dead remake a few years ago – and smartly cast his lead from that film, Levy, in this one as well (even if I wasn’t a huge fan of her in that film). Levy is never going to win an Oscar for a film like Don’t Breathe, but she does a wonderful job of sketching Rocky in those opening scenes – telling us everything we need to know about her in a few brief moments – which gives her character the necessary depth later in the film. Often in horror movies, you don’t really care about the young people who have been lined up for the slaughter – you’re there to see them get killed after all – but you care about Rocky. When it comes time for it, Levy is also excellent at playing terrified – and not fake movie terrified, legitimately terrified. The Blind Man is played by Stephen Lang – one of those character actors most audience members will spend the entire film trying to figure out where they know him from, because he’s been in everything (answer by the way if you’re me – he’s the original Freddie Lounds in Michael Mann’s Manhunter – if you’re most people, he’s the bad guy in Avatar). He’s a good choice here – capable of looking harmless at first – and then moving with ruthless efficiency and violence later on. It’s a pretty terrifying performance. The other two characters – Alex and Money – aren’t given much in the way of depth – Money is greedy and perhaps a little violent, Alex follows Rocky around like a puppy dog – neither of which is smart.

 

The star of the film though really maybe Alvarez and his crew – especially cinematographer Pedro Luque, and the sound guys. Much like how Alvarez sketches the character of Rocky in a few brief moments, he and Luque do a brilliant job introducing the house – and its layout – in one, unbroken shot when we enter it. This gives us the entire layout of the house – which helps in movies like this, as we, much like the characters, try to orient ourselves in it during the terror to follow. While Alvarez isn’t above using jump scares in the film – he uses them sparingly, preferring to genuinely build suspense, by placing us with Rocky – often knowing precisely where The Blind Man is, and just trying not to be seen. The sound people do a brilliant job in amplifying the terror, without laying it on too thick – the ominous score is used sparingly, and there are many extended sequences that play out in almost total silence – just the creak of the floorboards, or the muffled sounds of breathing. For an hour or so, Don’t Breathe is a near perfect example of how you direct a horror film.

 

I do think the last act – as so many horror movie last acts are – isn’t as good as what proceeds it. There is a twist (that is in the trailer), that makes The Blind Man more evil than he needs to be – up until that point, the film exists in a moral grey area – Rocky and her friends are criminals after all, and The Blind Man has a right to defend his home and himself – but he certainly pushes things beyond what most people would find acceptable. Still, while your loyalties remain with Rocky – Levy makes her too sympathetic for them not to be – you understand where The Blind Man is coming from, until his “secrets” are revealed. The movie comes very close to crossing that fine line in horror movies – between terrifying and the downright unpleasant, but fortunately doesn’t stay there for long. There are also a few moments in that last act where The Blind Man goes from being a man skilled in combat, and with an intimate knowledge of the house, to a near clairvoyant – as he somehow perfectly intuits where people will be at the exact moment they’ll be there. That last one is common in many horror movies – and doesn’t bother me that much, still, given what came before, I wish the filmmakers had found an equally brilliant way to end things.

 

With Don’t Breathe, Alvarez confirms the potential that was present in Evil Dead back in 2013. In that film, Alvarez took a certified horror movie classic, and dove headlong into making it his own thing – the film had a different – darker and more brutal – than Sam Raimi’s original, and the sheer level of craft there carried it through its tough spots. Here, making his first original feature, he shows even more talent. Most horror movies are cookie cutter films – they copied what worked before, and what will work again, and to be honest, those can work and be enjoyable, if forgettable. Alvarez is edging closer to the James Wan level of horror movie directors – and in terms of working in mainstream American horror, there is no higher compliment in 2016.

Movie Review: Evil Dead

Evil Dead
Directed by:  Fede Alvarez.
Written by: Fede Alvarez & Diablo Cody & Rodo Sayagues based on the screenplay by Sam Raimi.
Starring: Jane Levy (Mia), Shiloh Fernandez (David), Lou Taylor Pucci (Eric), Jessica Lucas (Olivia), Elizabeth Blackmore (Natalie).

One of the easiest ways to make money in Hollywood is to simply remake a movie that has already proven itself to be popular. Horror movies are especially prone to remakes – perhaps because horror fans are easy marks. After all, they show up to sequel after sequel after sequel of their favorite series – even long after they have lost any sort of originality (see Saw or Paranormal Activity). The best way to go about remaking a horror movie is not to simply do a retread of what happened before, but to take the original and twist it. Recent remakes like Zack Snyder’s Dawn of the Dead, Alexandre Aja’s The Hills Have Eyes and Rob Zombie’s Halloween are perfect examples – the same basic premise of the originals, but a completely different execution. I think you can add Fede Alvarez’s Evil Dead remake alongside those other three – perhaps not quite as good as them, but still quite good. Alvarez has maintained the impressive levels of blood and fore that Sam Raimi’s original series had, but has gotten rid of the jokey tone. This Evil Dead is a lot less fun than Raimi’s – but perhaps a better overall experience (I’m talking only of the original Evil Dead, not the two sequels which were much better). This Evil Dead is almost sickeningly intense, bloody and brutal. You probably know right now if you’re the type of person who wants to see this movie – like I am.  

The setup for Evil Dead is basically the same as the original – five friends travel to a remote cabin in the woods, and wind up unleashing a demon that will possess them one after another, eventually gaining the strength to show itself in its real form. If there is a twist this time, it’s that one of the characters – Mia (Jane Levy) is a drug addict, and everyone else has come up with her to help her detox. There is her brother David (Shiloh Fernandez) – and a tension between the siblings stemming from him leaving, his girlfriend Natalie, who really has no role other than to be another young body to hack to pieces. Then there are Mia’s friends Olivia (Jessica Lucas), a nurse who will help Mia through the withdrawal, and Eric (Lou Taylor Pucci) because every group in a horror movie needs a long headed, eyeglass wearing smarty pants who, of course, will end up being the idiot responsible for unleashing the demons.

The acting in Evil Dead isn’t going to win anyone any Oscars, but for the most part, is fine. Jane Levy is the lead, but is also perhaps the weakest link – disappointing because I enjoy her on the otherwise average sitcom Suburbatory. She really isn’t convincing as a drug addict – no matter who greasy they make her hair – and she isn’t all that much better once she becomes possessed – her evil giggle is appropriately creepy (although considering the voice of the demon got their own credit, it’s probably not even hers). But I will say, she kicks it into high gear for the finale – and delivers the goods. The rest of the cast is merely average – as if they know they’ll just be playing second fiddle to the gore. Even Lou Taylor Pucci, who goes over the top in every role I have ever seen him in before, seems restrained. They scream well, though.

And really, isn’t that all we require from actors in a movie like this? They are not the star of the show – the special effects, demons, blood and gore are the stars – and this director Alvarez delivers in spades. Don’t worry, Evil Dead fans, Alvarez has a few of those improvised steadycam shots rushing through the forest that made Raimi’s film so memorable. And he also does the original movie – which received an NC-17 rating for “substantial graphic horror violence and gore” – proud in that regard as well. In fact, I think this Evil Dead is much more violent than the original, even with its R rating. Or at the very least, the blood and gore feel more violent this time around. Unlike most modern movies, Alvarez used very little (if any) CGI – preferring practical special effects and makeup instead, which is a refreshing change. The violence in the movie is strong, bloody, sickening and made me wince repeatedly. In short, it is exactly what horror fans want.

What keeps Evil Dead from being a great horror movie is one very simple thing – it didn’t really scare me. Wincing at the violence, looking away from the horror on screen is not the same thing as being truly scared. And as much as I like this Evil Dead, I have to say, I was never really scared while watching it. I knew what was coming – for the most part anyway – and the movie certainly relies more heavily on gore than the building of suspense. Still, I liked the movie – admired the craft behind it, and had a good time at a horror movie. For fans of the genre, this is a definite must see – for anyone who gets queasy though, you might want to see something else.