Movie Review: The Turning

The Turning * ½ / *****

Directed by: Floria Sigismondi.

Written by: Carey W. Hayes and Chad Hayes based on the novel by Henry James.

Starring: Mackenzie Davis (Kate), Finn Wolfhard (Miles), Brooklynn Prince (Flora), Barbara Marten (Mrs. Grose), Karen Egan (Nancy), Mark Huberman (Bert), Niall Greig Fulton (Peter Quint), Denna Thomsen (Miss Jessel), Kim Adis (Rose).

 

It isn’t fair to compare The Turning, the latest adaptation of Henry James’ The Turn of the Screw, to Jack Clayton’s The Innocents – a previous adaptation, and one of the great gothic horror movies of all time – and yet, it’s also inevitable for those of us who have seen it (the studio is banking on the fact that audiences in 2020 haven’t seen that nearly 60-year-old film – and or the most part they would be right). Still, I didn’t expect a horror movie released in January after being pushed back nearly a year to be as good as one of the greatest horror films of all time – but I did expect it to be better than this. Directed by Floria Sigismondi – the talented music video director, making only her second feature – 10 years after her first (the underrated The Runaways), and written by Carey and Chad Hayes – whose previous credits include The Conjuring, the best of this kind of film in recent years – The Turning ends up being a murky mess – a film that someone both takes away the ambiguity at the heart of James’ novella, and previous screen versions, and yet ends in a head scratching, abrupt way.

 

The story is well-known – a newly hired governess, Kate (Mackenzie Davis) is hired to teach little Flora (Brooklynn Prince, from The Florida Project) at her spacious, gothic estate. Her parents have died, and her previous governess ran off without so much of a goodbye. She is watched over by the mysterious housekeeper Mrs. Grose (Barbara Marten). Eventually Flora’s older brother Miles (Finn Wolfhard) shows up as well – and he’s creepy in a way that makes you wonder if he’s evil, or just a teenage boy. Soon secrets spill out about the previous governess – and the previous groundskeeper, who died shortly after the governess disappeared.

 

This version takes place in 1994 – for no discernable reasons, except perhaps because the filmmakers didn’t want to set in when the novella was written 1898 – but also didn’t want there to be cellphones all over the place (other than a passing mention of the recent death of Kurt Cobain, there’s nothing really that screams 1990s about the film). In the novella, and previous versions, there is always some doubt about what the governess sees – when the ghosts appear, are they real, or do they spring from sexually repressed subconscious- which she then turns on the children. Here, the screenplay makes no bones about what she sees being real or not, even as the others act the same way – that Kate is just going crazy. It spells out a lot of things that was subtext in the past – further proof that filmmakers think (perhaps not incorrectly) that modern audiences don’t want subtext – they want everything spelled out for them in full. Or perhaps they just didn’t want a full movie to come out in 2020 when everyone has to debate whether or not to believe a woman who is describing sexual violence. I will say adding in a mentally ill mother for Kate – and playing with genetic links to mental illness doesn’t seem like a good substitute though.

 

The cast is mostly game though – Davis is fine as she spirals out of control. There is something incredibly creepy about Prince in this movie, even though she doesn’t do anything outwardly creepy. Wolfhard is trying too hard I think – but the screenplay does as well. Marten is fine as Mrs. Grouse – even if she won’t ever join the ranks of the best overly involved housekeepers in movie history.

 

The movie though is mainly a murky mess. Considering horror movies are often about atmosphere, you would think having one set in a massive gothic mansion, or a creepy sprawling estate, would do half the work for you – it doesn’t really though. There’s too much muddy blackness everywhere, and it all just ups the confusion, rather than the atmosphere – you’re straining to see, when there’s nothing much there.

 

And then there is the ending, which is one of the most abrupt endings I can remember. I suppose it’s better than having scenes after, where everyone talks about what just happened, but the ending is also one big nothing. It doesn’t really answer anything, or even shock you. It’s there, and then the credits role. If you haven’t seen The Innocents – do so. That film is a masterpiece. The Turning is not.

Movie Review: The Runaways

The Runaways *** ½
Directed by: Floria Sigismondi
Written By: Floria Sigismondi based on the book by Cherie Currie.
Starring: Kristen Stewart (Joan Jett), Dakota Fanning (Cherie Currie), Michael Shannon (Kim Fowley), Stella Maeve (Sandy West), Scout Taylor-Compton (Lita Ford), Alia Shawkat (Robin), Riley Keough (Marie Currie).

Like the band The Runaways, the movie of the same name is a wonderful guilty pleasure of a movie. The music The Runaways made in their brief career in the 1970s is not exactly brilliant, but there is some sort of perverse thrill in listening to these teenage girls sing about sex, drugs and rock n’ roll. Yes, they were exploited by their manager (Kim Fowley, here played brilliantly by Michael Shannon) and the lead singer Cherie Currie (embodied wonderfully by Dakota Fanning) was chewed up and spit out by the industry, but their music, and this movie, is still incredibly fun. That Joan Jett (a passionate Kristen Stewart) went on to have a real music career is more a testament to her passion, determination and talent and less to do with this band itself is the kind of inspiring aspect of the movie. Cherie and Joan were always a study in contrasts, which this movie underlines.

It’s the mid 1970s. Punk music is just coming to the forefront, and David Bowie is breaking all the rules with his glam rock. A teenage Joan Jett has little talent on the guitar, but she wants to rock. She meets Fowley at a club and tells him that she wants to form an all girls rock band. Fowley thinks this is a brilliant idea, and puts Joan in contact with some of the other teen girls he knows that play instruments. Their sound is raw and harsh, but he thinks they are missing something. When he sees Cherie Currie at the club a while later, he thinks he has found it – the blonde bombshell with sex appeal to be the lead singer. When he finds out she is only 16, he likes it even more (or in his words, “Jail fucking bait. Jack fucking pot”). After a few gigs they are signed to a major label and become celebrities. For Joan, it is all about the music. For Fowley, it is about making money and he knows what sells – sex – and Cherie has more appeal with her blonde hair and good looks than Joan with her hard ass attitude and leather jackets. Cherie is pushed to the front, and gets more attention than anyone else. Coming from a broken home, where her mother has just fled to Indonesia with her new husband, and her father is dying because of her alcoholism, Cherie eats the attention up for a while. But life on the road – with all the drugs, and all the sex takes its toll. It isn’t long before the band is flaming out.

As a movie, The Runaways doesn’t really break any new ground. It is your standard issue sex, drugs and rock n’roll biopic that we have seen before. The difference here is that the movie is a hell of a lot of fun. Recent movies in this genre – Ray and Walk the Line among them – take themselves a little too seriously, and are weighed down by Oscar expectations a little bit too much. The Runaways is a straight ahead, balls to the wall rock movie, and good God, is it fun to watch.

I have always loved Kristen Stewart as an actress, and look forward to that day (hopefully coming soon) where she is free from the burden of the Twilight series. Yes, the movies have made her a HUGE star, and she is the best part about them, but the movies take the edge off her personality, and make her act like a whiny, spoiled teenager with a starry eyed look of love on her face the whole time. They are not a challenge for her. In Joan Jett, she finds the type of role she excels at, and it’s no coincidence that it is the exact opposite kind of role as Bella Swan. Joan Jett wouldn’t just sit around pining for Edward, but what go out and get laid – man, woman it doesn’t matter – as her revenge. Stewart rips into the role with gusto and delivers a wonderful performance.

Dakota Fanning is Stewart’s equal as Cherie Currie, the slightly more innocent, more naïve teenager. Unlike Jett, she doesn’t appear to have much experience with sex or drugs when she joins The Runaways, but she certainly get her share during the course of this movie. Like last year’s dreadful Push, where Fanning was far and away the best part, her performance here struck me as a little girl playing dress-up as an adult – and that works for this movie. Fanning doesn’t have the sexuality to her that Stewart does, and seeing her prance around in next to nothing was not a sexual turn on for me, but almost rather sad – she doesn’t know what she is getting herself into until it’s too late. It’s still too early in Fanning’s career to tell if she will be able to leave the child star behind and find her way as an adult actress (when she has to play a real adult character, which will be coming soon, it will be dreadful if she still looks like a kid playing dress-up), but here she is wonderful. She growls her vocals wonderfully well, and is the emotional heart of the movie (not surprisingly, since the film is best on the real Currie’s memoirs).

The other key performance is the incomparable Michael Shannon, who in my mind just keeps proving there is nothing he cannot do. From his slightly deranged military man in World Trade Center, to his older brother with a vengeful side in the under seen Shotgun Stories, to his schizophrenic in Bug to his Oscar nominated work in Revolutionary Road, Shannon has already proved to be one of the best actors of his generation. Here, his Fowley is sexually ambigious and incredibly strange, as he talks about how “rock music is about balls. You want to be an artist, go cut off your ear and send it to your boyfriend”. Yes, he is exploiting these young girls, but he is so charming, you almost like him in spite of himself. He certainly is among the most memorable characters to come along this year so far.

The movie was written and directed by Floria Sigismondi, a music video director making her feature debut here. She nails the time period perfectly, and keeps the movie going at an almost breakneck speed – at least until the end, which is dragged out perhaps a little too far. Her passion for the project is clear in every frame of the movie. The Runaways is not a masterpiece by any stretch of the imagination – but it certainly is the most fun I had at the movies in a while.