The post Trap first appeared on Worth it or Woke.

The post Batman: Caped Crusader first appeared on Worth it or Woke.

Longlegs

FBI Agent Lee Harker investigates a series of gruesome deaths connected to a mysterious figure known as Longlegs. As the case unfolds, unearthing evidence of the occult, Harker discovers a personal connection to the merciless killer and must race against time to stop him before he claims the lives of another innocent family.

Longlegs Review

Since their earliest days, horror movies have relied on a handful of essential ingredients to deliver their thrills and chills. From jump scares to disturbing imagery, the only thing that has changed is each film’s specific usage and the degree to which it relies on those ingredients. Over the last two decades, it seems as though the art of eliciting fear from audiences with subtlety and creativity has been largely lost, replaced by the current crop of genre filmmakers’ race to see who can be grosser and more explicit. Enter Longlegs.

With its minuscule budget and cast of unknowns, Nicolas Cage and Blair Underwood notwithstanding, Longlegs harkens back to the days when the cinematographer and score were more essential than gallons of dyed corn syrup and an FX budget to rival a small nation’s GDP. Despite the fact that the film is a little underdeveloped, with far too little Cage, and loses a bit of focus in the third act, by going back to the basics, Longlegs delivers a delicious ever-present tension as the audience sits on the edge of their seats waiting for the shoe to drop.

Its quintessential 70s horror chic cinematography, with long lingering shots framed ever-so-slightly off-center, and director Oz Perkins’s (son of Anthony Perkins – aka Norman Bates in Psycho) keen sense of timing are the film’s true stars. However, its classically understated vintage score and some surprising performances shine nearly as brightly.

Obviously, seeing Nicholas Cage as a demonic serial killer is Longleg’s big draw, and the only disappointing thing about his disturbing performance is its abbreviated nature. He’s one part creepy, three parts demonically terrifying, and all Nicolas Cage. That said, despite having a relatively underwhelming resume of which her turn as President Whitmore’s daughter in the critically panned Independence Day sequel,  Maika Monroe surprises as Agent Harker. With Cage only appearing briefly, the bulk of the film lies on Monroe’s shoulders, and she is more than up to the task.

Even though the outward trappings of her role as an FBI agent combined with the time period in which Longlegs is set, not to mention the film’s tone, understandably invokes parallels to Clarice Sterling and Silence of the Lambs, Monroe’s Harker is wholly its own creature. The actress beautifully portrays the socially awkward agent with a grounded sincerity and realism that precludes what could have easily been a caricature. As such, she is the perfect straight man to the film’s bizarre goings-on.

Unfortunately, Longlegs flounders a bit under the weight of its concept and what appears to have been very limited access to Nicolas Cage. As a result, everyone’s character development is fairly rushed, with Cage’s character suffering the most. It also suffers from a botched reveal of its twist in an unnecessary and redundant montage that’s overlong, overly expository, and completely robs the film’s final minutes of virtually all of its momentum.

In spite of this and a rushed two-dimensional relationship between Harker and a catalyst character, Longlegs dishes out a quick and fun fright night worth seeing.

WOKE ELEMENTS

Lady Cops

• Nitpickers might take umbrage with yet another “strong female” cop-like character leading a film. However, not only have there been female FBI field agents since the 70s, but Lee Harker is a socially awkward mess and not some unstoppable bad@$$ who was clearly written to be a man until studio interference. Her feminity actually adds a nice layer of vulnerability to the story.

The post Longlegs first appeared on Worth it or Woke.

The post MaXXXine first appeared on Worth it or Woke.

The post Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F first appeared on Worth it or Woke.

The Bikeriders

Inspired by the 1967 photo book of the same name by Danny Lyon, The Bikeriders depicts the lives of the Vandals MC, a Chicago outlaw motorcycle club founded in McCook, Illinois, from a surrogate family for local outcasts into a violent organized crime syndicate over the course of a decade.

The Bikeriders Review

The Bikeriders is an odd movie to review. Although it is nothing like last year’s Renfield in tone, subject, etc., it does share one unfortunate similarity. Both feel like two different movies spliced together, one having unlimited potential for greatness while the other suffocates that greatness in exhaust fumes. In the case of The Bikeriders, any narrative momentum or character development is cut short by a neverending succession of faux interviews between Austin Butler’s character’s wife, played by Jodie Comer, and photojournalist Danny, played by Mike Faist.

As stated in the summary above, the film is inspired by a photo book that was fashioned over the course of several years by Danny Lyon, who traveled with the Vandals in the late 60s, photographing and interviewing them throughout their adventures. While this, no doubt, made for an interesting photo book, the interview structure in the film, with Comer’s Kathy as the story’s defacto narrator, is a completely unneeded narrative crutch that cheaply exposits character perspectives, motivations, and histories while robbing the story of a chance to grow and develop organically.

Conversely, the flashbacks themselves are gripping, well-written vignettes with crisp, economical dialogue, solid cinematography, and performances that, given time to breathe, would have gone beyond excellent (which they are) to otherworldly. By now, we all expect nothing less than a brilliant performance from Tom Hardy. If the man can make Star Trek: Nemesis worth watching, he can do anything. After his turns as Elvis and then Feyd-Rautha in Dune, Academy-nominated Austin Butler is no different. For The Bikeriders, neither man disappoints nor does anyone else. In fact, had the film been a straight narrative instead of a 50% faux documentary, the upcoming awards season would have been overpopulated with The Bikeriders performers big and small.

There’s something about the mixture of brotherhood, freedom, and ingrained danger of early bike clubs that taps into the primal male psyche, which makes it challenging to ruin a movie about them. While The Bikeriders isn’t ruined, it’s certainly wounded. Its inherently compelling characters have their emotional throughlines neutered by the film’s structure, which robs the audience of their chance to empathically bond with these wild and free men. The result is a frustration akin to riding a performance machine in traffic. You know what it can do; it just never gets the chance to do it.

WOKE ELEMENTS

At Least It Has This Going For It

• Nada.

The post The Bikeriders first appeared on Worth it or Woke.

The post Hit Man first appeared on Worth it or Woke.

The post Joker: Folie à Deux first appeared on Worth it or Woke.

The post The Thundermans Return first appeared on Worth it or Woke.

The Gentlemen (season 1)

As Ritchie’s long-time friend Matthew Vaughn recently showed us with the abysmal Argylle, stylized slow-motion and quippy dialogue are not enough to propel a story forward on their own. Happily, The Gentlemen benefits from Ritchie’s signature style being judiciously metered out by the series’ four directors (including Ritchie, who helmed the first two episodes), giving audiences a delightful blend of often fun, sometimes tense, always engaging escapism.

Set in the world of high-stakes drug empires, Duke Horniman has died, and he’s left his son more than his title. Unbeknownst to him, the new duke’s inherited list of problems includes a declining estate that’s home to both his eccentric family and a secret drug empire run by an evil syndicate.

Theo James shines as the newly minted Duke of Halstead, the second eldest and more responsible brother of a family whose lineage descends directly from the storied British Kings of old. As the new duke finds himself committing ever-deeper acts of depravity in an attempt to divorce himself and his family from the seedy underworld that his father has tied them to, by sheer charisma, James extorts audience sympathies like an empathic loanshark collecting fandom vigs.

James is not alone by any means. Every performer was cast from a golden die and plated like a three-star Michelin meal, with each exuding equal parts magnetism and menace, buffoonery, or whatever their particular part called for.  However, if one must stand out amongst this pantheon of perfection, it is Daniel Ings who plays Freddy Horniman, the new duke’s eldest brother.

Freddy is a f#@<up. Unfortunately, no more diplomatic phrasing better captures Freddy’s full flavor. He’s a coke-addicted and pampered lordling who’s never known a minute’s responsibility. While that particular character has been done and done and done, much as a Glenfiddich Janet Sheed Roberts Reserve 1955 is more than just bourbon, thanks to Ings’ experience and talent, Freddy is more than a two-dimensional fool.

Rounding out the standouts is Kaya Scodelario, who plays Susie Glass, the manager of the billion-dollar weed farm concealed beneath the ducal estate’s dairy farm. Scodelario, probably best known for playing Carina Smyth in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, could have easily played Glass like an obnoxious teenage feminist’s interpretation of a man, like so many other strong female characters in modern cinema. Instead, her Glass is a strong, no-nonsense businesswoman who is neither unstoppable nor a caricature of masculinity.

As binge-worthy as season 1 may be, no program is without its faults. In many respects, The Gentlemen substitutes style for originality with a fairly predictable and routine plot and “twists.” There are also one or two noticeable plot-expediting decisions made by characters that run contrary to those characters’ established intelligence and savvy.

When the marijuana plants have dried, and the gypsies have been paid, season 1 of The Gentlemen is a fun and suspenseful 8-episode romp for viewers who like British cool mixed with dirty dealings.

WOKE ELEMENTS

A Little of This. A Little of That

• Meant to be quasi-humorous, the throwaway line, “they don’t leave a carbon footprint,” is said.
• UN Soldiers. – That’s it. They don’t have much relevance or screentime, but their existence in anything as more than a joke is worth derision and at least a fraction of a woke point.
• One of the characters calls a car full of priests who offer him a ride the priest pedophiles.
• One of the more dangerous criminals believes himself to be a deeply religious man who communes directly with God. However, his warped faith is never a recrimination of the Faith. Instead, the unholy juxtaposition is made because his bastardization of Christianity makes him that much more twisted and disturbed. I took no points off for this.
• A character is pregnant and unmarried, and the family’s celebration of it could be considered woke modern relationship dogma. However, the single pregnant woman does not express sanctimony. Furthermore, the delight at the pregnancy expressed by both the mother and her family was a refreshing affirmation of the life growing within her.

The post The Gentlemen (season 1) first appeared on Worth it or Woke.