The Toxic Avenger (2023)

While it's hard to deny that we live in some truly dire times (I mean . . . *gestures at everything around us*), it's also pleasing to note that we now live in a world that has given us a new Toxic Avenger movie. And not just any Toxic Avenger movie. This is written and directed by Macon Blair, and has a cast that includes Peter Dinklage in the main role, Jacob Tremblay, Taylour Paige, Kevin Bacon, Elijah Wood,  Julia Davis, and Sarah Niles.

Dinklage plays Winston, a man who will eventually be transformed into the titular (anti/super)hero, although his character is brilliantly portrayed by Luisa Guerreiro. Anyway, Winston is trying to bond with his step-son, Wade (Jacob Tremblay), both still grieving the loss of the main woman they loved, but has his standard routine of drudgery and self-doubt interrupted by a chain of events that lead to his body being dumped into a load of toxic sludge. And that's when The Toxic Avenger is born, just in time to help a plucky investigative reporter (J. J. Doherty, played by Paige) reveal the truth about a corrupt pharmaceutical company headed by Bob Garbinger (Bacon).

The first thing I want to say about The Toxic Avenger is that it's a bit too long, the runtime is just over 100 minutes, and it could have moved things into place in the first act much quicker than it does, but there's a very satisfying pay-off for most of the plot points set up here. While I enjoyed a lot of it, I feel that the pacing really works against it, and others may well feel the same.

Everything else I have to say about the film is pretty positive though, despite me not being as completely won over by it as others were. The cast is uniformly great, with Paige being an essential strong heartbeat for a film so populated with over the top villainy and silly grotesqueries. Dinklage has a lot of fun as the loser who watches his life go from bad to worse to toxic, Tremblay is able to be both a bit sullen and very vulnerable, as required, and Bacon, Wood, and Davis are a dangerous trio that wouldn't look out of place in a big-budget Batman movie. It's Toxie front and centre, but Paige plays her part so well that she helps to ground the ridiculous gore and gags, reminding you that there are people onscreen who are desperate for help . . . even if it comes in the shape of a very unlikely "hero".

It may keep itself slightly distanced from the worst elements of Troma Entertainment, where the main character originated, but fans will be happy to find that it has a spirit, and a commmitment to excessive amounts of gore and bodily harm, that aligns it nicely with body of work we've had throughout the decades from "Uncle Lloyd" and co.

There's room for improvement here, and room for even more detached limbs and geysers of blood, but Blair has done a hell of a job to walk a perilous tightrope. This should please both fans of the original movies and relative newcomers who go into their viewing with some idea of what it's aiming for. I'll be rewatching it, probably more than I would ever rewatch any of the other movies in the series, and I encourage others to at least throw some rental money towards it. How else am I going to get my long-gestating Class Of Nuke 'Em High remake made?

8/10

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Prime Time: I Care A Lot (2020)

The easiest, and most flippant, way to summarize I Care A Lot is to make some joke about how I didn’t really care for it. I enjoyed it enough while it was on, and the central casting helps a lot, but the whole thing lacks any plausibility, which means it lacks any real bite it should have.

Rosamund Pike plays Marla Grayson, a woman who has built up a very successful business around becoming guardian to numerous elderly individuals. This allows her to drain their assets, bill them for hours spent dealing with their cases, and generally profit from the misery of someone spending the last of their days in a care home environment. Unfortunately, Marla targets Jennifer Peterson (Dianne Wiest), a woman who is connected to the very dangerous Roman Lunyov (Peter Dinklage). This puts Marla and her partner, Fran (Eiza González), in mortal danger.

Written and directed by J Blakeson, this is a film that feels like it wants to be a few different things. It could be a comment on how we treat the elderly. It could be a taut and entertaining thriller. It could be a damning indictment of a system that leaves people with nothing as they simply aim to remain healthy and alive in a society that has already deemed them as having no (or very little) value. The fact that it fails to fully commit to any of these aims means that it ends up an unsatisfying middle of them all, with no one aspect handled as well as it should be.

It all looks clean and cool throughout, although I wouldn’t even say there’s anything particularly standout about the visuals, and the score from Marc Canham is decent, but there’s a distinct air of everything being competent, as opposed to actually good.

The only area of excellence is the cast, and Blakeson really stops the film from being a complete disaster by having such a great selection of main cast members. Pike is superb in a role that feels very similar to one of her best cinematic performances (you will know what one I am on about), and Dinklage is an excellent menacing presence. Wiest is the most pleasant surprise though, making the most of her small amount of screentime to remind everyone that she still excels in any role she is given. To be clear, the surprise isn’t her level of talent, it is seeing her get a couple of real moments to shine in a role that could have easily been no more than a fleeting cameo. González is fine, although not given much to do, and there is some excellent scene-stealing by Chris Messina (playing a slick lawyer) and Macon Blair (playing the son of someone scammed by Pike’s character).

It loses points for having the most ineffective onscreen killers not wearing stormtrooper uniforms, it loses points for not using the obvious Faith No More song choice, and it loses points for an ending that doesn’t feel half as pointed and/or clever as Blakeson may think it is. In fact, the entire third act is more silly than anything else.

I Care A Lot? Nope. And I doubt others will.

5/10

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Netflix And Chill: Kindred Spirits (2019)

There are a number of elements within Kindred Spirits that seem a bit strange, but not really in a bad way. First, Thora Birch is now cast as a mother character. Second, director Lucky McKee and writer Chris Sivertson have fully committed to something that feels like it could have easily been released in the late '80s to mid-'90s amongst the likes of Poison Ivy, Single White Female, and numerous other movies focusing on someone who is an entertainingly demented psychopath.

Birch plays Chloe, mother to Nichole (Sasha Frolova). Their relationship isn't exactly all sunshine and roses, but that may improve when Chloe's sister, Sadie (Caitlin Stasey), appears on the scene. Sadie wants a chance to regroup and maybe restart her life. And she ends up being more like a sister to Nichole than an aunt. Meanwhile, Chloe is also trying to keep her relationship with Alex (Macon Blair) a secret. And not just because Alex is the father of Nichole's best friend, Shay (Shonagh Smith). Tension is simmering away, and it eventually rises right up to the surface again, leading to some startling revelations and a number of deaths.

As long as you know the type of film you're getting then there's very little chance that Kindred Spirits should disappoint you. And if you don't know what you're getting into before the movie starts, fear not, McKee and Sivertson do a great job of setting everything up to ease viewers along a path that soon becomes a slippery slope towards unbridled insanity.

All of the cast play it straight, and fill their roles well. Birch may still look too young to be a mother, even if she is the right age nowadays, but her attempts to deal with her daughter will ring true with any parent who has gone through some difficult times. Frolova, for her part, manages to be an unhappy teen without ever becoming too annoying. Stasey is a lot of fun in her role, even when the plot starts to twist and change, and Blair is a very nice everyman, a sweet potential partner for Birch, despite her trying to keep some distance between them. Smith and Isai Torres also do good work, with the latter playing Nichole's boyfriend, Derek, and having to take part in what I would happily call the silliest scenes in the movie.

Although I am not going to rate this as anything unmissable, I'm taking pains to emphasise just how good it is for what it is aiming to do. More than that, it does everything in a way that is admirably free of the need to be coy, or wink at viewers in a self-aware display of "yes, this is trashy nonsense, everyone can roll their eyes and smile while they enjoy it ironically" deflection. Sivertson and McKee know what they're doing, no doubt about that, and they also know that this material wouldn't work as well if it was given the kind of meta layering that so many horror movies now think they have to contain.

If you want some self-aware horror then pick from the hundreds around. If you want an entertaining thriller played completely straight, and with a real crescendo in the third act, then this is for you. 

7/10

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The Hunt (2020)

I wasn't sure what to expect from The Hunt, but I can tell you that my expectations were low. It seemed to be a standard riff on The Most Dangerous Game that managed to gain some notoriety by using the modern day polarising of political opinions as the basis for a lot of the main thrust of the plot. Well, that in itself didn't gain it the notoriety. The fact that it had the release date pushed back, and it could tag itself as "the film they didn't want you to see", helped to give it some notoriety. But is that all it has to offer?

No. It turns out that The Hunt is actually a smart and funny thriller that does itself a big favour by not aligning itself fully with one side or the other, in terms of the class divide, and the gap between those who are perceived to be in favour of all freedoms and those who are perceived to be "snowflakes".

Things start off with a number of great moments, a number of short, sharp shocks that deliver bloody entertainment while also making the most of some amusing cameos. It lets viewers know that they're going to see some extreme violence, if sometimes in an almost cartoonish way, and that nobody will be safe. And then we meet the one person we think may be safe for most of the movie. Crystal (Betty Gilpin) is onscreen for a minute or so before showing how much sharper she is than the rest of the people who have been scattered around as prey for some privileged folk who want to bag the ultimate kill. And that's all you need to know. The bodycount is impressive, Crystal has to constantly outwit opponents with more resources and intel than she has, and viewers are carried along to a third act that should provide some answers about how the hunt began, as well as some predictable satisfaction. Hopefully.

Although directed, and directed well, by Craig Zobel, this is a film that is very much covered in the fingerprints of the writers, Nick Cuse and Damon Lindelof (who both also worked together on the excellent Watchmen TV series). It seems pretty clear where they like to align themselves, politically, but they do at least take some time to show how the current lack of tolerance from those who find themselves offended can become a bit of a chicken and egg scenario with opinions being doubled down on and jokes being turned into a reality.

Gilpin is great in the lead, and it's her best movie role yet. She's believably tough and smart, and quickly sets her mentality to a focused survival mode. There are a few hunters given screentime, all of them fun in the way they can't comprehend ever being one-upped by someone they picked to be killed off, but the most recognisable is played by Glenn Howerton, who has fun with a role that taps into the sociopathy/psychopathy of his most famous comedic persona. Macon Blair is good in a very small role, and I'll mention Wayne Duvall, Ike Barinholtz, Emma Roberts, Amy Madigan, Reed Birnet, and Ethan Suplee, all of them doing their bit to add to the thrill of the hunt. Hilary Swank is also in the mix. She may not be onscreen for that long, but she makes a great impression (and it made me realise that I hadn't seen her in a major release for some time, certainly not having as much fun as she has here).

I'm sure that some people will watch this and be annoyed by the script, for one reason or another. It's a no-win situation for anyone writing something that weaves the current trend of making everything an ideological war with standard exploitation thrills. But everyone involved knows that. That feels like it's part of the point.

8/10

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Mubi Monday: Thunder Road (2018)

Expanding his hugely popular short film of the same name, Jim Cummings has taken the familiar premise of a character coming apart at the seams to provide an entertaining and surprisingly emotional movie that, at heart, feels very much about how one person can be floored by grief in a way that it reverberated through their life for a long time after the passing of a loved one. That may seem obvious, especially to those who have gone through it, but there's also a general notion that we grieve, we suffer, we use a funeral to say our final goodbyes and then we start to rebuild and go on with our lives. That's a lot easier said than done, especially when grief and emotions can be irrational, coming back to mess with the forefront of your mind at the sight of one location, one particular object, the sound of one song, the smell of one particular perfume or aftershave, etc.

Cummings, who wrote and directed this, stars as Officer Jim Arnaud. The film starts with him at the funeral of his mother, looking as if it will replicate the same scene shown in the short movie. But there's a twist this time to make the whole thing just as effective, yet also different. Moving on from this, Arnaud tries to return early to his job, which isn't a good move, and is then shown trying to put affairs in order, look after his young daughter, and prepare for a custody battle with his ex-partner. All of it takes a toll, and Arnaud may not have been in the best mental state before all of this started to work on his psyche.

Remember when Paul Thomas Anderson and Adam Sandler were praised for twisting Sandler's angry manchild persona into something more interesting and moving in Punch Drunk Love? Arnaud's movie could make an interesting companion piece to that movie, both showing men who have moments of explosive anger as they try to protect loved ones and work through their own problems. The big difference is that Arnaud shares more of himself with others around him, probably a bit too much, and not always with the right people. That doesn't always make him wrong though. He doesn't seem like a bad person, although he sometimes spits out bad things as he lashes out in frustrated anger. It sometimes seems clear that he isn't coping with his grief as well as others think he should be, yet there's a great deal of truth in the idea that everyone grieves differently, that nobody should rush to judge someone struggling to right themselves after being so knocked around by a number of major life events. That's what I tried to keep in mind anyway.

Having just said all that, and I know this may sound strange, Cummings has packaged this with a lot of humour. This is not a dour meditation on loss and grief, despite that being at the heart of the thing, and most of that comes from how wonderful the central character is. Yes, there are times when you laugh at Arnaud, they happen quite often, but there are many more times when he's making you swither between laughing and crying, often reacting in complete earnestness to situations that would test even the toughest minds.

I could spend this entire review praising Cummings to the skies. His writing and direction keep things tonally perfect throughout, and his acting is equally great, but it's also worth noting that he assembles a great cast to work with. Kendal Farr does well in the role of his daughter, a little girl who doesn't seem to have the best relationship with her father, although it's not one that either has entirely given up on. Nican Robinson is excellent as Officer Nate Lewis, a colleague and good friend to Arnaud, and Jocelyn DeBoer is the ex-partner making Arnaud's life even harder than it would normally be during his time of grief. There's also a great scene featuring Macon Blair as a teacher, discussing the problematic behaviour of Farr with an increasingly upset Cummings.

Uncomfortable at times, and it has an ending that both works for and against it (difficult to explain, no spoilers, but it will make sense once you see the film), Thunder Road is a gem of a film that shows the very best way to expand upon a charming short film while retaining the heart and essence of it.

8/10

You will be able to buy the movie on disc here.
Americans can buy it here.

Shudder Saturday: Hellbenders (2012)

Hellbenders is yet another horror comedy that is neither scary nor funny enough to satisfy fans of either genre. That doesn't mean it's a complete waste of your time, especially if you want to watch Clancy Brown storming around and calling various people "c**ksucker", but it's nowhere near as good as it could have been.

The film stars Brown, Clifton Collins. Jr, Robyn Rikoon, Andre Royo, Macon Blair, and Dan Fogler as members of The Augustine Interfaith Order of Hellbound Saints. These are people who have to live in a near-constant state of sin, ensuring that they always have major strikes against them for the day when they battle demons and may have to, as a last resort, commit suicide and personally drag them down to hell. Part Constantine, part The Day Of The Beast, it's the other part, the juvenile comedy element, that disappoints.

Written and directed by J. T. Petty, adapting his own graphic novel, Hellbenders could have been improved in a number of ways. The pacing and actual framing of the main story don't work as well as they should, and when it splices in talking heads moments that show how this could have easily been turned into a mockumentary then you realise how much better that approach to the material would have been. While the main characters are okay, they would come across a lot better if spending more time battling dangerous enemies, showing how they are actually heroes who have to live their lives steeped in sin, rather than just assholes who occasionally step up to the plate (although, admittedly, they can be viewed as both, which is the point, but it's harder to enjoy a film that seems to focus on the latter without reminding you of the former).

Everyone does alright with what they're given, with the standouts being Brown and Royo (mainly because I kept wondering where the hell I recognised him from and then eventually realised it was "Bubbles" from The Wire). Blair and Fogler are given a number of gags that aren't that amusing, but they're pushed to the back slightly as the plot starts to focus in on the character played by Rikoon. Stephene Gevedon is an authority figure who pops along to see what is going on, and is subsequently appalled by what he finds, and Larry Fessenden turns up for a decent cameo role.

Priests being badass and sinful is a good idea for a film that involves a war against dark forces. I hope it's reworked one day into something better. Hellbenders is average when it should at least have been good, if not great. And that may be the biggest sin it commits.

5/10

You can buy Hellbenders here.
Americans can get it here.

Dead By Dawn 2016: Green Room (2015)

AKA that film that features Patrick Stewart as the leader of a bunch of neo-Nazis. AKA "Do you feel lucky, punk?"

Written and directed by Jeremy Saulnier, who previously gave us the excellent Blue Ruin (and before that gave us Murder Party - which I have yet to watch), Green Room could accurately be described as a snarling beast of a film. It feels raw and visceral throughout, and not just because the main protagonists are members of a punk rock band who prefer their vocals to be primal and full of anger.

The band is made up of Alia Shawkat, Anton Yelchin, Joe Cole, and Callum Turner. They're not having a very good time, having to siphon petrol to keep their van on the road and being interviewed by someone who no longer has a show on air . . . . . . . . and can't get them the decent gig that they thought they were travelling to. To make amends, they are offered a gig elsewhere. It's the middle of nowhere. Most of the audience seem to be of a certain political leaning, to put it nicely, but the band figure that they can insult them, play a few songs, and make out with a few hundred dollars for their troubles. Which isn't bad at all. And then someone pops into a room backstage and witnesses some people around a fresh corpse. Which is when things start to go from bad to worse to the stuff of nightmares.

Green Room is a lean, nasty, grimy thriller that feels very much like something from an earlier decade. Thankfully, it manages to feel that way without making too many obvious nods and winks to viewers. The most obvious jumping off point would be the classic Assault On Precinct 13, and one or two other John Carpenter movies, but these characters, and this level of violence and brutality, could have stepped out from any number of xploitation movies from the '70s and '80s.

But I don't want to spoil your expectations with hyperbole here. Don't go into the movie expecting a) wall to wall violence and b) nastiness unlike anything you've ever witnessed before. No. What Saulnier does so well is litter his movie with moments to make you wince and scenes that often take a left turn when you thought they were moving right (no pun intended).

All of the aforementioned cast members do a very good job, even when jumping around and trying to look like punk rockers, and Patrick Stewart certainly makes a great impression with his relatively limited amount of screentime, but there are also fantastic turns from Mark Webber and Macon Blair, to name but two of a handful of people I could have singled out. Imogen Poots is a bit out of place here, but I like her anyway and she's not exactly stinking up the entire film. She just doesn't really seem to fit into this world.

If you're hoping for another Blue Ruin then this isn't for you. But if you're hoping for a film that uses fight dogs, box cutters, guns, fire extinguishers, and plenty of fake blood then get to this as soon as possible. Personally, I think this is the better film. But that just says a lot more about my mental state than the difference in quality between the two. 

9/10

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Bonus Review: Blue Ruin (2013)

As slow burn thrillers go, this is one of the best I can think of in recent years. I could start to describe the different movies it hews close to, but that just might end up doing it a disservice. So I'll just say that it takes a lot of familiar beats from the revenge thriller subgenre and twists them ever so slightly, making things feel a lot fresher in the process.

Macon Blair is Dwight, a young, homeless man. He may seem to have no plan in life, and no ambition, but it soon becomes clear that there's one thing he wants, at any cost. Revenge. When a kind police officer takes him back to the station to break some bad news - the killer of his parents is finally being freed from prison - Dwight then sets about preparing for what he knows he must do. Unfortunately, it doesn't go quite as planned, which sets off a damaging sequence of events that Dwight is then desperate to stop.

Written and directed by Jeremy Saulnier, Blue Ruin is one of those movies best described as quietly powerful. Or, perhaps, brooding. Almost every scenes is loaded with the potential for danger and pain, either physical or emotional. But that's not all there is to it. There are some jumps here and there, some scenes that will get your heart racing, and a number of scenes that show just how good Saulnier is at using various cinematic techniques to wring more tension from the material.

The cast all do a great job, but the top honours go to Blair for his portrayal of Dwight. First shown with an unruly head of hair and big, shaggy beard, Dwight may physically transform as the movie unfolds but his behaviour never changes. He has always been determined to get his revenge, but he's also a timid man who doesn't really know what he's doing. Amy Hargreaves doesn't have much screentime, playing Dwight's sister, but she does well enough, Devin Ratray is enjoyable as an old friend who helps Dwight out, and Kevin Kolack, Eve Plumb and David W. Thompson all do a good job as relatives of the man Dwight is aiming for.

Although I don't think it's QUITE as good as all of the praise it has been garnering over the past few weeks, Blue Ruin is still very good indeed. It's worth seeing, and it's worth going out of your way to see it at a local cinema, because supporting quality independent cinema means that we can get more and more of it. Which is good for us movie lovers.

8/10