Longlegs (2024)

I started to "raise the fences" as soon as I heard the praise being heaped upon Longlegs. A lot of people were effusive about it in a way that made me think I should keep my own expectations in check. When people start comparing a crime thriller to The Silence Of The Lambs then I know that hyperbole is usually in play.

Written and directed by Osgood Perkins AKA Oz Perkins, who impressed me enormously with his first two features (February AKA The Blackcoat's Daughter and I Am The Pretty Thing That Lives In The House), Longlegs is a dark and disturbing thriller that deserves a lot of the praise it has received, but it's unsurprisingly not quite the masterpiece that some claim, although I am happy for those who feel that way.

Maika Monroe plays Agent Lee Harker, a young woman who ends up being used by the FBI to crack a difficult and disturbing case involving a killer nick-named Longlegs (Nicolas Cage). Harker has some strange ability, call it an over-developed sense of intuition, which may help, but she also ends up being somehow connected to the case in a way that may hinder things. Agent Carter (Blair Underwood) worries about Harker, but is also impressed by her. Meanwhile, Harker's mother (Ruth, played by Alicia Witt) may need to be questioned about past events that could help our lead in the current investigation.

With an impressive mix of unsettling shot composition and equally unsettling sound and music, Longlegs is a film that aims to keep viewers on edge for the majority of the runtime. There are very few scenes that allow you to feel completely relaxed, and that's before you start to notice the many small details that either foreshadow or link to a backstory revealed on the way to a very dark and tense third act.

Much has been made of Cage's performance here. He's good, but he still gets to indulge in some familiar Cage-isms. This isn't a complete transformation, although the make up and his changed voice do a lot to keep him feeling much more like Longlegs than "CAGE does Longlegs". Monroe is finally in another film that is at least worthy of her talent and presence, and she does a very good job of being awkward and struggling in every moment. Underwood is very good, often playing his part in a very obvious way until the one or two moments that allow him to break out from the stereotype, but the real standouts, for me anyway, are Kiernan Shipka and Alicia Witt, both delivering some of their very best work. Shipka gets to be more serious and dark than usual (although I've only seen some of her movie work, maybe she gets to be serious and dark in the Sabrina show . . . but I'll always be thinking of Melissa Joan Hart), and Witt is the person who delivers a performance that is truly transformative. I don't mean this to sound dismissive or insulting, but Witt has been doing work over the past few years that I never expected after she seemed to enjoy spending so much time in the lucrative Christmas TV movie market. Then again, looking through Witt's filmography makes it clear that she hasn't stopped working in a variety of projects over the past few decades, but it's the Christmas TV movies that get the guaranteed airtime and marketing.

While I would still be hesitant to immediately place it in a conversation with the absolute greats in this sub-genre (one from Demme, two from Fincher, plus one or two others), Longlegs is a meticulous and quite brilliant journey into darkness that may well leave even the hardiest of viewers slightly rattled by the time the end credits start to scroll. Perkins shows that he has been on an upward trajectory ever since his feature debut, becoming more confident and skilled with each outing, and I cannot wait to see what he does next. I also cannot wait to rewatch this, scouring every inch of the frame for the details that offer astonishing verisimilitude and indicators of how everything is due to play out.

8/10

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Joy Ride (2023)

Despite my enjoyment of the Joy Ride trailer, I was prepared to be underwhelmed by the movie. There was enough good word about it to make it something I wanted to prioritise, but I worried that I might have already been made aware of all the best bits. Thankfully, that wasn’t the case.

Ashley Park plays Audrey, a young woman with a successful career who is tasked with heading to China to complete a major business deal. Although everyone assumes that Audrey should have no problems in China, due to her being Asian, the fact that she was adopted at a very young age means that she isn’t necessarily well-equipped for the trip. As she doesn’t speak any form of the language, she heads there with her best friend, Lolo (Sherry Cola). Lolo ends up bringing along her awkward, K-pop-loving cousin, “Deadeye” (Sabrina Wu), and Audrey turns the trio into a quartet when she connects with another friend, Kat (Stephanie Hsu). Kat is a successful actress, having made her reputation as a wholesome and virginal “good girl”, despite some very raunchy episodes in her past. The business deal is the focus, but Lolo also tries to convince Audrey to seek out her birth mother.

Directed by Adele Lim (who helped to write a little film you may have heard of called Crazy Rich Asians), this is an enjoyably bawdy comedy that also manages to insert some interesting commentary and genuinely moving moments without everything feeling forced. There are at least a few big laughs, one gag prompting me to laugh louder than I have in the cinema in years, and plenty of dialogue and moments that manage to both entertain and allow viewers to consider the way society treats race, gender, sex, and family.

The screenplay, written by Cherry Chevapravatdumrong and Teresa Hsiao (neither of whom have the biggest body of work, but both seem to have worked together well on the TV show “Awkwafina Is Nora From Queens”), fleshes out an idea that Lim helped to create, and uses a familiar comedy feature template to give equal time and space to each of the four main characters. Although a lot of the beats are fairly familiar and predictable, there are enough little moments that stray from the formula to make this feel a bit more special than other films in the genre. It would have been very easy just to make this into another Bridesmaids with some different wardrobe choices throughout, but it manages to avoid feeling too indebted to that film, despite it being the closest cinematic touchstone.

Park is a good lead, able to play the “straight” acting more than the others, but certainly not without the ability to play into the comedy, but kudos to her for often just being present in scenes where the others shine. Cola, Wu, and Hsu get the majority of the laughs, with each one seemingly dealing with their own hang-ups as the fun trip that was planned starts to turn into one mishap after another. Or perhaps the hang-ups belong to other people, and those other people should just let people be their natural selves. Ronny Chieng has a fun few minutes of screentime, and there are sweet, and all-too-brief, moments for Daniel Dae Kim and Michelle Choi-Lee.

No matter who you are, if you have ever wrestled with your own identity (in terms of your family tree, in terms of your sexuality, in terms of a fandom you are part of, in any way) then I recommend Joy Ride. It has plenty of food for though, some big laughs, and a big heart. It could have been trimmed slightly, there could have been a few more jokes dotted throughout, but it’s a fun time that should have you smiling broadly as the end credits roll.

8/10

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