The second feature film from writer-director Ana Lily Amirpour (after getting plenty of rave reviews for the excellent A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night), The Bad Batch couldn't be much further removed from that fairly quiet, subtle, and black and white, work. This is bright, brash, and happy to pilfer scenes and ideas from a whole litany of films that wander through similar "post-apocalyptic" terrain. Seeing what Amirpour has done throughout her career, however, it becomes clear that this is a woman who doesn't want to be hemmed in by any expectations or genre boundaries.
Let me begin by saying that I put the words "post-apocalyptic" in quotation marks here because, well, that's not really the case. All we know, as the film begins, is that the USA has created a huge area in a desert outside Texas that it uses to house people it deems undesirable. There are no laws there, and no citizenship. Suki Waterhouse plays Arlen, the latest person to be sent into this dangerous place, and it's not long until she ends up on the wrong end of hungry cannibals. A few meals later, requiring one of her legs and arms as prime ingredients, Arlen plots her escape, and ends up in a much safer, and better, location. A few months go by, and Arlen can't stop thinking about revenge against those who disfigured her for the sake of a sick recipe. Revenge doesn't always pan out the way you expect it to though, and Arlen ends up in the company of the dangerous Miami Man (Jason Momoa), an individual who states that he cares about nothing and nobody, save for a little girl named Honey (Jayda Fink). Arlen might be safe again if she can help the man and child be reunited, but helping one person usually means upsetting one or two others. And that's not advisable in such a dangerous place.
The fact that Amirpour went for this as her sophomore feature is admirable and incredible. While A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night enjoyed playing around with the tropes of the vampire movie, The Bad Batch plays within the sandbox of a specific sub-genre without ever being ironic or winking at the audience. This would only take a few tweaks to turn it into a full-blooded Mad Max movie, and there are moments of grisly violence and nastiness that will test even those with very strong stomachs. One scene in particular made me fear for what would happen, and what had happened, to one character, all thanks to the strength of one performance from a woman brilliantly conveying desperation, pain, and fear in her one minute of screentime. It's a real shame that the lead couldn't show even a quarter of that talent.
Having dismissed her before, but also having tried to keep giving her the benefit of the doubt, I am sorry to say that this lacklustre turn from Suki Waterhouse has proven me right in my readiness to avoid any of her acting. This is a film that deserves someone much better in the lead role, and I'm sorry that Amirpour has to see her vision weakened by such major miscasting. One or two moments aside, Waterhouse is dire in this. If you disagree with me, I'd love to hear you nominate one person onscreen who gives a worse performance than her. Momoa is hampered by the accent chosen for his character, but he still manages to do well, thanks largely to the fact that he has the physique and presence to intimidate anyone within a half-mile radius. Fink does well with her relatively small amount of screentime, and it's interesting to see both Jim Carrey and Keanu Reeves in very atypical roles. Giovanni Ribisi is arguably the other main recognisable cast member, but he generally wanders about without much to do, apart from feeling like an alternate-dimension version of his character from Friends.
There are a number of sights here that you're unlikely to forget any time soon. There are also some great tunes scattered throughout the soundtrack. This is a film that comes close to being great on a number of occasions. What holds it back is the mismatch between the more standard genre moments and the really grisly stuff. And Waterhouse. Waterhouse also holds it back, sitting in the middle of everything like an understudy who didn't expect to ever be called up for her big moment in the spotlight.
6/10
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