Come Play (2020)

It has been over a decade since writer-director Jacob Chase served up a movie for viewing audiences, and I don’t think you will find many people who were waiting with bated breath after watching The Four-Faced Liar back in 2010 (no comment on the movie, which I haven’t seen, simply a comment on the fact that it didn’t seem to make any impact). Regardless, Chase has built up a fairly decent selection of short films, and Come Play is adapted from one of those, a 2017 short titled Larry.

The plot is very simple, and also very predictable. Gillian Jacobs plays Sarah, a mother who struggles with her autistic child, Oliver (Azhy Robertson). She has to battle through many difficult episodes while Oliver’s father (Marty, played by John Gallagher Jr.) does that typically annoying thing of just being the fun parent. As Oliver becomes more lonely, with his main company being a phone or tablet, he is approached by an entity named Larry. Larry can be seen through various screens, but he wants to break into our world. And he wants to be good friends with Oliver.

Very slick and familiar, Come Play is also, thankfully, very well-crafted when it comes to the scares. Although some imagery appears suddenly in the frame, it doesn’t feel like a film reliant on jump scares. This is a horror movie that at least tries to be creepy, and there is excellent use of technology to show Larry appearing to people (either directly or, for example, being shown up by an app/filter). Chase doesn’t bring anything truly new to the genre, nor does he mess things up. This is enjoyable, entertaining, stuff.

Young Robertson is the lead here, basically, and does good in a role that is mostly communicating in a non-verbal way. He has the big eyes and the nerves, but also has an interesting obliviousness to certain moments that have other characters more afraid of things around them. Jacobs and Gallagher Jr. are both good enough in their roles, although the former is playing someone who has to be set up as a bit selfish and misguided, even compared to the less responsible male parent.

I am sure that many people will dismiss this, it certainly doesn’t need to be high on any prioritised viewing list, but there’s a lot to appreciate. From the performances to the creature design, and the audio work throughout is also excellent, this maintains a standard of quality that you don’t always get in mainstream horror (certainly not from anything that doesn’t feature those pesky Warrens). For the kind of film this is, you could do a lot worse.

7/10

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Netflix And Chill: Marriage Story (2019)

Written and directed by Noah Baumbach, Marriage Story is the tale of Nicole (Scarlett Johansson) and Charlie (Adam Driver), a married couple who are also parents to one young son, Henry (Azhy Robertson). Marriage Story sounds much nicer than Divorce Story, but the latter title would be a better  description. This is, in many ways, a Kramer Vs. Kramer for the 21st century, showing how the most well-intentioned journey from marriage to amicable divorce can lead to ugliness, point-scoring, and a feeling akin to being scraped away, layer by layer, like the walls in an old house that are having years of different wallpapers removed. It cuts down to the bone at times, mainly because who can hurt you best more effectively than someone who once loved you the most? That hurt doesn't have to be intentional, it can come from watching your partner manage to get up and go about a normal day with you no longer in it, it isn't even always intended when it comes out in the form of some hateful speech vomited out by someone lashing out while feeling backed further into a corner.

Driver and Johansson are both superb in their roles here, and I would have been happy to see both of them showered with awards for their performances. Both have moments that will reverberate with anyone who has been in, or close to, the painful circumstances on display. And I would say that Driver has one moment of raw, childish, rage, both thoughtless and yet constructed to cause maximum damage, that holds up as a small movie moment that will be seared into your memory. Alan Alda and Ray Liotta are two very different types of lawyers who end up helping Driver, and both do excellent work, and Laura Dern is the formidable lawyer hired by Johansson, a role she clearly sets about with relish from her very first appearance in the movie. Small roles for Julie Hagerty and Wallace Shawn help to lighten the material, with Hagerty a real delight as the mother-in-law who cannot just put an end to a friendship with her son-in-law, despite what her daughter would prefer.

This isn't a review in which I feel the need to go on about the score, camerawork, production design, etc. Baumbach puts everything in the right place, allowing the main characters to feel like real people in our world, but the material feels like it could work just as easily in play form, with the focus always on the dialogue and the acting above any potential cinematic flourishes.

This is not an easy watch. What may seem slick and out of touch with most people (Driver is a successful director of stage plays, Johansson is an actress, these are not your everyday working class folk trying to navigate these waters) actually contains a lot of honest moments that many will be able to identify with, whether that's good or bad. Considering the timing of my viewing, I don't think I'll be rushing to watch it again. But, trust me, that is just a testament to how much it gets right.

9/10