The New ‘Candyman’ Asks, ‘What if Candyman Now … and Forever?’

August 25, 2021

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Candyman (2021) (CREDIT: Universal Pictures and MGM Pictures)

Starring: Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Teyonah Parris, Colman Domingo, Nathan Stewart-Jarrett, Vanessa Estelle Williams, Rebecca Spence, Brian King, Tony Todd

Director: Nia DaCosta

Running Time: 91 Minutes

Rating: R for The Bloodiest of Hook-Based Violence

Release Date: August 27, 2021 (Theaters)

What’s the DEAL with decades-later horror sequels having the exact same title as the original?! Halloween did it just a few years ago, and now Candyman is getting on the reboot-but-actually-it’s-a-continuation action. I’m not a fan of this trend, and it strikes me as especially dangerous in the case of Candyman. We need some extra words in there so that we don’t accidentally say his name five times in a row! But there’s actually something apt in this case about just recycling the title. Candyman may be overwhelmingly deadly when he appears, but he exists as a whisper and a shadow the rest of the time. So it makes sense that a new generation would be discovering him completely fresh thirty years after his cinematic debut. I would maybe tack on a “The New Generation” subtitle, but the idea behind the repetition is justifiable.

So this may sound a little weird, but just go with me here: the movie that Candyman 2021 most reminds me of is … The Force Awakens. They share a certain kinship in the way that they go about examining their predecessors. These stories have become legends within their universes, and the new characters are fans of the original adventurers who are psyched to meet them. In Candyman Land, Anthony McCoy (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) is a visual artist who’s been struggling to find inspiration but suddenly becomes full-to-bursting with ideas when he hears tell of a man with a hook who slices and dices his victims after they summon him in a mirror. He’s also soon spending much of his free time listening to the recordings left behind by Helen Lyle, the graduate student who was researching the Candyman in the first film. When you go this deep into the story, you become a part of that story, and oh boy, does Anthony become an integral cog in this tale.

By focusing so squarely on the original, Candyman 2021 is occasionally a little too myopic in its approach. For horror freaks like myself, there’s something bizarrely enjoyable about the unhinged world-building that’s typical of so many spooky sequels but less common in these reboot-style sequels. Writer-director Nia DaCosta’s approach is decidedly laser-focused, which is a good thing insofar as she knows exactly what she’s trying to accomplish and she reminds those of us who loved the original why we loved it so much. But it’s a less-than-good thing insofar as it keeps her movie perhaps too much in check. I haven’t seen either of the first two Candyman sequels that were released in the 90s; as far as I know, neither is highly regarded, but wouldn’t it be cool if DaCosta somehow found a way to incorporate elements of them into her outing? I think so. (Although maybe there are some Easter eggs that I missed… It didn’t feel like that was the case, though.)

All the ducks are in order here: the set pieces are thrilling, the music is chilling, the acting strikes the right range of tones. To sum it all up, I appreciate the lens that New-Candyman focuses on Candyman Original Flavor, but I also believe that it would have benefitted from expanding that lens a bit.

Candyman 2021 is Recommended If You Like: The Force Awakens in terms of the self-awareness, People saying “No! No! No!” right before someone summons something evil, Fun with production logos

Grade: 3.5 out of 5 Bees

Reminiscing About the Time I Saw ‘Reminiscence’

August 23, 2021

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Reminiscence (CREDIT: Warner Bros. Pictures/Screenshot)

Starring: Hugh Jackman, Rebecca Ferguson, Thandiwe Newton, Cliff Curtis, Marina de Tavira, Angela Sarafyan

Director: Lisa Joy

Running Time: 116 Minutes

Rating: PG-13

Release Date: August 20, 2021 (Theaters and HBO Max)

I went to see Reminiscence at the Regal Essex Crossing on opening night (or opening night of opening day, as it were, i.e., not a Thursday night preview showing). I had a relatively small dinner of leftover pizza beforehand, so I decided to buy some foodThe concession stand didn’t have any pretzels in stock, so I opted for mozzarella sticks instead. I paired them with a margarita since this theater is licensed to serve alcohol. Spoiler alert: they didn’t pair very well. It also didn’t help that I’d really already had my fill of cheese just a couple hours earlier.

Anyway, as for the movie itself, it was hard not to think about Inception, what with Reminiscence also having a mind-bending premise, a beachside overrun-by-waves urban setting, and characters waking up from a dream state in water. Not to mention that it’s the directorial debut of Lisa Joy, who’s married to Chris Nolan’s brother Jonathan and is probably most famous for her work alongside her husband on Westworld. Also, Reminiscence star Hugh Jackman played a similarly obsessive protagonist in the Nolan-directed The Prestige.

But ultimately my biggest takeaway is that I wish that Angela Sarafyan had played the femme fatale lead instead of Rebecca Ferguson. That’s nothing against Ferguson (whom I generally enjoy!), it’s just praise for Sarafyan. She’s ready to be a star, so I say this to the people who are in a position to give her a starring role: let’s make it happen!

Grade: Could’ve Been Wetter

How Does Rebecca Hall Handle the Confounding Scares of ‘The Night House’? Let’s Find Out

August 19, 2021

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The Night House (CREDIT: Searchlight Pictures)

Starring: Rebecca Hall, Sarah Goldberg, Evan Jonigkeit, Vondie Curtis Hall, Stacy Martin

Director: David Bruckner

Running Time: 107 Minutes

Rating: R for Creepy Sequences and Salty Language

Release Date: August 20, 2021 (Theaters)

Can we ever really know the people closest to us as well as we think we do? Not when there’s a demonic possession lurking around your home! (Which is what I think The Night House is saying.) Rebecca Hall plays Beth, a high school teacher who lives on her own in a lake house now that her seemingly well-adjusted husband Owen (Evan Jonigkeit) has killed himself. And honestly? That’s some spot-on casting. Hall excels at doing her damnedest to remain mentally put-together while suddenly becoming beset by all-consuming skepticism. We can believe that she will never give up on the search for the truth but also that she is too flummoxed to ever see it clearly. It’s a purposely erratic approach that might be too maddening for some audiences, but for my money, Hall holds it all together sufficiently, and director David Bruckner has plenty to offer in the creeps department.

For most of its running time, The Night House appears to be hurtling headlong towards a clear explanation for all the strange goings-on. Why does Owen shoot himself in the head? What’s the meaning of the enigmatic note he left behind? When Beth is dreaming, what’s the deal with the alternate dimension she seems to be entering and its attendant mirror image house? And what about that mysterious woman (or women?) Owen was surreptitiously hanging out with who looks just like Beth? Is this some sort of Vertigo situation? The best I can figure is that Owen has fallen prey to some sort of evil supernatural entity that is now threatening Beth’s life. But I’m not entirely sure if that’s correct. That vagueness can be frustrating for some, but I appreciate it to a certain extent, because it means that this is nowhere near your standard devil-made-me-do-it story.

The easiest metaphorical read is that Beth is a victim of all-consuming depression, but her situation resists easy interpretation. She offhandedly mentions past mental health struggles without going into too much detail, and while she seems distressed now, she doesn’t come off as particularly depressed. More like obsessed, which is certainly understandable in light of her husband’s suicide. Ultimately, The Night House is writing its own new language of psychological anguish, in which Beth’s waking hours lose all their stability, while her subconscious is beset by a creatively disruptive force. It ends exactly where it needs to without having to definitively clear up the mystery.

The Night House is Recommended If You Like: Vertigo, Insidious, possibly The One I Love? (I haven’t seen it, but the premise seems to have some similarities)

Grade: 3.5 out of 5 Nightmares

‘CODA’ Had Me Singing and Signing My Cheers

August 19, 2021

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Starring: Emilia Jones, Eugenio Derbez, Marlee Matlin, Troy Kotsur, Daniel Durant, Ferdia Walsh-Peelo, Amy Forsyth

Director: Sian Heder

Running Time: 111 Minutes

Rating: PG-13

Release Date: August 13, 2021 (Theaters and Apple TV+)

For pretty much the entirety of watching CODA, I found myself wondering, “When is she going to start signing while singing?” Ruby Rossi is the only hearing member of her family, and her particular passion unfortunately leaves out her parents and older brother in its most typical form. She’s a singer, and when she tells her mom Jackie that she’d like to make singing more than just a hobby, Jackie parries back by asking, if she were blind, would Ruby become a painter? To which I thought: there are ways to work around that! Let the blind person listen to the brushstrokes, describe the painting in words, etc. And as for singing to a deaf person … use sign language while singing! Ruby has been using ASL all her life while serving as her family’s translator, so why not incorporate those arm and hand movements into her performances as well? It will add passion, something she desperately needs. (SPOILER ALERT: She does sign while singing eventually. I was pleased.)

Grade: All the Letters in the ASL Alphabet

Mythological Animals Are on Loving Display in the Vibrantly Animated ‘Cryptozoo’

August 18, 2021

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Cryptozoo (CREDIT: Magnolia Pictures)

Starring: Lake Bell, Zoe Kazan, Michael Cera, Louisa Krause, Peter Stormare, Thomas Jay Ryan, Grace Zabriskie, Angeliki Papoulia

Director: Dash Shaw

Running Time: 95 Minutes

Rating: Unrated (It would probably be R for Animated Blood and Nudity)

Release Date: August 20, 2021 (Theaters and On Demand)

It’s been a while since I’ve seen something as hypnotic as Cryptozoo. With its psychedelic animation and entrancing music, it sucks you right into its world of fantastical creatures and then keeps your attention fully in its grasp. “Cryptozoo” is a title that caught my fancy; perhaps it has now caught yours as well! Not that many movie titles have z’s in them. Maybe you look at “cryptozoo” and know exactly what it means right way, or maybe you’re a little confused, but intrigued. Or maybe it sounds too weird to you and you’ve already checked out. If I’ve still got your attention, here’s the deal: this is a world in which “cryptids” (i.e., mythological animals) live alongside humans and other non-cryptid animals. There are unicorns, gorgons, and even people with their faces on their torsos. As so often goes in these types of stories, their existence is continually threatened by the non-cryptid population that isn’t terribly keen on integration.

And so the story focuses on Lauren Grey (Lake Bell, in a role it feels like she was born to play), who is devoted to finding a safe place for cryptids in society. So she opens up a cryptozoo. (That title does not lie.) But is a zoo the best place for these creatures? Is it instead more of a “Cryptid Prison”? These are the conversations that Lauren has with other characters to make the thematic underpinnings unavoidably clear. Most cryptids just want to live their lives and get by without anybody bothering them. That’s Lauren’s goal as well, but she’s perhaps a little too trusting of the cryptozoo’s ability to achieve that mission. That can happen sometimes with idealists: distrust the current authority, place a little too much faith in the new institution. Eventually a series of scuffles break out, and the second half of this movie makes it abundantly clear that this realm is still quite a ways away from peace.

Cryptozoo is at its strongest when it allows us to just bask in the wonders of its deeply imaginative world. If the entire movie were just characters walking and talking and debating while various cryptids frolicked in the background, then I would be a happy customer. That is the vibe we get for the first half hour or so. It all kicks off with a prologue in which a horny couple has an unfortunate encounter with a unicorn, which isn’t literally the walking and talking that I’ve just described, but it does offer the same world-building energy. Then right after the prologue we do get plenty of those conversation sequences. But on the other hand, the battle scenes, while just as detailed in their animation, don’t quite have the same soul-enriching oomph. But on the whole, this is visionary animated cinema that is well worth checking out.

Cryptozoo is Recommended If You Like: Cool World, Heavy Metal, X-Men

Grade: 3.5 out of 5 Cryptids

Baby, Baby, Baby, ‘Annette’ is Absolutely Unforgettable

August 16, 2021

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Annette (CREDIT: Amazon Studios)

Starring: Adam Driver, Marion Cotillard, Simon Helberg, Devyn McDowell

Director: Leos Carax

Running Time: 139 Minutes

Rating: R for Language and Very Intimate Bedroom Scenes

Release Date: August 6, 2021 (Theaters)/August 20, 2021 (Amazon Prime Video)

Sometimes I come up with an idea about how I’d like to write my movie reviews, and then in the interest of frankness and openness, I decide to share that thought process with my readers. So while watching the Leos Carax-directed musical Annette, I decided that I wanted my review to feel like a conversation I’m having with my fellow movie lovers. It just felt right given the movie’s energy.

So now that I have your attention and we’re having a conversation: you know Ron and Russell Mael, the brotherly duo behind the influential long-running rock band Sparks? There’s a good chance you’ve heard about them recently, considering that there was a whole documentary about them that came out a couple months ago. Perhaps you even read my review of it. Well now they’ve gone ahead and written the screenplay for an entire musical movie, including all the original songs. Their co-screenwriter (also the director) is a French fellow who’s probably best known to American audiences for Holy Motors, a kooky flick about some guy getting up to all sorts of shenanigans in Paris. This is a teamup that has resulted in plenty of sparks.

Annette is a love story! The central couple are a stand-up comedian named Henry played by American actor Adam Driver and an opera singer named Ann played by French actress Marion Cotillard. Annette is their daughter. (I’ll have more to say about her later.) If you want to know what type of comedian Henry is, I would say that he’s an observational comic in the Seinfeldian mode but with a Zach Galifianakis-style deconstructionist sensibility, with some Marc Maron-esque misanthropy for good measure, along with the hostility of Andy Kaufman at his most dangerous. It’s also worth noting that his pre-show routine includes chain smoking and eating a banana and that he performs in little more than a green bathrobe. As for what type of opera singer Ann is, I’m not sure what to say, because I don’t know the intricacies of opera as much as I know stand-up!

So back to that daughter, who arrives about a third of the way through (after some very passionate lovemaking). She gets a lot of screentime, but you don’t need to worry about child labor laws, because for the most part she’s played by a wooden puppet (until Devyn McDowell takes over at the very end). Now, you may be thinking, “A pu-, a puppet?” There’s no way to be fully prepared for that reveal! At the beginning of the film, it feels like we’re in for a totally rockin’ good time, with an absolute banger of an opening number setting the pace. And for the most part, that is indeed what we get. But as it goes along, Annette only gets stranger and more challenging and generally harder to embrace. We learn some unsavory details about Henry’s past, we start to see him become more combative on stage and in his personal life, and then he and Ann get on a boat and head out to sea, both literally and metaphorically. And I should also mention that most of the second half of the movie is dedicated to Annette’s super successful pop music career, during which time we are continually reminded that she is a baby and that she is played by a puppet. So if you’re not sure you can handle that, I’m sure you’ll appreciate being informed ahead of time.

I’m not sure I’m into every wacky development in Annette, but I have to applaud its unwavering ambition. Although “ambition” perhaps isn’t the right word here. Something like “singularity” or “uncompromisingness” might be a better descriptor. We all have different palates; some of you will have the right cinematic taste buds to handle all this, while others, not so much. I was guaranteed to have a good time thanks to that Sparks soundtrack, even if not everything else hit the spot quite right. But overall, my palate is now richer and my life is now fuller.

Annette is Recommended If You Like: Rock operas, the dancing baby from Ally McBeal, the prop baby from American Sniper

Grade: 4 out of 5 Showbizz News

I Saw ‘Free Guy’ and Then ‘Don’t Breathe 2’ Immediately Afterwards: Here’s What Happened

August 15, 2021

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CREDIT: Sony Pictures; 20th Century Studios/Screenshots

Free Guy:

Starring: Ryan Reynolds, Jodie Comer, Joe Keery, Utkarsh Ambudkar, Lil Rel Howery, Taika Waititi, Channing Tatum

Director: Shawn Levy

Running Time: 115 Minutes

Rating: PG-13

Release Date: August 13, 2021 (Theaters)

Don’t Breathe 2:

Starring: Stephen Lang, Madelyn Grace, Brendan Sexton III

Director: Rodo Sayagues

Running Time: 98 Minutes

Rating: R

Release Date: August 13, 2021 (Theaters)

In Free Guy, good vibes beget more good vibes. When Guy the NPC gains self-awareness, he focuses on self-improvement, and that leads to all the other NPCs in Free City becoming better versions of themselves, and even some of the real people playing the game start to adopt a more positive view of the world. As it turns out, that tendency was in Guy’s programming all along. He’s got a fantastically complicated algorithm that allows for so many wondrous possibilities. It’s infectious, even for a Ryan Reynolds skeptic like me.

Contrast that with Don’t Breathe 2, in which hate begets more hate. The first Don’t Breathe effectively toyed with our sympathies regarding Stephen Lang’s blind Norman; the sequel tries to do the same, but his negative characteristics are a bit too overwhelming to fully root for him. (Also, his blindness isn’t utilized to the same thrilling effect.) Furthermore, the people who target him this time around have a sympathetic reason for doing so, but basically every action they take in the name of their mission is pretty despicable. At least the young girl isn’t similarly hate-filled – there’s no Bad Seed vibes here. But otherwise, the blood and the pain just pile up and pile up.

GRADES:
Free Guy: 4 out of 5 Skins
Don’t Breathe 2: 2 out of 5 Light Switches

How Much and in What Ways Does ‘Respect’ Respect Aretha Franklin? Let’s Find Out!

August 8, 2021

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Respect (CREDIT: Quantrell D. Colbert/Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures)

Starring: Jennifer Hudson, Forest Whitaker, Marlon Wayans, Marc Maron, Audra McDonald, Tituss Burgess, Saycon Sengbloh, Hailey Kilgore, Tate Donovan, Mary J. Blige, Gilbert Glenn Brown, Skye Dakota Turner

Director: Liesl Tommy

Running Time: 145 Minutes

Rating: PG-13 for Abusive Relationships and Racial Tension

Release Date: August 13, 2021 (Theaters)

Aretha Franklin biopic Respect keeps harping on the idea that the Queen of Soul didn’t start having hits until she focused on her own original efforts, and I kind of wish the movie had taken its own advice. Now, it obviously couldn’t be a completely thorough original. It is a biopic, after all. But Jennifer Hudson is talented enough to make me think that this movie isn’t really going to sing until she’s allowed to break free and offer her own unique interpretation. The most rousing moment of the whole film comes during the end credits when we get to see the real Aretha bring the house down at the 2015 Kennedy Center Honors with a rendition of “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman.” (President Obama was having a GREAT time.) To be fair, Hudson and the makers of Respect are more interested in exploring the behind-the-scenes of Franklin’s story, but it is telling that they never quite achieve something as triumphant as the real deal.

The challenge of so many music biopics is combining idiosyncrasy with reverence. Those two impulses don’t really mix, and oftentimes biopic makers are much more interested in the latter than the former anyway. The title of Respect indicates that that’s very much the case here. That’s especially clear in one scene when Aretha attempts to perform a song by family friend Dinah Washington (an intensely regal Mary J. Blige) while Dinah is in attendance. It absolutely does not go so well, thanks to Dinah’s insistence that you don’t play the Queen in front of the Queen. That deference marks the entire movie. Within that boundary, Hudson is able to successfully explore Franklin’s trauma and resilience, but she doesn’t have room to leave her own inimitable signature.

I found the portrayals of the main men in Aretha’s life much more compelling, perhaps because their public personas are much less set in stone and thus the actors don’t have to feel beholden to icons. I’m talking Forest Whitaker as her iron-willed minister father C.L., Marlon Wayans as her controlling and abusive manager-slash-husband Ted White, and Marc Maron as Jerry Wexler, the producer who’s actually committed to letting Aretha be Aretha. Respect gives us a full picture of all the big, often controlling personalities in Aretha’s life, and so it works in painting that picture and in that way it fulfills the promise of its title. If you’re in the mood for that sort of contextualization, you might be satisfied, but don’t expect the house to be brought down the way that Aretha so often did.

Respect is Recommended If You Like: Behind the Music, Deferential covers

Grade: 2.5 out of 5 Chains of Fools

‘The Suicide Squad’ is Silly, Violent, Imaginative, and Easy Enough to Follow

August 4, 2021

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The Suicide Squad (CREDIT: Warner Bros./Screenshot)

Starring: Idris Elba, Margot Robbie, Viola Davis, John Cena, Joel Kinnaman, Sylvester Stallone, Jai Courtney, Peter Capaldi, David Dastmalchian, Daniela Melchior, Michael Rooker, Alice Braga, Pete Davidson, Nathan Fillion, Sean Gunn, Flula Borg, Steve Agee, Storm Reid, Taika Waititi

Director: James Gunn

Running Time: 132 Minutes

Rating: R for Various Body Parts Getting Torn Apart, a Full Roster of Potty Mouths, and a Little Bit of Nudity

Release Date: August 5, 2021 (Theaters and HBO Max)

The Suicide Squad feels like it came from another dimension. It shares a few characters with 2016’s (no “the”) Suicide Squad and has essentially the same premise. It’s ostensibly a sequel to that earlier effort, but it’s effectively a do-over. There are plenty of reboots every year at the multiplex, but rarely do we have such an unabashed mulligan. The multiverse theory posits that there is an infinite number of realities with any number of minor or major variations, and it seems that we’ve somehow been visited by the one in which James Gunn directed a Suicide Squad movie instead of David Ayer. Adding to this surreal state of affairs was the fact that I was in a bit of a fugue state while watching The Suicide Squad. It was a 10:00 AM screening, my first morning trip to a movie theater post-pandemic. My body was confused by the lack of sunlight at the early hour and thus my brain was unsure if it should be waking or dreaming. Either way, heads were always fated to explode.

The Suicide Squad takes a cue from Suicide Squad by having multiple beginnings, but this time it’s a cheeky bit of purposeful misdirection instead of stinky studio manipulation. Suicide squads are famously expendable, and it turns out that there are degrees of expendability, as one squad is introduced with plenty of fanfare only to serve as a diversion. Everyone involved clearly wanted to feature as many characters as possible to essentially say, “Can you believe all of the colorful ridiculousness that has actually appeared in DC Comics?” The team that we spend most of our time with consists of the ever-popular Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie), a couple of sharpshooters (Idris Elba, John Cena), a queen of rodents (Daniela Melchior), and a guy who shoots polka dots out of his mouth (David Dastmalchian). They’re sent to the fictional South American island nation of Corto Maltese for some top secret political meddling, but a date with the fantastical awaits them.

I wasn’t prepared for the Big Bad in The Suicide Squad to be a giant starfish, but that is indeed what awaited me. And quite frankly, I’m glad that that’s what we got. I can take or leave the gleeful over-the-top violence; it’s good for a few laughs, but after a couple of hours, I’m exhausted by the fact that I’m not really meant to care about any of these characters (although a few do manage to find a small place in my heart). So I’m grateful that there’s a surplus of visual imagination to appreciate. Way too many extraterrestrial cinematic CGI creatures of the past 15 years or so are some variation on big bad bugs, so a massive starfish that squirts out hundreds of smaller starfish is a relief. I’d be happy to see Starro rolling around every future corner of the big-screen DC universe, whether or not the reject crew is around.

So in conclusion, if you like kooky superpowers at their absolute kookiest and rats getting their time in the spotlight, you’ll probably have a decent time with the Suicide Squad.

The Suicide Squad is Recommended If You Like: The trailers for 2016’s Suicide Squad, bodily mutilation played for laughs, Mouse Hunt

Grade: 3 out of 5 Rats

Wow, ‘The Green Knight’ Sure Might Knock Your Head Loose

July 28, 2021

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The Green Knight (CREDIT: Eric Zachanowich/A24)

Starring: Dev Patel, Alicia Vikander, Joel Edgerton, Sarita Choudhury, Sean Harris, Kate Dickie, Barry Keoghan, Ralph Ineson, Erin Kellyman

Director: David Lowery

Running Time: 130 Minutes

Rating: R for Violence and a Little Bit of Sex Within a Fantastical Swirl

Release Date: July 30, 2021 (Theaters)

My experience of watching The Green Knight was just moment after moment that had me going, “I was not expecting THAT.” It starts off pretty quickly that way: Sir Gawain (Dev Patel) beheads the Green Knight (Ralph Ineson), but the Green Knight keeps right on talking. I don’t know what I was expecting, but it wasn’t that. If you’re familiar with the source material, this inciting incident won’t be surprising at all, but for the rest of us, it won’t exactly feel telegraphed. Then there’s the fact that this tale takes place around Christmas, which certainly surprised me as well. Although perhaps it shouldn’t have, considering that “green” is in the title and much of the poster is bright red. But other than that, this movie doesn’t feel very Christmas-y. Though I suppose that centuries ago the holiday was celebrated differently. (“Why not have a release date in December instead of July?,” I wonder out loud.)

The poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight sits at a weird place in terms of cultural recognizability. It’s part of Arthurian legend, which is among the most enduringly popular mythologies in the English language. But this particular tale isn’t typically told in the most well-known adaptations. If you’re a fan of the likes of Camelot, The Sword in the Stone, or Monty Python and the Holy Grail, you might be familiar with the name “Gawain,” but his encounter with a tricky tree-man hybrid could be totally undiscovered. It’s a trip to first encounter it via David Lowery’s highly stylized and uncompromising vision.

I’m willing to bet my sword that anyone who has read Sir Gawain and the Green Knight before seeing this movie also found themselves saying multiple times, “I was not expecting THAT.” (But they would have been saying it while reading.) There’s no way in Camelot that Lowery can take all the credit for every fantastical twist of gamesmanship and illogic. What is the Green Knight’s deal anyway? When he gets beheaded, he insists that Gawain must come find him one year hence to meet a similar fate. Is this a test of honor, and if so, how? I was not expecting that much confusion.

But it kept coming! Was Alicia Vikander playing two different characters? She must have been, as her personalities were so vastly different. I was not expecting such vagueness with her identity. Nor was I expecting an up-close shot of a very intimate moment. The mature themes and capriciousness in a medieval fantasy aren’t surprises in and of themselves, but their presentation in this version were a lot more surreal than I was prepared for. I’m still processing what I’ve witnessed, and I’m not sure that process will ever be complete, but I appreciate the singularity of the vision.

The Green Knight is Recommended If You Like: Embracing the weirdest and most inscrutable elements of mythology

Grade: 3.5 out of 5 Beheadings

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