The latest film releases include The Exorcist: Believer, Cat Person, The Royal Hotel, and Dicks: The Musical. Weighing in are Tim Grierson, senior U.S. critic for Screen Daily, and Allison Willmore, film critic at New York Magazine and Vulture.
The Exorcist: Believer
Leslie Odom Jr. plays a father who mysteriously loses his young daughter when she wanders off into the woods with a school friend. They both return days later, possibly with something sinister. Directed by David Gordon Green, the film is the first in a planned trilogy.
Grierson: “[Green] is trying to create more of a realistic, gimmick-free version of the original Exorcist, and you have two young girls who are possessed this time. … The first half of this movie, I liked what David Gordon Green was trying to do. He's going for a slow burn, stripped-down, realistic, exorcism movie, kind of what William Friedkin was trying to do with a 1973 original. It's well-acted. … My problem is that eventually as the gears start to turn … you realize that we've had 50 years of exorcism films, not just all The Exorcist sequels and prequels, but so many other movies that have worked in this mode. And it's hard for this movie to do anything that is that original or that interesting.”
Willmore: “Even for audiences that are so hungry for horror, it's hard for me to see how this is gonna work out well for Universal. This film is just not very scary. … There's only so much you can do before you end up in the room with the possessed, and it's tricky to make an exorcism frightening. And I don't think that David Gordon Green really pulls that off.”
Cat Person
Based on an article from The New Yorker magazine of the same name, this explores the story of Margot, a college sophomore working at a local movie theater. She soon meets and begins dating Robert, a mysterious older man, who may be a murderer. The psychological thriller stars Emilia Jones and Nicholas Braun.
Willmore: “The filmmakers decided that in adapting it to film, they were going to try and turn it into a thriller, without really changing most of the major beats, at least until the ending. This movie is a fascinating disaster. … It keeps going past where the short story ends into a very dramatic conclusion that my jaw was agape. I could not believe that was a choice that they decided to make.”
Grierson: “The short story is definitely better than the film. I've been defending this movie slightly since Sundance when it premiered. So I will do my best to defend it again. The ending is not good. … The thing, though, that I liked about the film and thought made it ultimately work, despite several missteps along the way, is I think Amelia Jones and Nicholas Braun are quite good as this possible couple.
… The movie opens with the famous Margaret Atwood quote about [how] men are afraid that women are going to make fun of them, and women are afraid that men are going to kill them. And that's essentially the thesis that the movie follows. And so while it is, in some ways, a thriller, it's also a movie about what's going on inside Margot's head. … She thinks that this Robert guy — played by Nicholas Braun — he seems sweet. He seems harmless. They start to hang out. They start to text. He seems okay. But there's so many signals in the culture where you can’t trust guys, [and] you got to be careful around guys. ”
The Royal Hotel
When two American backpackers run out of money in the Australian Outback, they become barmaids at an eerie and disturbing remote pub. Inspired by the 2016 documentary Hotel Coolgardie, the film stars Julia Garner and Jessica Henwick.
Willmore: “I think one thing that this film does so well [is] show all of the little calibrations that these characters constantly have to make … the adjustments they are making in their head to be friendly, look friendly to men … but also … keep them at a distance … that they don't get the wrong idea.”
Grierson: “I think this film is really sharp, really smart. Both of those performances are really good. Hugo Weaving [plays] the guy who's very permissive, who runs the bar and tells them not to worry so much. He's also very good at being just a horrible, loathsome human being.”
Dicks: The Musical
Directed by Larry Charles and starring Nathan Lane, Megan Mulally, Megan Thee Stallion, and Bowen Yang, the narrative follows two long lost twin brothers who switch places to convince their divorced parents to reunite as a family. It’s based on the musical comedy Fucking Identical Twins.
Willmore: “This is a movie that thrives on chaos. … In addition to the song and dance, you have Sharpe and Jackson who are two gay men … playing these caricatures of hetero alpha males, these suit-wearing, women-chasing, line-cutting jerks. Nathan Lane and Megan Mullally are doing incredibly weird characters.”
Grierson: “This movie was only about 85 minutes long and the first half is such a blast. It's so funny. … I think the musical, the songs are better … in the first half. The whole thing is just better in the first half. Like Alison [Willmore], I think it runs out of gas before the ending.”