Grant continues his late career renaissance and gives an award worthy performance here, filled with his normal charm but corrupted, he's loquacious, petulant, frightening and absolutely captivating. He's able to really give some depth, nuance, and delight to this villain which in a normal genre piece doesn't necessarily get this kind of dimension. Both Thatcher and East also give great performances and have incredible chemistry primarily with each other but also as a unit in opposition to Grant. Thatcher brings a bit more edge and defiance, East brings more vulnerability and endurance together they just work great. Topher Grace pops up in a cameo but other than that the supporting cast is virtually nil.
Clearly shot on a budget(but not detracting from its effectiveness) almost exclusively in one location the film feels immersive, claustrophobic, and all the set dressing helps to evoke a kind of pan-religiousness as well as the house itself being labyrinthian furthering the themes. The sound design does in inordinate amount of work in ratcheting the tension(in a good way), its used a lot and in various subtle ways to elevate the mood, its nice to see this arm of the production which is usually under utilized get a fair amount of runway. There's also a focus on analogue tech(record and tape players, timers, keys etc.) which give this guy and this house texture.
The script is ambitious and complicated, thick with irony, metaphor, and commentary. The script and performances work in tandem for about the first half slowly and surely ratcheting up the tension and danger and tackling various ideas in a compelling way. It loses its footing in the back end, the script dipping below the quality of the performances, struggling to land the plane and kind of abandoning some of its richer ideas. Nevertheless its an ambitious, interesting piece of cinema.
Three great leads, a stupendous beginning leading to only a satisfactory end.
Currently in theaters.
See It.
Venom: The Last Dance is a superhero/buddy comedy, the third and final installment in the Tom Hardy helmed series started with 2018's Venom. Eddie Brock(Hardy) is on the run from the law after the events of Venom: Let There Be Carnage only to be attacked by multi-dimensional monsters at the behest of the symbiotes creator Knull. Eddie also crosses paths with the Imperium the alien-focused branch of the government/military.
Hardy is as compelling and funny as ever, taking his performance even further turning what has heretofore been a kind of a double act, he and Venom(who he also voices), into almost a straight up love story. Its gonzo and effective. The supporting cast don't have a ton to do but its great to see Chiwetel Ejiofor, Juno Temple, and Rhys Ifans although Temple and Ifans have some pretty bizarre American accents. Overall a solid cast if a noticeable glut of Brits. The best of course is the return of Peggy Lu as Mrs. Chen who makes a brief appearance for a wonderful dance sequence.
Filmed in Spain it doesn't really look like the American southwest but it looks good. There are a fair amount of needle drops which are cool but don't totally make sense tonally. The CGI is used sparingly until the final battle and it works well.
This has always been an odd series, not quite sure what it wants to be, conventional superhero fair or an inversion of it. At least tonally this hits closer to home, it is exceedingly odd, which it seems to have been trying to be all along. But its not really able to go fully off the leash and not only here but throughout the series has never been able to meet its potential.
Pleasingly bizarre and surprisingly heartfelt if constrained by convention.
Currently in theaters, coming soon to VOD.
Rent It.
