Red One - Review: One of the Most Formulaic Lumps of Coal You've Ever Seen

 

The bells of Christmas are beginning to ring again, and with that comes another Christmas movie hitting theatres across the globe. This year’s offering isn’t an animated musical, a Dr. Seuss retelling, or a childlike piece of nostalgia. Jake Kasdan (“Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle,” “Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story”) has instead brought us this year’s Christmas adventure in the form of a big, corporatized, buff Santa Claus, a highly skilled protection group called E.L.F., hacking, kidnapping, Christmas witches, Krampuses, and giant murderous snow men. This is “Red One.” 

The film follows Jack O’Malley, played by Chris Evans (“Knives Out,” “Captain America: The Winter Soldier”), a skilled dark web hacker who is forced to help M.O.R.A. (Mythological Oversight and Restoration Authority) director Zoe Harlow, played by Lucy Liu (“Charlie’s Angels (2000),” “Kung Fu Panda”), after Santa Claus, played by J.K. Simmons (“Whiplash,” “Juno”), is kidnapped from the North Pole. He’s then forced to team up with Callum Drift, played by Dwayne Johnson (“Black Adam,” “Moana”), to track down and save Santa from the Christmas witch Grýla, played by Kiernan Shipka (“Mad Men,” “The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina”). 

To the credit of Kasdan and writers Chris Morgan (“Wanted,” “Furious 7”) and Hiram Garcia, there’s clearly a lot of effort that’s gone into crafting this new interpretation of Santa Claus and various other holiday fables. Having them all exist at the same time, in the same world, sequestered from each other is a novel idea, and the film is at its best when it's blending those ideas together. Unfortunately, the plot they’re blended within is a pretty generic action movie that fails to inspire the slightest bit of wonder. 

Johnson feels woefully miscast here, but not for the reasons you’d assume. Yes, he does fit this version of the character fine enough, but the film itself feels as though it needs a different version of this character. He plays everything so seriously, when a film about the kidnapping of Santa Claus just feels sapped of any fun when you play it this straight. Evans is hamming it up, playing a more backseat role to the action lead of Johnson, and his quips and comments feel fine enough half the time and lazy the rest. Simmons is sleepwalking through a role like this, coasting off his charms and then literally just disappearing for 85% of the film. Liu and Shipka aren’t terrible, but they fail to make any kind of impact whatsoever. 

Despite a massive 250-million-dollar budget, so many of the film’s numerous effects heavy sequences come across as unfinished. Some green screen bits look downright amateurish, and an early chase sequence in the North Pole just looks like Johnson was overlayed into a video game cutscene. There are moments that shine, a sequence in Krampus’s house, full of practically crafted creature suits and faces inside of a practically built and lit castle looks absolutely fantastic and is by far the best part of the film. It also makes the later moments, like when that practically designed Krampus faces off against a completely digital creature look even worse than they already do. 

It would be one thing if the film didn’t look the best or had some superfluous characters. But for a film that’s aiming to be about Christmas, the spirit of the season, and the sense of childlike whimsy inspired by Santa to come across this soullessly is a massive problem. There are multiple times where things happen that border on absolute absurdity, and yet the film takes it all with a completely straight face. It begs for some lightness, to stop taking itself so seriously. Watching Johnson turn a rubber chicken alive, talk to it directly, and toss it out to some fierce-some hounds with a deadpan look and not a single joke cracked about it, just feels so disconnected from reality. It’s the sort of film that does inspire laughter, but laughing at it, not with it. 

“Red One” is certainly packed with plenty of fluff and stuff for the holidays, but it fails to inspire anything other than fleeting amusement, often times at its own self-serious expense rather than because of any genuine entertainment. Yes, it is technically an original film, but it's clearly made as a franchise kickoff first, and genuine piece of singular entertainment second. Evans is fine, Johnson is fine, the effects are mostly fine, and the tale is inoffensive if not memorable in the slightest. It has all the candy-colored coating of a freshly wrapped Christmas gift, it looks like something fun, and yet unwrapping it just reveals a hollow cardboard box. Plain, uninspired, and lacking in the most important thing for an adventure like this: fun and whimsy. 2/5

Heretic - Review: The Talking Man's Horror Movie

 

There’s nothing scarier than someone aware of themselves. Writer/director duo Bryan Woods (“A Quiet Place,” “65”) and Scott Beck (“A Quiet Place,” “65”) know this, clearly, which is why a film like “Heretic” exists. It’s difficult, if not impossible, to be menacing in this kind of way without being absolutely in control of everything going on, and it takes a skilled and smart person to even attempt to craft a puzzle box as devious as this one. Let’s just hope the solution to said puzzle box is actually a satisfying one. 

The film follows Sister Barnes and Sister Paxton, played by Sophie Thatcher (“Yellowjackets,” “The Boogeyman”) and Chloe East (“The Fablemans,” “Genera+ion”) respectively, two Mormon missionaries who travel to the house of Mr. Reed, played by Hugh Grant (“Love Actually,” “Paddington 2”), after he requests more information about their faith. Shortly after being invited inside, they learn that he’s been lying to them about things like the presence of his wife, a pie baking, and his lack of knowledge about religion. He instead has trapped them inside in order to test his own theories on religion and faith, using them as test subjects. 

It cannot be stated enough that, in a world full of overly violent and gory slashers, the fact that Beck and Woods are so committed to slowing the pace of this terrifying tale is a testament ot their vision. It really does work too, successfully crafting a thick sense of dread the permeates through the entire film. Doubly so when it becomes apparent just how much of the film is just dialogue; just Sister Barnes and Paxton talking and listening to Reed’s somewhat demented ramblings. 

Grant’s performance makes the film what it is, as he is essentially the central and most interesting character. His is a role that’s constantly changing and unfolding, a puzzle box of a person just as much as his scheme is. There’s a fascination that bleeds through, he’s less of a horror villain and much closer to just being an antagonist, and it further deepens the film’s ideas. Thatcher and East are perfect together, selling a sisterly bond that cements the film’s emotional throughline.  

Reed’s house is a feat of production design as well, built and filled out like a magnificent kind of mystery abode. There are subsequently too many details and yet not enough, working as a place that seems borderline cartoonish in its construction and yet also terrifyingly real. It’s all shot with plenty of gruesome closeups and details by cinematographer Chung Chung-hoon (“Oldboy (2003),” “IT (2017)”). Yet there are just as many deliberately paced long sweeping shots that create a sense of dread even as they’re clearly meant to just showcase the environment.  

However, as fascinating as “Heretic” is, there’s a stark change in the third act that finds the film drifting. It goes from being an interesting debate on religion and horror in general to a far more standard modern horror affair. It deflates much of the previously established tension and ends up ending in a far more generic way that the first 75% of the film would lead you to believe. It doesn’t even necessarily feel intentional either, almost as if Beck and Woods simply ran out of material or couldn’t think of a way to end things to line up with their previously established themes. 

“Heretic” is still a lot of fun, even if it falters in its last act. That last act still keeps the same fantastic production design, camera work, and performances from its central trio. It just ends up deflating the movie’s themes in favor of a more standardized horror film third act conclusion. It’s disappointing but doesn’t ruin the film as a whole. It just leaves you wanting more given how fantastic of a start it gets off to. 3.5/5 

A Real Pain - Review: A Family-iar Pain

 

Grief is a wild thing. It can impact so many people in such a variety of differing ways, and even those from the same family, reacting to the same source of grief at the same time, can twist that reaction in wildly different ways. Jesse Eisenberg (“The Social Network,” “Adventureland”) co-stars in a film he has written, directed about that very concept of grief to thunderously emotional, wryly funny, and sweetly effective results. It’s “A Real Pain.” 

The film stars Eisenberg as David Kaplan, a mid-30s Jewish man who goes on a Holocaust tour through Poland with his cousin Benji, played by Kieran Culkin (“Succession,” “Scott Pilgrim vs. The World”), after the death of their grandmother. Throughout the tour, the pair are forced to confront their relationship and emotional availability, as Benji’s loud, brash, overly honest and emotional nature clashes with David’s more reserved, contemplative, pragmatic life. 

Eisenberg and Culkin play wonderfully off each other, each delivering some of their best work in years. Eisenberg manages to perfectly balance his typical characteristics with a slightly bolder and outspoken nature when pushed by his cousin. Culkin meanwhile, is turning in career-best work, turning some difficult work balancing Benji’s legitimately enviable traits with his more outspoken, almost rude, behavior. Their relationship is the basis for the entire film and it's a consistently engrossing and engaging pair of performances. 

Eisenberg and cinematographer Michał Dymek (“EO,” “Wolf”) smartly avoid the more flamboyant look of travel films like this by not only zeroing everything back in on Benji and David, but by utilizing the cities and natural landscapes themselves. At parts, it almost feels like a documentary, or a film quite literally just made by two people. There’s an intimate nature required for these kinds of emotional discussions and revelations that is often attempted, but rarely does it succeed this much. 

Eisenberg’s script is full of awkward pauses and dialogue that sells the realistic nature of this tale from the very first moment. It has the kind of patter that creates a realistic environment and believable banter without feeling unprofessional or unpolished. Its realism filtered through a layer of professionalism to cut out the fat. Regardless though, the small cast all fling barbs and words back and forth with excellent form. Eisenberg and Culkin may be the biggest stars, but the rest of the small cast, consisting of the likes of Will Sharpe (“The White Lotus,” “Casuality”), Jennifer Grey (“Dirty Dancing,” “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off”), among others, is fantastic and nails the “average” vibe of those characters flawlessly. 

Most surprisingly, given this kind of uncomfortable familial love, the film maintains a constant search for answers without spelling things out by the end. Some might even find the ending disappointing, as it refuses to give a definitive statement on the events given and the “answers” one might be seeking through this journey of grief. It’s a remarkably strong note to end on, even given the uncertain nature of it all, and it makes a bigger and more substantial impact than a neat and nice resolution would. It makes a definitive statement by not making a definitive statement. 

“A Real Pain” has a title that serves two purposes and a tale that tries to explain that, with grief, there is no explanation. Eisenberg’s second directorial effort is a fantastically strong portrait of simple filmmaking techniques and fantastic performances. It's a wonderfully funny and quaint little tale, one that invites you in with these characters to experience some true pain. 5/5