Cinema Visit of 2024 - #29
Today was National Cinema Day and like last year i took advantage of the bargain. This year its £1 more expensive but that's still pretty good compared to the normal price of a ticket. My options were more limited this year than in 2023. Most of the films I have already seen and there are a few kids films that would have been weird to see on my own. To be honest, the trailer seemed quite interesting and there was another reason for wanting to see this and that is my parents went to see this earlier in the week and walked out so I wanted to see whether it was worth walking out of.
The set up of the film is that Frida (Naomi Ackie) is invited to an island owned by Slater King (Channing Tatum) who a tech billionaire who has been ‘cancelled’ and is trying to improve himself. As the film progresses strange things start to happen.
GOOD POINTS
Central Performances
The performances from Channing Tatum and Naomi Ackie are really good. I thought that Ackie in particular was very good as Frida who manages to carry my interest when things went a bit slow. This is the third film I have seen with Channing Tatum in 2024 (Fly Me to the Moon and Deadpool & Wolverine) and this is a very different but equally as impressive. Seeing a manipulative Channing Tatum is fun to see in a strange way.
Supporting Performances
Christian Slater seems like he is having the time of his life playing Vic. I must admit I didn’t stop laughing when he was laying down on the sofa after having his head bashed in. I would like to have seen more of Kyle MacLachlan in the film but he was fun for the brief time he was in. Haley Joel Osment seems to have agreed to do it so he could lounge around the pool and he is having fun doing it. Not sure why Geena Davis agreed to do this but I’m glad she did because its always fun to see her in a film and most of the time she’s in the background and doesn’t really add anything to the plot but I still liked her performance.
Soundtrack
There are some really good songs that are used in this film and they aren’t the sort that I would have expected when I saw the trailer. Given that they look like the sort of people that would appear on Love Island or some other reality trash, the soundtrack was surprisingly normal. Sadly as of writing, there doesn't appear to be a soundtrack available.
Twist
This is the sort of film I would have expected from M. Night Shyamalan because it has a twist that comes very late in the film. The twist in this film is that everyone is taking drugs to forget what happens during the night. It became obvious quite early on that they weren't remembering somethings when Frida was seeing dirt under her fingernails. I think they waited too long to show the flashbacks but when they did appear it was welcome.
A Good Directing Debut
Zoe Kravitz makes her directing debut with this film and she does a good job (she also co-wrote the screenplay which was originally called Pussy Island). She makes good use of the island even though all we really see is the pool, the dining area and a couple of rooms in the house.
A good screenplay
The screenplay in general is rather good. Things are set up and paid off later on which sounds like a weird thing to put in the good section but is amazing how many films seem to find it hard to introduce things early in a film and have them payoff or mean something later on. The
BAD POINTS
Too many annoying/underutilised characters
Despite their being some good actors in this film. A lot of them are either annoying or don’t get used enough. Vic (Slater) doesn't do much apart from take polaroid's and that's about it. Levon Hawke (Ethan Hawke’s son) literally does nothing and it even gets mentioned by Slater. Some are given a lot of dialogue and screentime and I barely recognise them because they hadn't done anything until that point.
The bodyguard doesn't seem to serve much purpose apart from being in the shot every so often. There didn't seem to be an explanation as to why he was not getting in on the action or how he ended up their. He gets what he deserves at the end but he was given a lot of screen time for someone that didn’t have much impact on the plot
Way too long to get the point
The film is 102 minutes but about 45-50 of that is given to partying. The film follows a format. There is a load of partying and then something strange happens. So much focus is given to Jess’ cigarette lighter that it was clear that it was going to be part of the plot and it was. The film was probably about 15-20 minutes too long which is a shame because if it had been a little bit shorter then it would have worked much better. The women realise what is going on very quickly at the end of the film like they realised they were running out of time. I found it slightly distracting that there didn't seem to be anything that indicated why they would suddenly have seen the light. It felt like a scene had been cut.
Ending doesn't make sense
So the twist is that Frida has been on the island before and got her scar from hitting her head on a rock but I don’t get why Slater would run the risk of Frida remembering by letting her go back to the mainland. Also (unless I misunderstood), the drug that gets used to make Slater remember is in that bottle that was in Freida's room which seems a bit reckless. Also are we suppose to sympathise with Frida that she is the one in control over Slater who has seemingly had a personality change. She doesn't come across as a likeable person at the end and instead seems just as bad as Slater
Trigger Warning Not Needed
This was the first film that I have ever seen with a trigger warning. It uses the line “While this is a fictionalised movie, it contains mature themes and depictions of violence - including sexual violence”. Now I personally think this makes people think that the film is going to contain more than one scene of women being treated appalling. Truth is that the trigger warning isn’t necessary and should really be left to sitcoms and dramas from the 1960’s of 70’s not something made in 2024. There are some pro-feminist scenes which do feel a little bit forced and seem to have been put in there to show that this is a film about female empowerment.
OVERALL
I am not surprised that my parents walked out because the film spends too long to get to the main point of the film but I still thought that it was a good film. It has some problems but its a good debut from Zoë Kravitz as director and has an interesting idea but with a more experience screenwriter or producer, the film would have tightened the film up and this would be a highly impressive film. Hopefully this leads to more films from Kravitz in the directors chair.
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