I’ll Be Around is set against the backdrop of a post punk festival, filled with bands with names like Jentacular, The Motion Pictures and Attempted Choke.
Most of the band members are in their mid-thirties and considering the way their musical careers are going (standing still), other things start weighing heavily on their minds when they’re not screaming down a mike or writing another song. This is the story of those different groups, the fans and the legends that inspire them and how they all fit together.
Co-written and directed by Mike Cuenca, I’ll Be Around takes a lot of influence from other films that have mulled over a certain time in people’s lives while those people are still trying to figure it all out. A lot of Cuenca’s script speaks directly to the kinds of people who like the music, are still thinking over their own lives and even film fans who want to be reminded that films are not all laugh out loud, gross out comedies or action blockbusters.
I’ll Be Around is Scott Pilgrim meets Clerks with a Woody Allen aesthetic for Generation Y. Without speaking about the wider world around us, I’ll Be Around still speaks to its audience, offering up some experiences and feelings which mainly go unspoken and it will make you laugh out loud while doing it.
From crying in a public bathroom about the best years of your life being behind you to nervously babbling at someone you’re attracted to that you meet in a coffee shop; these are the kinds of things that the film tells its audience that it’s ok to have done. Because we’ve all been there – haven’t we?
Starting off slowly, I’ll Be Around intentionally introduces the audience to its vast cast of characters and before you know it you’ll realise you either relate closely to a few of them or at least know one for real.
The film may overstay its welcome a little as it reaches its final act, but like the characters, life does go on and it shows that it’s ok not to have everything worked out just yet.
Unnerving audiences with an uncanny sensibility, horror films continue to excel as the genre reaches for new substantive heights. Filmmakers like Jordan Peel, Ari Aster, Jennifer Kent, and Robert Eggers have imbued a new sense of artistry and purpose into the familiar framework, setting a new high-bar for filmmakers to follow. Writer/Directors Gerard Bush and Christopher Renz attempt to follow suit with their first feature Antebellum, a promising, yet misguided attempt to confront systematic racism.
Antebellum follows Veronica (Janelle Monae), a successful author and political pundit who works to confront society’s uncomfortable truths. After being kidnapped, Veronica awakes as a slave stuck in a pre-Reconstruction time period. Left to fight for her life, she attempts to discover what’s going on under the surface of this bizarre reality.
Observing slavery’s discriminatory practices to reflect on modern prejudices stemmed from that antiquated era, Bush and Renz certainly have a pulse on a wide-spanning conceit. The problems arise from their inability to illustrate deeper nuances within their high-concept set-up. Like many first screenplays, Antebellum rests solely on the laurels of its intriguing premise, implementing wooden dialogue and a lingering sense of inauthenticity that stunt the narrative at every turn.
The scenes set in the modern era are especially flat, revolving around over-written caricatures that muddle the filmmakers’ tangible intentions (a Fox News-esque sequence lands with a clunky obviousness). These issues severely hamper star Janelle Monae, whose previously shined as a multi-faceted talent with radiant charisma onscreen. As Veronica, Monae is letdown by a thankless role devoid of personability and weight, leaving audiences with nothing to attach to.
Antebellum sells itself as a horror film, but without proper gravitas, the execution lands closer to uncomfortable exploitation. Slavery has morphed into tired subject matter, often relegating talented black actors to submissive roles that only work to trudge up an ugly, well-known reality. Attempts to build a sense of atmosphere and unease through these depictions land with an awkward thud, lacking the grace and substantive core to give purpose to these actions. There are some promising frames that have me intrigued by Bush and Renz’s future (the final frames evoke a visceral impact and emotional power), although it’s clear there’s room for refinement.
While constructed with noble aspirations, Antebellum’s clumsy execution fails to evoke the weight of its subject matter.
Zel, a lonely introverted young man, is offered the chance to overcome his social anxiety through lucid dreaming. A simple plot holding sufficient psychological interest for the makings of an engaging thriller, being a curious subject, and one less commonly associated with the genre.
Director Adam Morse, in his debut feature, creates an effective and appropriate sense of sleep depravation (satisfyingly ironic, since the feeling is brought on by Zel’s sleeping), with the waking and dream states merging into one. There is little if no distinction between night and day. The nocturnal lighting of the streets and artificially lit interiors is disorientating. You get the sense of being trapped inside a world of permanent semi-consciousness, an after-dark existence in stasis.
It is let down, however, on a number of levels. The story is played out by a cast consisting of fairly standard one-dimensional characters, each derivative and stereotyped versions of their various roles and functions; shy loner, abusive boss, aloof showgirl. This was as much down to the writing as the performances, they could have done with a bit more fleshing out.
What might also have helped was to have some distinction between the realtime world and the dream states, bringing some dynamism to the overall pace which was, for the most part, fairly flat. Although understandably this could have been a conscious and creative choice, to blur the lines between wake and sleep.
What cannot be so easily overlooked was the decision to shoot with such a dimly lit visual aesthetic. Bordering on gloomy (not in a good way) the darkness was extreme and just made things difficult to see and follow the action. The story became equally laborious, losing its initial intrigue from a general sense of apathy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8pvkRCem_E
Billy Zane, one of the two ‘name actors’ attached to the project, elevates the scenes he is in playing Elliot, the neighbour who teaches Zel the concept of lucid dreaming. Sadie Frost, who plays Zel’s mother, has rather less to do, appearing in only one scene. It would have been nice to see more of her character.
Laurie Calvert gives a believable but rather flat performance as Zel, which made it hard to relate or warm to him. The character who I felt most held the story together, and propelled Zel’s personal journey, was his co-worker Kat, played by Sophie Kennedy Clark, a character with a kind-heart and genuine sense of empathy and friendship. She was a figure of normalcy in the chaotic nightlife filled with toxic characters, providing some grounding for the plot and, in the end, Zel himself, as they start to form a relationship.
Philip ‘Hawk’ Hawkins (Ryan Barton-Grimley) is a down on his luck security guard who’s bored with his life and also convinced that vampires are real and they may show themselves at any moment. Revson ‘Rev’ McCabe (Ari Schneider) is a vegan pacifist groundkeeper and Hawk’s only real friend, he tries to help Hawk out with his anger issues by teaching him Tai Chi, but Hawk seems to be on the edge and there’s nothing that can calm him down.
Then one night, Hawk witnesses three men (two men and a gimp) that he’s convinced are vampires and after showing Rev a photo that he took on his phone, they start training to become vampire slayers.
Hawk and Rev: Vampire Slayers is a supposed love letter to the childhood movies of writer/director Ryan Barton-Grimley. Taking inspiration from some of the worst supernatural action thrillers of the 1980’s, Hawk and Rev attempts to give the audience a fun film that reminds them of a simpler time and a movie that they half remembered.
The problem is that Hawk and Rev may be just that kind of thing and it may indeed look to capitalise on 80’s nostalgia, but as far as anything else is concerned then Hawk and Rev is a cynical movie cobbled together to include the kinds of jokes that would appeal to men who haven’t grown up.
There’s nothing wrong with a bit of nostalgia if done in the right way, shows like Stranger Things and Cobra Kai have recently reignited this nostalgia while keeping a modern edge.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWHK_bugcuI
However, Hawk and Rev’s problem may be that it sticks so closely to the agenda of a silly 80’s action movie that it forgets when the movie is actually made. So, whereas a film like Hawk and Rev may have been perfectly acceptable in the 80’s, it’s not that entertaining today.
This is a movie that sticks to its guns in terms of replicating the look and feel of the kinds of films 80’s kids may remember. However as far as characters, plot and dialogue are concerned then it may have been nice to have a little originality.
There is something immensely enjoyable about genre movies with set rules, which follows a particular set trajectory. You can see how it will flow and where it is headed very early in the film.
Home invasion movies are one such genre where the satisfaction level is magnified based on how well the main character fares against the antagonists and how much you end up rooting for each side. Even if it sometimes borders on stereotypes, it can be gratifying to watch.
Becky is a movie that does not break any new grounds, but part of why it ends up being enjoyable is how it well it manages to tip the hat for all the classic home invasion movies that came before it. The proportion of your enjoyment of Becky would also depend on how much you enjoy genre movies as a whole.
The movie starts with a bloodied Becky (Lulu Wilson) getting interrogated about an incident that she seems to have survived. Ragged and cold, you know it will soon cut to flashback mode to show what happened to her. And of course it does, when it cuts back to her lake house trip with her father Jeff (Joel McHale, playing it sympathetic and dignified) about a year after her mother’s passing. Pretty soon, she realizes that the reason for the trip is also to introduce her to his new girlfriend and her child. She then runs away into her hideout in the woods with her dog, where she finds a mysterious key inside a tin box.
Things take a turn when a gang of thieves led by Dominick (Kevin James) comes to the lake house, searching for the said key and hold the family hostage for it. As Becky and the gang become aware of each other’s presence, it becomes a survival game for both sides.
The best thing about Becky is that it wears it’s references on its sleeve. Right from the methods, Becky uses to dispatch the intruders. For example, the maiming using the speed boat looks like it came straight off I Spit on your grave. Even the infamous ice truck child-killing opening from Assault in Precinct 13 gets the nod in Kevin James and his gang’s introduction, and there are various other nods to modern home invasion movies like You’re next. Depending on what your view is, it might come off as cliches or clever nods.
A lot of noise has been made about how a kid is at the center of all the violence. And Becky can get shockingly violent at many points. I didn’t have an issue with that purely because she is mostly acting on the fight or flight approach generally associated with home invasion movies. What I found unnerving was the implication that she might be just enjoying the killings.
You could also draw parallels to Hit girl, another teen character who revels in blood lust and the violence around her. Still, Lulu Wilson plays well with the character’s ambiguous nature. One can hope that she would break out as Chloe Grace Moretz did with Kickass as she does a tremendous job selling the movie and character, including the problematic parts. You never really know if she is killing to survive or if she is doing it because she likes it until the last minute, and a lot of it has to do with her portrayal of Becky.
Simon Pegg may have been the initial choice for Kevin James’ character, and as much as that is a very inspired choice, he probably might not be able to bring in the raw physicality the latter brings in to the role. It is a bizarre part, with James playing an out and out bad guy, and he mostly nails the part.
Your sympathies also go for Robert Maillet, who is probably the best character in the movie. He does well as a guy alternating between becoming weary of his ways and disgusted by his fellow mates while trying to stay loyal to them. He even goes as far as trying to protect the family from his gang’s maniacal ways. After making a career of playing intimidating henchmen, it could very well be his definitive henchmen role yet.
Sure, Becky does come off a lot like Die Hard in a lake house, but with a kid. And I could almost imagine online videos of it cut to look like Home Alone coming out somewhere down the line, complete with the comic background score. Threading the same path of many that came before it, Becky might not break new grounds or reinvent the wheel, but if you are a genre movie fan, particularly home invasion movies, there is a lot to enjoy in Becky.
