Friday, February 03, 2023

Good Morning, World


M. Night Shyamalan's new movie Knock at the Cabin is out in theaters today -- it stars Jonathan Groff (that's his butt and other bits above on our beloved Looking) and the beautiful and talented Ben Aldridge as a gay couple with a little daughter who must fight off home invaders (including Dave Bautista) who are convinced it's the end of the world. Here is the trailer if you missed it. Anyway I might have had a mixed reaction to the movie (see my tweet at this post's bottom for a brief thought) but it's actually I think a fascinating failure with a whole lot to talk about. I have a piece coming out at some point on some of that over at Mashable (probably Monday because it's spoilery) but as much as I think the movie's let down by its construction I still recommend seeing it. For one...


... the actors are all terrific. Ben Aldridge specifically knocked me out -- after killing it in both this and in Spoiler Alert (review here) I am very much Team Ben at this moment in time. For another, and I don't really get into this in my Mashable piece so I can get into it a little here, it's an incredibly smart movie on the COVID pandemic without actually being about that. What it is about is a family trapped inside a house while everyone outside goes crazy with conspiracy theories and the only way they have of keeping abreast of the world is the television and they start becoming convinced themselves of Fake News and Crisis Actors and without pushing any of this directly it is very much about the past few years in ways that impressed me. So ultimately I don't think it fully works as the thriller that it's supposed to be, but as a collection of ideas and ruminations on Our Moment? It's interesting. It's definitely interesting. But we'll talk more next week once my piece is out. (No not that piece, you pervs. That's Groff's job.)

2 comments:

bdog said...

Watched Spoiler Alert on Peacock last night. It was excellent. Needed more Sally Field and Bill Irwin though. After Boys in the Band and this, I guess I like Jim Parsons now.

Aquinas1220 said...

Never have I been more frustrated watching a movie before. I know M Night is not known for his subtlety, but Jesus, it is a Q-anon's wet dream come true by the end. And... what exactly was that ending??? ***spoiler ahead*** - so the destruction of a gay family helps to save humanity? Not the progressive message Shyamalan thinks it is.

I did love Bautista.