“It Comes at Night” Review

Sometimes movies are hard to market.

Films like Drive, last year’s terrible Collateral Beauty (oh my goodness watch the trailer then read the plot), and even this year’s Dunkirk are all movies that had audiences expecting one thing, and coming out of the theater disappointed because it wasn’t the movie that was advertised. It Comes at Night is a film that this unfortunately happened to. However, I don’t really how else this movie could have been marketed. It’s a very unique movie, and ultimately, a very good one.

I saw the first teaser trailer for this movie when it was released. It marketed itself to be that of a horror movie, but I don’t really think it qualifies as that. Yes, there are some horror elements, but it’s very much a psychological thriller. Normally I would advocate not watching trailers because they give away good parts of the movie, but in this case I would advocate not watching the trailer because this one really gives the wrong impression of what the film is going to be.

There isn’t much set up to this movie. In fact, they barely give any answers to questions you may have. While this can be very frustrating at times, It Comes at Night does a great job of portraying the bleak post-apocalyptic world that our characters live in. In a world where a strange sickness has caused civilization to crumble, we get a glimpse of a family living together somewhere in the woods in an undisclosed location. Now, this movie is VERY similar to a movie I reviewed earlier this year, The Survivalist. However, this movie differs a bit more in that there is a greater emphasis on the characters and family. This movie also looks a lot better.

I think the cinematography was my favorite part of this film. I’m a sucker for when the camera slowly inches towards an object, creating anticipation and suspense. This movie utilizes that technique VERY well, as there were times where I was filled with more fear than some other horror movies I’ve seen. It’s kind of amazing how the concept of “what’s behind that door?” can still be so well done after all these years.

Joel Edgerton is great in this movie. I’ve always found him to be a supremely underrated actor, but I’m glad that he’s able to star in a variety of film genres, because he really excels here as the overprotective father of the family. Christopher Abbott and Riley Keough are also great in this movie. Everyone conveys a fear that is so believable and it really immerses you in the world that they live in.

The most glaring weakness of this movie is how ambiguous it is. Something is terrorizing this family. There are many unanswered questions. Unfortunately, they never really answer many of them. It’s a movie where I got really sucked into their world, and I wanted to know more, but the narrative is intentionally ambiguous. Normally when a movie is too pretentious in its mysteriousness, I often don’t care about wanting to know more after I finish. However, this movie left me really wanting to know more, which unfortunately makes it both great and bad at the same time.

It Comes at Night is a misunderstood movie. While it was marketed as a sort of monster movie, it’s really about what a father would do to protect his family. The cinematography is excellent, the performances from the entire cast is solid, and the story is intriguing. While it could have been better if we were given more clarity in the end, I still think it’s a film worth watching.

Grade: B+/81

“It” Review

I generally hate horror movies. I usually think that the stress and cinematic scars they leave in my head are not worth the mostly lackluster stories told in this genre. However, I found that recent horror movies have been reinventing what it means to be afraid. That definition is no longer reduced to cheap jump scares like before, but more of horror through good story-telling and a master craft of camerawork. It is….a bit of the old and the new.

I don’t think I need to explain what this movie is about because you’ve most likely heard about it from your friends, so I’ll just get into the details. I think there’s a lot to like about the movie, but also some things that keep it from being a GREAT movie. Let’s start with the positives.

All the kids are great. They all have different personalities and complement each other nicely. You can clearly tell that the makers of this film were heavily inspired by Stranger Things, and why not, it’s a good thing to copy off of. The humor between them is very crude, reminiscent of the 80s, which is when this movie takes place as well. I will say that two of the kids didn’t really get that much time to develop on screen, so I felt like they could have been removed altogether. However, I understand it’s an adaptation from the book so removing them would have been an egregious crime. Moving on, Pennywise the killer clown is also pretty terrifying. Bill Skarsgard does a great job as It, and I never saw the 90s miniseries so I won’t insert the obligatory “but nothing beats Tim Curry” assertion.

The movie does a great job of creating that 80s feel, but it could have done a better job setting up the town of Derry, Maine. It largely feels like a place where random stuff happens, as opposed to a town reacting to the presence of It. It’s still a great setting, as I feel like the visuals of the suburban area lend to the overall atmosphere of the movie. I also really like the music! I’m still listening to the soundtrack a week after seeing it. Apart from the utterly horrifying songs, there are some nice piano pieces.

My biggest problems with the movie was the narrative structure and to a small extent, the horror. As mentioned in my first paragraph, it sets up a pretty good story and is filmed well. However, a lot of the horror elements get reduced to jump scares that become predictable after the first few times. As someone who hates horror movies and generally dreads jump scares, I actually found that I wasn’t as scared throughout the movie (save for one scene), because it started getting predictable even less than halfway through. A movie like The Witch was effective in its horror because of how its slow, dreading style of film making really ramped up the tension. It is very much in-your-face horror, throwing Pennywise at you whenever they can. I suppose it works pretty effectively and many of the jump scares are earned, but it did get somewhat tiresome after a while.

I also didn’t really understand the extent of Pennywise’s powers throughout the movie. Without spoiling anything, I basically couldn’t really figure out why he did some of the things he did. Perhaps its made more clear in the book and those who read it thought it made a lot of sense, but the people who watched it with me were equally confused on it.

Also, because there are a lot of kids, there’s a lot of random edits in the movie where they just insert plot development for each kid. Because there are so many kids, it often becomes like a montage of character development, and then spliced in with random Pennywise scenes. The movie was already pretty long, clocking in at 2 hours and 15 mins for a horror movie. I think the narrative structure could have been slightly more coherent, but it was still good enough to make it enjoyable throughout.

Overall, It wasn’t as scary as I thought it’d be, and also not as good as I had hoped. It’s possible that I know absolutely nothing about horror movies and what makes them good, seeing as how I don’t watch many of them. It’s still entertaining, and while you initially go into the movie for the killer clown, you’ll stay for the great chemistry shared between all the members of the Losers Club.

Grade: B-/75

“The Big Sick” Review

The Big Sick is a fictionalized retelling of notable comedian Kumail Nanjiani’s life as a budding comedian, and his encounter with a girl that he strikes up a relationship with. I’ve been wanting to see this movie for a while, as it became one of the sleeper hits of this year. I am proud to say that it is a fantastic movie.

This is surprisingly a movie that I feel like the less you know, the better (*cough* no trailers). It’s surprising since 1) it’s a comedy and 2) it’s based on Nanjiani’s real life experiences, so how dramatic could it be really? However, I think it has just a good enough mix of a genuine story mixed with the dramatized elements of a hollywood film. Where to start with this movie?

All the characters give fantastic performances. Nanjiani, who plays himself, plays a very relatable character especially if you have an Asian upbringing. The ongoing conflicts he has with his parents (who are also quite funny) are very relatable and play a big part in who Nanjiani is, or perhaps who he’s trying not to be. All of Nanjiani’s comedian friends are great too, and provide pretty big laughs in the short amount of time that they’re on screen. The girl who plays Nanjiani’s love interest, Emily, is also a great character. She has a very believable “girl next door” persona and has great chemistry with Nanjiani. Emily’s parents, played by Ray Romano and Holly Hunter, are also excellent in this movie as well. There are a lot of scenes with the two of them and Nanjiani, and it portrays the miscommunication between cultures very well.

The writing is great as well. All of the dialogue sounds like it’s real enough to be said by someone without sounding forced, yet a lot of it is still hilarious. I found myself laughing more than I normally do in comedies, because it had great timing and execution on many of its comedic beats.

Without going into spoilers, I think this romantic comedy is more unique than its peers because of where the story is taken. There are some unconventional creative decisions that make this movie a very entertaining watch. That doesn’t necessarily translate to it being unpredictable, as there are many parts where you can probably guess what’s going to happen. However with a movie this charming, with the writing this good and the characters that funny, it didn’t really matter to me if I knew whether or not I knew what was going to happen. However, I was kind of surprised at the ending (no spoilers!).

This is the sleeper hit of 2017. If you haven’t heard of it, you should watch it. A part of me thinks most people don’t really have a desire to see rom-coms anymore, mostly because 95% of them are terrible, but this is a big exception. It has a lot of heart, and on top of that it’s a very, very funny movie.

Grade: A-/89