Film Critic pants are on! Below are some capsule (short) movie reviews of three New Releases for the week of Friday, August 9th, 2024.
1) CUCKOO
Well, you can add this sloppy, poorly written, and too-hip-for-the-room exercise to the shockingly large list of overrated horror films of of 2024. A list that includes such dreck as "Abigail," "Late Night with the Devil," "Immaculate," "In a Violent Nature," "I Saw the TV Glow," and the absolutely unwatchable "Longlegs."
It's been a REALLY bad year for horror, but I won't use up more space listing the other ones here (I've written about this year's bad horror movies already).
"Cuckoo" tells the story of a 17 year-old girl (played by the terrific Hunter Schafer, who is the best thing about the movie...but, still isn't all that great) who reluctantly goes on a trip with her father and stepmother to a weird resort in the German Alps. While she's there, all kinds of loud, stupid, surreal nonsense happens leading to a bloody, bullet-riddled climax that left me cold and completely unimpressed.
This is hipster-doofus filmmaking at its worst, with hints of pretention thrown in to attempt some sort of profoundness. The movie never gets beyond noise and desperation as every "surprise" in the screenplay is revealed with a massive thud.
Sure it's bloody. Yes, there are jump-scares, and yes, there is a kinda cool female/mom creature that has neat looking eyes and yells a lot, but that just ain't enough.
The whiplash change in tones that minimally talented writer/director Tilman Singer throws around get tiresome and annoying by around the fifth leaden twist.
I was bored out of my mind during most of it and annoyed by the smug tone for the rest. It also doesn't help that the extraordinarily irritating Dan Stevens is on hand to giddily ham it up while the blood and guts fly around him.
Schafer's solid work here can't save yet another over hyped, overrated horror picture of 2024. - ⭐️1/2
2) THE INSTIGATORS
In "The Instigators," Matt Damon and Casey Affleck (who is also the co-writer) play a couple of guys who are recruited to participate in a convoluted heist, wherein a lot of money is stolen from the Mayor of Boston.
Director Doug Liman ("Swingers," Mr. and Mrs. Smith," "The Bourne Identity") keeps things moving along briskly, and provides a few nice action scenes and a car chase that's kind of exciting, but the whole thing feels slight.
There is absolutely nothing new about anything in the story or execution, with no surprises or suspense to really speak of. It's all pretty derivative and recycled, with only a truly terrific cast to pull the material out of the gutter and make it reasonably entertaining.
The impressive cast includes Hong Chau, Jack Harlow, Ron Perlman, Ving Rhames, Toby Jones, Alfred Molina, Andre DeShields, Paul Walter Hauser and a magnificently hilarious Michael Stuhlberg who all but steals the show as the angry guy who plans the heist.
The Boston locations and attitude that you'd expect from a Damon/Affleck production are on full display here, as are the vulgar laughs and varying accents. It just never really comes together to be anything more than a time-killer on a streaming service, which is exactly what it is. You can stream it on Apple TV+ now. - ⭐️⭐️1/2
3) IT ENDS WITH US
One of the year's biggest surprises...easily.
I went in with incredibly low expectations, and was not only surprised by how much I enjoyed it, but I also think it's one of the better films I've seen this year.
Based on the massively popular best-seller by Colleen Hoover, this film adaptation stars Blake Lively (TV's "Gossip Girl") as young woman named Lily, whose childhood was dominated by her domineering father's abuse of her mother. After her father's death, Lily moves to Boston to open her own business, and meets a charming neurosurgeon who may or may not have the same characteristics of her father.
"It Ends with Us" has all the makings of a terrible Lifetime TV drama, and hackneyed soap opera, but, shockingly, this thing really is emotionally involving, smart and a very effective look at domestic abuse and lost love.
Directed with great style and panache by the male co-star of the film, Justin Baldoni (who is also very good in the movie), this movie is shockingly deep and beautifully realized. I was moved, surprised, and impressed by the way the story unfolded with bold honesty and sensitive passion.
Not everything works. The constant attention to every single piece of clothing that Lively wears is a bit tiresome, and there are a few cringe inducing moments involving romantic relationships, but overall this is really great stuff.
The cast is uniformly strong with Lively bringing her A-Game to the proceedings, and a terrific Blake Sklenar as a love from her past. The supporting cast is lead by the always outstanding Jenny Slate, and includes Chicago's own Amy Morton as Lively's mother.
This movie had no business being this good, but it is. Much of the praise should go to the prodigiously talent Christy Hall who adapted the novel to the screen. This the second terrific screenplay that Hall has written this year, the other was for the extraordinary "Daddio," one of the year's very best movies which she also directed.
"It Ends with Us" is one of the year's biggest surprises, and it is stellar and shockingly good. An emotional must-see and I NEVER thought I would be saying that. - ⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2
By the way, Eli Roth's new film "Borderlands," based on the video game, and featuring an all-star cast, was hidden from the critics so we couldn't review it before it opened. You can hear my full review early next week on The Nick D Podcast.
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