The Guest

The Guest - Dir. Adam Wingard (2014)

Director Adam Wingard has been making a name for himself on the horror scene with segments in the anthology films V/H/S and V/H/S/2. However, it was You're Next, a unique take on the home invasion thriller, that earned Wingard rave reviews. The majority of critics responded positively to its mixture of scares, dark humor, and over-the-top kills.

Wingard is back with The Guest, another genre bending film that's part-action, part-thriller, and an homage to the cult classics of the 1980's. The movie announces its intentions right off the bat with a synth-pop soundtrack (tunes by Sisters of Mercy, Front 242 & Clan of Xymox) and an opening title font straight out of a John Carpenter picture.

The Guest opens with a lone figure jogging in the middle of nowhere. This is David (Dan Stevens), a soldier recently released from a military hospital after serving in Afghanistan. He is paying respect to the family of Caleb Peterson, a deceased comrade from his tour in the Middle East. Before Caleb died, he made David promise to check in on his family. Although Anna (Maika Monroe) is a bit wary, the rest of the Peterson clan is more than welcoming to the handsome and humble young man. David becomes a surrogate son to Mrs. Peterson (Sheila Kelley), a drinking buddy to Mr. Peterson (Leland Orser), and a protector to little brother Luke (Brendan Meyer). When he sees Luke has been bullied, David quickly dispatches the tormentors with Jason Bourne-style efficiency.

In spite of David's good looks and quiet charm, Anna remains suspicious, especially when details from his back story don't check out. Then, there's the private security firm who are alerted when Anna pokes around too closely.

The Guest posits a scenario where the Terminator and Michael Myers aren't inhuman monsters, but an exceedingly handsome Adonis with a sympathetic story. The Petersons don't think twice about letting in someone with his All-American good looks into their home. Ironic since Dan Stevens is British. For those only familiar with Stevens as the pale and gaunt Matthew Crawley on Downton Abbey, his appearance in The Guest will be quite the surprise. Just as it is to Anna when a buff and toned David emerges from a steamy bathroom with only a towel wrapped around his waist. He's Captain America from the dark side. There's a sinister aura to David, but you don't want it to be true. He beats up bullies, dispenses sage advice, and provides Mrs. Peterson a shoulder to cry on. Surely, he's the hero of the film.

Wingard starts things off with a slow burn until the third act when the story goes completely off the rails and becomes an old school action flick. In fact, Wingard and screenwriter Simon Barrett toyed with the idea of including the Cannon Group logo much like Tarantino attaching the Shaw Brothers' logo to Kill Bill. The plot twists in The Guest are the type of absurd contrivances that might have popped up in the works of schlockmeisters such as Albert Pyun or Renny Harlin. The final act only gets better with the addition of Lance Reddick as a hardass military officer on the hunt for David.

This is when Wingard takes a page from the John Woo playbook as armed men storm the Peterson home. The troops unload their machine guns without ever reloading while Reddick's long, flowing trenchcoat ruffles against the wind in slow motion. David even draws a pair of automatic handguns as he's framed by laundry blowing back and forth. You half expect a flock of doves to glide into frame. Wingard puts a cherry on top with a climax set inside a hall of mirrors ala Lady from Shanghai and Enter the Dragon.

The Guest might stretch the boundaries of believability, but damned if it isn't a good time. Wingard has crafted an enjoyable blend of black comedy, action, and horror.

Rating: *** (*****)

Tusk

Tusk - Dir. Kevin Smith (2014)

"I don't want to die in Canada."

Kevin Smith made his mark as a writer/director of low-budget comedies riddled with potty words and pop culture references. He ventured away from stoner humor with Red State, a slipshod thriller about three teenagers held prisoner by a group of religious extremists. Red State wasn't a total success though it felt like the furthest thing from a Kevin Smith movie. Afterwards, Smith announced his retirement from filmmaking to focus on his podcast network. He would continue to tell stories without worrying about financing, studio heads, or box office receipts. Ironically, it was podcasting that reinvigorated Smith's love for movies.

On an episode of Smodcast, Smith and co-host/producer Scott Mosier became fascinated by an online post advertising room & board in exchange for the prospective lodger occasionally wearing a walrus costume. The two proceeded to plot out a Human Centipede-style horror flick about a maniac sewing another human being into a walrus suit. Smith took to Twitter to gauge interest and his followers responded with a resounding, "#WalrusYes." And Tusk was born.

Justin Long stars as Wallace Bryton, the host of the Not-See Party podcast, a show in which he and best friend Teddy Craft (Haley Joel Osment) poke fun at the latest internet sensations. Wallace embarks on a trip to Manitoba a kid who became a YouTube star after accidentally slicing his own leg off with a samurai sword. The boy eventually commits due to all the unwanted attention while Wallace only laments that he'll have to find get some other "Canadian weirdo" for the show.

Discovering a strange handbill, Wallace drives into the wilderness to the mansion of an eccentric hermit named Howard Howe (Michael Parks). Howe regales Wallace with tales of meeting Ernest Hemingway and being stranded in shark infested waters during WWII before being rescued by a gentle walrus. It's a monologue reminiscent of Robert Shaw's Indianapolis scene in Jaws, a long-time favorite of Smith. Wallace realizes too late that Howe has drugged his tea. This is the first step in the horrifying process to transform him into a human walrus.

At first blush, the concept doesn't seem like something that would spring from the mind of Kevin Smith. What happens to poor Wallace is gruesome and bizarre, almost in the vein of Cronenbergian body horror. By his own admission, Smith isn't a visual filmmaker. His preference is two people talking about comic books or Star Wars. That's indicative of Tusk though Smith still manages to set the eerie mood when he's not distracted by little narrative detours.

Long excels as the obnoxious Wallace and he serves as an excellent counterpoint to the bizarre antics of Michael Parks. Parks turns in a tour de force as the insane Howard Howe. Smith's gift for gab provides a cornucopia for Parks to feast on as he launches into mesmerizing monologues about his tortured backstory. At times, his speeches come off as glorified Wikipedia articles, but Parks is so entertaining that he makes every single word count. The story gets progressively more horrific and Smith wisely tries to balance the darkness with light humor.

Tusk is steeped in Smith's unwavering fascination with our neighbors in the Great White North. Of course, there are the usual gags about Canadian speak ("aboot," "eh") and how nice they all are. Also livening things up are a pair of sarcastic girls both named Colleen (Harley Quinn Smith & Lily-Rose Depp) who work in a convenience store and share a general disdain for Americans. Not only are they the female Dante and Randall, but Smith was inspired enough by their performances to give them their own spin-off, Yoga Hosers.

These cute asides don't always land. Just when you're getting into the interactions of Wallace and Howe, Smith pulls you away for one of many tangents. The worst offender is Guy LaPointe, a dogged detective from Quebec who has spent years hunting Howe. Johnny Depp provides an uncredited cameo as LaPointe and it's completely in line with some of his zanier roles. Hidden behind make-up and a thick Quebecois accent, LaPointe is a cartoon character and he receives a lot of screen time in the second half of the movie. Although Depp is amusing in the role, his presence serves as a detriment to the characters of Teddy and Wallace's girlfriend Ally (Genesis Rodriguez). Neither of them is given ample opportunity to grow beyond the functionary roles of sidekick and love interest. It's doubly problematic because Rodriguez gets to show off the acting chops she never got to in forgettable fare such as Man on a Ledge and The Last Stand.

Tusk is a bold and ballsy experiment from Kevin Smith that never finds the right balance between gothic horror and outrageous humor. Still, it's worth a look due to the indelible performances by Michael Parks and Johnny Depp.

Rating: ** ½ (*****)

Get on Up

Get on Up - Dir. Tate Taylor (2014)

It's too bad Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story didn't make more of a cultural impact. The Judd Apatow-produced parody lampooned the staid conventions of the music biopic as seen in films like Walk the Line and Ray. Walk Hard should have blown up the biopic the way Austin Powers tore down the spy genre. While nobody makes a spy movie in the campy style of the old school Bonds, the standard formula for the music biopic still remains.

The story generally begins with the subject, in his old age, preparing for a major concert and reflecting on his entire life. This is followed by flashbacks of all their highs and lows. Get on Up starts off true to formula with an elderly James Brown (Chadwick Boseman) walking alone down a solemnly lit corridor. The muffled roar of an excited crowd is the only accompaniment to his footsteps. Brown is ready to look back on his life. Surprisingly, Get on Up doesn't go directly to Brown's childhood, but one of his lowest points. In 1993, a drug-addled Brown accidentally discharges a shotgun while berating the unsuspecting attendees of a seminar after someone used his private bathroom. He'd eventually lead police on a high speed chase before spending three years in prison.

From there, Get on Up unfolds in a non-chronological fashion almost as if it were a greatest hits album, except not everything was a chart topper. We see glimpses of Brown as an impoverished child (played by twins Jamarion and Jordan Scott) living in a ramshackle homestead with an abusive father (Lennie James) and a mother (Viola Davis) who abandoned him at a young age. In a disturbing sight, Brown is amongst a group of black boys who are blindfolded and forced to box in a battle royal at a white country club's charity event.

Brown rose from these humble beginnings to worldwide fame as the Godfather of Soul. He upstaged the Rolling Stones in 1964 at The T.A.M.I. Show, strutting offstage and boldly challenging Mick Jagger to top him. Of course, Brown would be a big influence on the Stones frontman to the point where Jagger is actually a producer for Get on Up. Brown performed in front of troops during Vietnam, despite his cargo plane nearly being shot down, and he calmed an angry crowd at Boston Garden the night after Martin Luther King's assassination.

The Hardest Working Man in Show Business would hit his dark patches as well, but you'd hardly know it judging by the film. Brown's problems with drug addiction and domestic abuse are dealt with in the most perfunctory manner. Only one scene a piece is devoted to these issues. Still, Get on Up could hardly be considered hagiographic as Brown's ego and financial blunders are attributed to driving a wedge between he and his fellow musicians.

Get on Up was written by Jez and John-Henry Butterworth, the brothers who knocked it out of the park with Edge of Tomorrow. The Butterworths made a smart move by shuffling the events to make the movie stand out. Otherwise, taken chronologically, this is a typical biopic that attempts to encapsulate an entire life into two hours. There's also a slightly surreal touch, a surprising element given that the director is Tate Taylor, who presented racism in a mainstream multiplex manner with The Help. In a recreation of the Frankie Avalon picture Ski Party, Brown performs "I Got You (I Feel Good)" in an ugly Christmas sweater and surrounded by smiling, plastic faces. The action slows down as Brown laments that he's trapped in a "honky hoedown."  On occasion, Brown breaks the fourth wall and addresses the camera with the payoff being a shamed man who cannot look the audience in the eye after striking his wife.

Chadwick Boseman had a star making turn as Jackie Robinson in 42 and he was reluctant to tackle yet another true-life story. Luckily, Boseman had a change of heart. This is a complete 180 from the stoic Robinson. As Brown, Boseman goes beyond mere mimicry. He captures the electrifying presence of Mr. Dynamite and seamlessly performs all of his fleet footed dance moves. The understated Nelsan Ellis serves as a counterpoint to the outlandish Brown as his best friend Bobby Byrd. The long-suffering pal stood by Brown's side for decades until their falling out. Although, she's only in a handful of scenes, Viola Davis blows everyone away as the estranged mother Susie Brown. Her uneasy reunion with her son is the most powerful scene in the film.

Get on Up doesn't do much to defy the tired conventions of the musical biopic. However, the film is able to rocket up the charts courtesy of a stellar performance by Chadwick Boseman. This is an enjoyable picture, just not one you should go out of your way to see.

Rating: ** (*****)