REVIEW: It Follows

Set in a timeless world, It Follows is the sophomore feature film from director David Robert Mitchell.  The televisions are all CRT back and white, and very old movies are being viewed on them.  The cars are equally old, and yet the story still exists in the present (of future) because of a gadget that a character possesses.  It is quite interesting for the film to go that route, with even having a synth score, perhaps in a way to say that this story and its themes transcend generations.

Our main character, college student Jay (Maika Monroe) has a romantic physical encounter with her boyfriend Hugh (Jake Weary), only for it to turn dark.  Jay is tied up in a chair, in a decrepit building, and told that she now has an entity that will be pursuing her.  It can look like anybody.  It is slow because it walks.  It cannot be shaken, as it will never stop until it kills her.  She is told that Hugh has passed this evil onto her through intercourse.  All Jay needs to do is sleep with someone, and the evil will go after him.  The problem is that if it catches and kills a person, it will then go after the one who had passed it on.  If Jay gets caught, it will pursue Hugh again.  He tells Jay that she needs to pass it on and warn the person so they can pass it on.

The concept is very interesting.  Is Mitchell making a statement on casual or unprotected sex. saying that you are connected to everyone your partner has slept with?  It could be that David Robert Mitchell is saying that people need to be more careful about who they get in the sack with.  Allegorical or not, this is a tense film that creates a perpetual sense of fear in the viewer as you know that anyone in the background of a scene could be the evil that is coming to capture Jay.

Interestingly, it is set in Detroit, and uses the collapse of the city as a theme.  There are conversations between Jay and her friends that indicate the city itself is something that was misunderstood by their parents.  This could be a message that is furthered by Mitchell making sure that parents are almost completely absent.  It could be that this is playing on the fact that many slashers are just about the teens or young adults and the parents are always forgotten.  The way I look at it is that he is suggesting certain issues that people face are something that they believe they need to deal with on their own, and that the parents would not understand.

There is a great deal of suspicion that builds throughout the film.  We, like Jay, don't know what the evil will look like.  A lot of films want to have an iconic antagonist appearance.  That is not the case here.  There is no one true image of the entity, leaving Jay to be eternally scared.  It is quite a brilliant move from Mitchell.

Probably the best aspect of the film is the acting clinic that we get from Maika Monroe.  It Follows was her breakout performance.  The role is one that demands so many different emotions and moods, and Monroe handles them all.  The scares for the audience are tethered to what we see of Jay's experiences, and without such a talented lead it could have been a real letdown of a movie.

I've seen this film a few times now, and I still don't know where I stand on possible statements from Mitchell.  Perhaps there are none and I am just reading into things.  Regardless, seeing a movie that gets the brain flowing is always a fun endeavour.  With It Follows we have many different ways to look at what it is saying.  And, most importantly, we have a scary movie.

Rating - 3.5 out of 4 stars

2015 Brings Some All-Time Greats

It is impossible to dispute the fact that October and November this year have been brutal on a number of movies entering theatres.  There have been a large number of flops, and only a few films have shown any kind of staying power.  For someone like me who enjoys taking in films and seeing the good ones prosper, it has been a bit of a depressing time.  Especially when a quality film such as Steve Jobs does so poorly that it fell behind the poorly reviewed Jobs starring Ashton Kutcher.

While it has been a sad time for the box office, with October and November trailing the same months last year by 36% and 35%, it is not indicative of the quality of films that have been released this year. With Star Wars just around the corner, I am sure that we will end up seeing a record breaking year in the box office.  Regardless of how dismal October and November have been, or what is to come in December, 2015 will be a year always remembered by me.

It is so rare these days that one sees a movie that feels like it will be an all time classic, and even rarer when I would sit down and watch a movie to be left thinking, "I think this is one of my all time favourites."  Well, in 2015, I can say without doubt that I experienced that four times, with four different genres of film.  Each of those four films easily found a way into my top five of their genre, and I figured it was time to give them some shine during this period of cinematic slump.


Ex Machina

This is a film that I have already seen three times this year.  I was enraptured by the trailers for it, and it felt like there was going to be something exciting about this movie.  Exciting is hardly the best way to describe it.  Awe-inspiring, jaw dropping, and mind blowing are all hyperboles that I would quickly lend to this slow burning piece of science fiction mastery.

The script, the cinematography, and the acting are the true stars of the show, which looks at the topic of artificial intelligence in a unique way.  It is absolutely captivating from beginning to end, and is thought provoking about the idea of what is actually natural, and what is science, and where those lines blur together.   It culminates into one of the chilling finales (or 'chinale,' as I like to call it) in recent memory.  This is one for all fans of science fiction to check out, and one that deserves a ton of Oscar nominations, although I am sure next to none will fall its way.


It Follows

When I saw 2014's Australian horror, The Babadook, I was beside myself because I had seen what was easily the best modern day horror.  That title and award lasted for only for the two weeks it took me to see It Follows.  It is easy to watch It Follows and see it as a solid horror movie without noticing all of the depth that went into the filming of it.

Very early into the film, it is clear that writer/director David Robert Mitchell is a first class fan of the genre.  All of the shots are framed in the style of a 1970s horror film, and the dialogue fits well into that category as well.  Just like The Way, Way Back, the environment that the characters are in is a timeless realm that clings to the past while being in the present.  Possibly the biggest achievement of this film, other than being legitimately scary, is the score.  Rich Vreeland composes flowing pieces for different moments of the film which have similarities, but also draw on classic horror soundtracks from the past.  Some are quick to note the references to John Carpenter in the score, but there is so much more represented, from Psycho to Friday the 13th and everything in between.

Move over Rosemary's Baby, you just got bumped from my all time top five horror list.


Inside Out

Yes, this movie cracks my top five animated films of all time, and even takes the number one spot.  I cannot think of another animated feature that has all of the fun, complexity, and depth of Inside Out.  While it is a great family feature, it speaks directly to teenagers and adults through its explanation of how the human mind and emotions work together.

Besides the fun story, beautiful animation, and funny moments, it was the thought behind it, and the touching moments that make this movie a masterpiece.  On top of all of that, you have terrific voice acting that adds such joy and vibrance to the film.  If there really is a better animated film out there, and preferably one that doesn't portray women as needing a prince to save them, I have yet to see it.


Mad Max: Fury Road

This film is the only reason why I didn't mention Inside Out as being my favourite film of the year.  Director George Miller returned to the Mad Max franchise thirty years after Thunderdome with a visually stunning masterpiece that is a definitive example of how to properly handle special effects.  With a blend of practical stunts and CGI, the whole film is perfect eye candy.  The post apocalyptic future never before has looked so good.  In fact, I doubt that any movie has looked so good.

Yes, there is a very simplistic script here, but that is alright.  Does everything in the world need to be complex?  It is more about the madness that the world has turned to, the power grabbing and the gap between those who have and those who are used.  It is essentially one long car chase, and it never grows tired and boring, thanks to the story that shapes it and the varied sequences that are unveiled.  As a straight up actioner, there are few that can ever rival this one.  Easily it is one of my top five favourite action films of all time and my favourite movie so far of 2015.