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2021 Films, Horror

Malignant-2021

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Malignant-2021

Director James Wan

Starring Annabelle Wallis, George Young

Scott’s Review #1,294

Reviewed August 30, 2022

Grade: B

James Wan is a fantastic director responsible for co-creating the Saw (2003-2017) and Insidious (2010-2018) franchises.

Anyone familiar with those films will likely enjoy Malignant (2021), as it borrows from them and incorporates elements reminiscent of those films.

In particular, it taps into supernatural elements of Insidious and the mood and score from Saw. Malignant even copies the gruff and robotic phone caller’s voice that was Jigsaw’s trademark and used in Saw.

It’s not as threatening, but it brings back those memories.

The result of Malignant is mixed, with a mostly positive outcome. It’s not one bit scary like Insidious was, but not gratuitously gory like the Saw films, though it has its moments of butchery.

Though utterly ridiculous, the conclusion of Malignant contains a terrific twist and a weird supernatural CGI contortionist choreography extravaganza that somehow reminded me of The Matrix (1999).

The storyline twist must have been influenced by Sisters (1973), an early effort by director Brian DePalma. It may seem silly, but somehow it’s my favorite part of the film.

Wan reaches into his magical bag of tricks and pulls out some wins. He also demands suspension of disbelief, which is okay in supernatural horror films, but many points of the story do not add up.

Malignant begins in 1993 when Dr. Florence Weaver (Jacqueline MacKenzie) and her colleagues treat a violent, disturbed patient named Gabriel at Simion Research Hospital. Gabriel can control electricity and broadcast his thoughts via speakers. He kills several staff members, but Weaver survives and deems him untreatable.

Years later, Madison Lake (Annabelle Wallis) becomes paralyzed by fear from shocking visions. She slowly realizes that when a murder victim dies, she is in the room with them, witnessing their gruesome death.

Gabriel is on the loose and intent on killing Dr. Weaver and her colleagues for calling him cancer, and Madison is somehow involved.  She and her sister, Sydney (Maddie Hasson), must work alongside the police to get to the bottom of the mystery.

Malignant does well with the mood and tone of the filming. It has a dark grey quality plentiful in modern horror films, and fans of Insidious and Saw will enjoy this familiar style of filmmaking. It’s set in Seattle, which is a wise choice, though all we get are some aerial views of the city, specifically the Space Needle.

Because Wan directs it, it’s professional and contains the horror elements to be expected. There’s even a giant window fan that I swear I’ve seen in a Saw film. Wan knows what he is doing, and the name recognition alone was enough to get me to see the movie.

It’s not an ‘A’, but it does what a modern horror film is supposed to do, and that’s to entertain. Malignant is not groundbreaking, but it sounds good.

The plot holes are not worth dissecting beyond asking why there are no other patients in a large city hospital —a device that has existed since at least Halloween II in 1981 —but that’s just the beginning.

Malignant annoyed me when it decided to add some humor.

A sidekick character, Detective Regina Moss (Michole Briana White), bears an uncanny resemblance to the funny lady Wanda Sykes. Unfortunately, her one-liners feel thrown in for kicks, and a blossoming romance between Sydney and Detective Kokoa (George Young) goes nowhere.

During these scenes, I felt like I was watching Chicago Med or Chicago Fire or any one of those other generic network television shows.

Fortunately, the scenes were brief, and Wan returned to the point of the film- blood, killing, and chaos.

Lead actress Wallis is a fine casting choice. Pretty but relatable, she carries the film as the victim, especially as more of her backstory is revealed.

Films like Malignant (2021) require putting the brakes on any deep analysis and merely going along for the ride. It’s entertaining and that’s good enough for me. With Wan at the helm, I anticipated a particular type of horror film and was ultimately satisfied with what I was served.

2015 Films, Biography, Drama, Independent, Independent Drama, Musical, Musical Drama

Love and Mercy-2015

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Love and Mercy-2015

Director Bill Pohlad

Starring John Cusack

Scott’s Review #258

Reviewed July 17, 2015

Grade: B+

The life and times of the Beach Boys’ famous and troubled lead singer, Brian Wilson, finally play out on the big screen (apparently, many attempts were made to make a film).

Love and Mercy (2015) chronicles his difficult upbringing, unrivaled success, and his later life.

He had schizophrenia, traveled down a paranoid, nervous path, and was manipulated by a family friend who served as his doctor and main caregiver.

Thankfully, he weathered the storm due to his future wife, and remarkably still performs and entertains in 2015.

His musical career began in the 1960s.

The biopic features many well-known Beach Boys tunes to hum along to. It’s neither a happy film nor a downer.

It’s somewhere in the middle of the two and the life story of a rock star.

There is a risk in this. If the film is too sentimental, it will fail. Love and Mercy do it correctly.

The film is not a sing-along, trip-down-memory-lane film for lighthearted film fans.

Rather, it is dark, murky, and troubling at times (the psychedelic scene when a young Brian is imagining different voices and noises in his head is rather frightening).

Two actors play Wilson: first in the 1960s and later in the 1980s.

Paul Dano stars as a young Wilson in the early stages of his career, full of passion for life, art, music, and talent beyond belief, but clearly on the verge of paranoia, thanks to his critical father.

He is a demanding, angry man, possibly envious of Brian’s talents as a songwriter, who always wanted more from Brian.

Wilson’s father managed Brian and his brothers’ success but at a huge cost, and was ready to bail when the “next big thing” came along.

Miraculously, despite conflict with his father and others, Wilson completed the Beach Boys masterpiece Pet Sounds, a groundbreaking album from the late 1960s.

The film shows the struggles faced to achieve this success.

In later years, John Cusack takes over as Brian. By this point in his life, he is damaged, and he is a full-blown neurotic, insecure, and dependent on his psychotherapist, Dr. Landy, brilliantly played by Paul Giamatti.

Landy controls Wilson’s assets and will destroy anyone who interferes.

The scenes in which he screams at and berates a drugged-out Brian Wilson to create music are tough to stomach.

When Wilson romances their future wife, Melinda Ledbetter, played by Elizabeth Banks, she ultimately saves his life as she is determined to rescue Brian from the wicked abuse and adjust the toxic levels of medications he was kept on.

I left the movie theater unsure of the factual accuracy and pondered the following questions.

Did Brian’s wife swoop into his life and “save” him as neatly as the film explains? How instrumental was the maid in this process? Was the Wilson brothers’ father as much a monster as the movie portrayed him?

Was Giamatti’s vicious psychotherapist role true to life, or were the aspects of Love and Mercy embellished ever so slightly for moviemaking magic?

One wonders, but from a film perspective, Love and Mercy (2015) works well as a film that takes risks, avoids softness or niceness, and delivers a character study that is quite admirable.

Independent Spirit Award Nominations: Best Supporting Male-Paul Dano