Shhh. Hold your breath. Don’t make a sound. Don’t scream or the monsters will eat you.
A family fighting to survive creates a world signing in silence on a farm after carnivorous aliens with heightened hearing threaten to wipe out all life on earth.
John Krasinski wrote, produced, starred in, and directed this his first full-length feature film. It’s both terrifying and oh so satisfying. Felt silence frames every scene. I’ve never been so aware of the audio work on a film.
His wife in real life, Emily Blunt, read the script and asked for the role despite the harrowing ordeals she knew she’d undergo as the pregnant wife in this silent scary movie. Blunt delightfully becomes her roles, memorably, believably.
The children also performed their parts surprisingly well, especially Noah Jupe who played the best friend in last year’s heartfelt hit Wonder.
Krasinski also wisely chose to cast deaf actress Millicent Simmons in the role as the daughter. She offered her experience and expertise with ASL to the the cast so the sign language would look realistic and would convey the emotion in each unspoken word or phrase. Impressive for its lower budget, memorable without words, the Quiet Place is a worthy watch.
If your expectations mirror mine, they will be more than met with twice the explosions and ten times the classic Samuel L. one-liners (including his iconic JP “Hold onto your butts”). Amazing.
Brie Larson is a gem, as always. Believable, determined photojournalist with a bleeding heart to let photos end wars, she bravely tracks into the unknown jungle island with the baby-faced band of troops just leaving Vietnam. 
The cast is lovely. Sweet Thomas Mann (from last year’s Me & Earl & the Dying Girl) adds to this outstanding gang of hopefuls. Believe it or not, I’d watch it again just to hang out with these people. They chose a cast of people I’d want to have dinner with. They are all delightful, even though, yes, many get squashed by a Kong foot or skewered by a giant spider leg. The sequence in the Kong graveyard is so beautifully filmed it’s worth the price of admission.
It’s fun. The pace works. The cast works. The film feels comprised of thousands of hero shots, mostly of Kong himself, the true hero of his film.
Some of the appeal in making art must be the gamble as all shows run the risk of falling flat. This Super 8 style kids V monsters series made the smart and unique decision to slowly but steadily build the show on the backs of an oddly memorable ensemble cast. They are relatable, flawed, likable humans with skills and potential for future-changing.
In their retro, rugged, primary colored world, four middle school aged boys play Dungeons and Dragons while their older siblings flirt and spy and kiss and lie – the usual plot fodder until a faceless predator kidnaps one of the small boys the same day that a little girl with strange powers arrives in town. The attacks continue and only one down-and-drunk sheriff is willing to help Winona Rider and pursue the truth at any cost.
This series of frightening events is a short 8 episode commitment, each one ending on a cliffhanger cleverly breadcrumbing the audience with clues that lead to answers.
Horrifying. Tragic. Unlovely. Why?
It jolts from the start. Then impending death threatens at every corner. An odd romp to a summer camp hotel for sad solitary souls quickly turns terrifying and totally unpalatable with slow suicides, dogs kicked to death, murderous night hunts through the woods, threats of gore, and overt sexual scenes. It goes too far.
The heart was right. But the execution…abrupt and ill-conceived.
The actors, however, proved themselves professionals. Mary Elizabeth Winstead (best as Ramona Flowers in Scott Pilgrim) and John Gallagher Jr. (from the beloved short-lived HBO series Newsroom and the perfect indie Short Term 12) cared that their roles were believable and strong. John Goodman obviously enjoyed playing the crazy bunker-builder. They seemed eager participants in what felt like an experimental suck-up film, each shot an attempted homage to JJ or Spielberg. But even that would have been nice had this not felt more akin to Shayamalan’s more recent tragedies.
It all felt forced, and left too many unsolved mysteries about the characters themselves: like the unsolved main issue of Michelle’s backstory and serious relationship on the rocks. Any real details about her Emmett in the hatch, oh sorry the bomb shelter. Man, good thing they barely had to redecorate the Lost set after Desmond set the place up. Aren’t they supposed to be hitting a button every 108 minutes?
If you wait for breadcrumbs to lead you to truth in this one, you’ll go hungry. They mean nothing in the end. (Wait. Maybe this IS another Lost finale.)
I don’t know. Maybe people don’t go to the movies to think. Maybe I’m alone in blaming sloppy writing / directing. Sure JJ may have paid for it, but his MO is to support up-and-comers. He’s walking in the footsteps of his mentor Steven (Spielberg) and helping the fledgling directors take wing. Unfortunately, this Icharus not only flies too close to the sun, he flies into it inviting strangers from outerspace back with him to take over our planet. After this film, you’ll wonder which is worse: crazies on earth or crude angry aliens.
War inevitably results in collateral damage. Legs, arms, minds, whole lives forfeited while the opposition resets and plans next moves. Desperate times force characters to choose allegiances, values, alliances. Gamemakers reset within the city walls. None are safe. The victor hero and spokesperson, Katniss Everdeen, remains the ugly-crying face of the rebellion carrying her personal vendetta against President Snow up the steps of the Capitol. Leading rebels in civil war proves more difficult post Peeta’s mind meld with Snow. Battle rages. Mine fields are set. With every step, detonation or success?
No more showstopping costumes aflame, no more fake romance drama and lies, no more appeasing the Capitol viewers in the old ways. Or so they think. All is televised, all is heresay and henchmen. Faceless guards rack up the body count while Districts unite to attack one final time.
It’s all difficult to watch. I struggle through war films, question everything. I wonder, when do we audience members become like the Capitol? When does a well made film turn viewer into voyeur?
Katniss defends. She has killed, but is she a killer? Motives muddle. Pressure mounts and armies assemble. When is a single life expendable? In war, do the rules of morality change? When do soldiers forget that war is not a game?
Some would say these are just movies. Action and sci-fi adventure. Drama and a nice blend of peace and romance amidst explosions and chaos. In my opinion, these are not simply films. They are not made for entertainment alone. They cannot be. They are perhaps cautionary tales. Story and history mimic and repeat, ebb and flow. We pray the world will never repeat in history this story of Panem.
This film is a giant leap for outer space storytelling after many films that take only small laborious steps from one malfunction to the next. This film achieves the same survival efforts but perks up the pace by blending them with upbeat attitudes and humor, a boost for math and science education, and a swell of hope.
We wonder if we’d make it. On the reality tv series Survivor, it’s more about interconnectivity and socio-relational survival. You’ve gotta win the trust of the right people. Our Martian is all alone but can somehow function, create, self-motivate, and build. Fortunately he is vlogging, or video journaling, instead of talking to a volleyball. There is a countdown, rationing, always a next step.
Then the supporting cast gets to work. The future NASA as it is presented, looks feasible as they pull an Apollo 13 by pooling their efforts and collective genius. Jeff Daniels, Kristen Wiig, Donald Glover, Jessica Chastain…the list goes on. It’s a beautiful cast on a film worth seeing.
Damon’s character Watney sees problems as opportunities. He strategizes and builds, sets deadlines and works hard to meet them. In his own quirky way, he says goodbye to every little thing, thanking storage bins and chairs for helping him make it each day. 
Gratefulness goes a long way. And whether he survives or not, you feel, as he does, simply thankful for each day, each sunrise, each plant, each breath.
The message of this film is clear: life is precious and worth fighting, striving, creating, growing, learning, laughing, surviving for. Don’t miss it, any of it.
There are essentially three camps of audience members: the Front Section that watched faithfully week-to-week, the Tail Section that petered off somewhere around mid-season two, and the Darmahites who binge watched on Netflix or dvd deeming it a “cool show” some years later, making LOST a true cult classic.
Despite the stats, the inevitable questions were posed by all three groups:
The answers are rarely given and are usually simpler than we care to believe. The show was genius. It played on just the right emotions. It drew us in from moment one with great characters and writing. We believed that there was hope, so we kept watching. Hope is a seed planted which sprouts action and blossoms in destiny.
Splatter: on FILM 