This months review roundup is a little on the late side (Narrowly making April) but hopefully worth the wait because I have three solid recommendations for you this time around. Not even a hint of a clangers. To be fair some of these are higher profile films than I usually cover in the round up. That’s no guarantee of quality though, especially these days. So this month I am reviewing the Shudder surprise hit “Late Night with the Devil”, Dev Patel’s ambition action/revenge movie “Monkey Man” and the heartwarming man-and-a-dog film “Arthur The King”. Since these are all recommendations I’ve avoided spoilers, so read on and enjoy!
Late Night With The Devil
For our first movie I’m looking at the the hot new movie from Shudder, “Late Night With the Devil”. Colin and Cameron Cairnes share duties on both writing and directing this one. The duo have a handful of films to their name, the best received probably being 2012’s horror comedy “100 Bloody Acres”. David Dastmalchian stars as struggling late night talk show host Jack Delroy. Laura Gordon, Iam Bliss, Fayssal Bazzi, Ingrid Torelli and Rhys Auteri provide support. The movie is presented as a lost recording of a notorious Halloween special on the late night talk show “Night Owl” from 1977. Unseen” background footage supplements this along with a documentary like intro explaining Jack Delroy’s backstory. During the show we are introduced to various guests including a medium, a profession skeptic/magician and a young girl suffering an apparent demonic possession.
Right from the start you know this is going to be a fun and somewhat unique movie. It reminded me somewhat of “WNUF Halloween Special” from 2013. That movie pushed the comedy a bit more, while this is a little more serious and a lot more polished. Fake “Recovered footage” movies are quite rare. A lot of what makes them work (Or not) is how well they convince you they could be genuine. Obviously no one is going to think this was real, but you want it to at least provide a decent illusion of reality. They achieved this and more. Now to be fair, I was only four years old by the time 1980 rolled around. However, I have seen enough TV from the 1970’s to know what it should look like. In my view they nailed it. The cast is solid with everyone putting in quality performances. Dastmalchian is especially worthy of note though and it is his performance that ties the whole story together.
Abracadabra
The plot here is fairly straight forward but extremely well put together. The movie seamlessly sets up a number of story beats that all get paid off in meaningful ways, which is quite refreshing for a modern movie. The story builds organically throughout the (In movie) evening, with hell breaking loose in the last few moments. The movie wouldn’t have required a large budget because it is mostly talk, with well spaced out events that help build to the inevitable crescendo. It is really masterfully done. This is a movie partially about the originality, but mostly about the execution. The plot itself is sort of silly on the surface and could easily have been the bases of a truly terrible B-Movie, but instead we have a true cult classic on our hands.
It’s not hard to see why this has become somewhat of an overnight hit. I wasn’t even aware this movie was coming at the start of the year. Of course I did say when I wrote my article of upcoming movies that the best films of the year may well come out of nowhere, so here is the first example. This is a strong 7/10 and a definite cult classic. If you are into horror you will like it. If you are into imaginative horror comedy you will love it.
Monkey Man
Monkey Man is an melee based action and revenge thriller hybrid and the directorial debut of Dev Patel. Originally he intended his friend and past collaborator Neill Blomkamp to direct. Blomkamp declined but encouraged Patel to try his own hand at directing and this is the result. The movie is set in India and see’s Patel play “Kid” a somewhat mysterious character who is on a one man mission of revenge. His targets are a despotic cult leader and a corrupt and murderous chief of police. Kid works as a masked fighter in fixed fights at an underground boxing club, giving him some fighting skills and some cash to put towards his revenge plans. When the time is right he gets himself into a position to be hired as kitchen staff at a luxury brothel where his targets reside. Things do not quite go to plan however.
The movie is a hybrid between a neo-noir revenge thriller and outright action. In regards to the latter, these action scenes are quite spaced out in the movie with the vast majority in the second half. The momentum certainly builds up and once the hero passes the “Death and Rebirth” point of the heroes’ journey the movie provides solid edge of the seat action all the way to the finish. Speaking of the “Heroes’ Journey” it is clear that Patel has studied Joseph Campbell’s work on the subject. This is mostly a positive, though the movie wears the journey on it’s sleeve to the extent that becomes somewhat predictable. It also really makes it feel like somewhat of a superhero movie as well. The grittiness of the thriller side is mostly presented through the environment and the heroes flashbacks.
Future Promise
Patel puts in a solid performance as the lead and shows promise as an action star. His support does well too, but the characters themselves did not really interest me. Indeed the only character that was interesting was Patel’s “own.”Kid”. The setting itself is interesting and there is a definite feel of India to the movie, but not much is done to build up any of the characters outside of the lead. The villains especially come across as feeling somewhat generic. The protagonists backstory and the cause of his vengeance begins as a mystery and is slowly revealed through flashbacks. This can work in some movies, but here it also shrouds the antagonists in that same mystery making them seem distant and vague.
Monkey Man is somewhat of a mixed bag. It certainly has flaws and perhaps most of them stem from the movies ambition. The action, comedy and neo-noir elements tend to operate in a disjointed way, usually working against each other. It’s like a superhero origin story randomly merged with a Japanese style revenge movie. A lot of the time the movie doesn’t seem entirely sure what it wants to be. I suspect that Patel really wanted to create something unique, but unique is not always good. That’s not to say the film isn’t without merit. Overall I liked it, I just feel that it had a lot of room for improvement. Patel clearly has potential as a writer/director and is one to watch in the future. For now though, we have a solid 6/10.
Arthur The King
The final movie of this month’s review roundup is a heartwarming true story about an adventure racer, his team and a special dog. You can’t go too far wrong with that kind of story, in some ways perhaps it is a bit too easy, but easy doesn’t mean bad. The movie stars Mark Wahlberg who is supported by Ali Suliman, Nathalie Emmanuel and Simu Liu. It is directed by Simon Cellan Jones, written by Michael Brandt and based on the true story/novel “Arthur: The dog who crossed the jungle to find a home” by Mikael Lindnord.
Arthur the King tells the story of Michael Light, a professional adventure racer that has struggled to win gold all his career and is determined for one last shot. To get there he assembles a team of individuals with their own goals and points to prove and they head to the Dominican Republic for a grueling multi-day race across all kinds of dangerous terrain that will test their abilities to the peak. Along the way though they make an unexpected friend in a local stray dog that bonds with them and becomes their fifth member. Their journey captures the imagination of the races audience, but the team must risk everything to come home with what they truly desire.
Crossing The Jungle To Find A Home
Looking into the true story it seems the adaptation takes some creative liberties in regards to the protagonist (Now American and not Swedish), the makeup of the team (Adding in backstory drama and diversity), the location (Moving it from Ecuador to the Dominican Republic… Much to the chagrin of Ecuadorians) and a few minor details. The important part of the story though, the relationship between the team and this determined dog remains and seems pretty close to the real life events. The changes to the protagonist and his team allow them to build in a lot more general drama to the story, but not so much as to distract from the core story. It is enough that every member has a reason to be there.
The key character though is of course the dog “Arthur”, a very beaten down but determined dog that after a simple act of kindness pretty much decides to adopt the team and look out for them. It will definitely pull at the heart strings of every dog owner out there and I think everyone else will be moved as well. Outside of the emotional stuff, the film actually provides some solid action on top. Not really a shock given this is about adventure racing. Lives are at risk here several times throughout the journey. The risks are diminished somewhat though in that the film never really has the tone to make you think any of the team are doing to die, but it’s still a good spectacle. This is another film that proves the value of a simple story done well. This is a 6.5/10.
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