Way back in 2002 George Clooney made his directorial debut on, what is for me anyway, the best movie he ever helmed. Confessions of a Dangerous Mind starred Sam Rockwell as Gong Show host Chuck Barris, who in his memoir also claimed to secretly be a CIA spy and assassin, amongst other wild claims. It’s a film that demands to be rediscovered, and maybe that will happen now that Apple has plans on remaking it as a series event.
Deadline reports Apple TV+ will be the home of a new Confessions of a Dangerous Mind series based on Barris’ nutty 1984 memoir. And the guy they’ve already tapped to play the game show host/government hitman? Justin Timberlake, that’s who. Not the first pick I had in mind, but okay, I’m game.
The series will have a showrunner in David Hollander (Ray Donovan), working from a pilot script by Jon Worley (Iron Fist).
Timberlake is one of the biggest, multi-talented stars in the world, having excelled in his pop music career and as an actor. He’s appeared in such films as Runner Runner, The Social Network, Inside Llewyn Davis, Bad Teacher, and most recently the Apple TV+ drama Palmer.
Do yourself a favor and read Barris book and watch Clooney’s adaptation, which features Sam Rockwell at his absolute best.
Phoebe Waller-Bridge is going from one Lucasfilm franchise to another. The talented Fleabag creator and voice of feminist droid L3-37 in Solo: A Star Wars Story has joined the cast of Indiana Jones 5, according to Disney.
Waller-Bridge will “star alongside” Harrison Ford, who will play the Nazi-bashing, treasure-hunting adventurer for the final time. Also confirmed to return is composer John Williams, who will score the film.
Mangold said about the news, “Steven [Spielberg], Harrison, Kathy [Kennedy], Frank [Marshall], and John are all artistic heroes of mine. When you add Phoebe, a dazzling actor, brilliant creative voice and the chemistry she will undoubtedly bring to our set, I can’t help but feel as lucky as Indiana Jones himself.”
Bridge has been making serious moves in blockbuster franchises of late. She was brought on to help on the script for No Time to Die, becoming only the second woman to write a James Bond film.
God, it feels like forever since we’ve checked in with the kids from Hawkins, the unluckiest little town in America and home to the smash Netflix series Stranger Things. If you recall, at the end of last season we saw town sheriff Jim Hopper (David Harbour) sacrifice himself to save the town, only for his survival to be hinted at in a credits scene. It wasn’t “really” confirmed, but it did appear he was in a Siberian prison camp held by the Russians (because, you know, the 80s).
We got confirmation that they are currently filming the new season AND the confirmation of the worst kept secret on Netflix, Hopper is not dead. This news came via this adorable instagram live video where Harbour, who is one of the 9 kings of social media, talks about how tough his day on set has bid while sporting some really gnarly makeup making it look like he hasn’t slept in days. A little more then halfway through he calls in Millie Bobby Brown, who plays his psychic adopted daughter and government test subject, Eleven. What’s striking is that Brown states she’s recently been filming but is not sporting the usual look, making me think that it’s been some time since the timeframe setup in season 3 when we rejoin the group in season 4. Honestly, it’s the only thing that makes sense, with COVID these kids would have ALL visibly aged too much to say it takes place right after what we last saw.
Check out the clip below and tell us what you think!
In Looking For A Lady With Fangs And A Moustache, a young man living in Kathmandu must deal with the reality that because of a curse, he will die in a week. You may think a story like this would be set long ago, but writer/director Khyentse Norbu spins a tale of modern day religious mysticism and the personal journeys we all must go through to reach enlightenment.
Tenzin (Tsering Tashi Gyalthang) is a ponytailed and ambitious entrepreneur searching for the location of his new coffee shop, where he hopes to brew the best coffee in the country. While looking for potential spots in Kathmandu, he callously, and against the advice of his friend Jachung (Tulku Kungzang), rummages around inside an abandoned temple. Despite shrugging off the warning, Tenzin is soon haunted by his decision, experiencing mysterious visions while going about his routine. It doesn’t matter where he is – at band rehearsal, on his motorcycle, standing in his kitchen, green and yellow hued visions plague his everyday life. At Jachung’s urging, Tenzin meets with a prophet monk who informs him that he will die in a week as punishment. Unwilling to accept his fate, Tenzin consults a Buddhist master, who tells him the only way to live is to find and win the favor of a “dakini,” a wise female water spirit. Tenzin’s desire to live sends him on a wild goose chase around the city.
Director Khyentse Norbu infuses , with Tibetan lore and Buddhist philosophy, however he doesn’t spend much time explaining the mythology, expecting the audience to catch up on their own. This isn’t hard to do, but without a guiding hand from Norbu, you do feel like you are missing one or two important parts of subtext. A Tibetan/Bhutanese lama himself, Norbu is careful to not give too much away to his audience, wanting them to literally experience Tenzin’s experience with him and come up with their own answers.
Some of the side plots do get in the way of an already complicated narrative. Tenzin’s best friend Jachung’s hidden love for Tibetan singer and the complications that arise from that prove to be slightly distracting from Tenzin’s journey though that story line veers into romantic comedy territory. Norbu constantly breaks away from genre and while this choice works some of the time, with a confusing narrative, too many elements overcrowd the film.
Music supervisor Rachel Fox uses this concept with greater success. While the soundtrack is filled with traditional and calming Tibetan music, Fox takes the opportunity to throw some more unexpected choices at us including Tomas Mendez’s haunting Mexican standard “Cucurrucucú Paloma” and even a Tom Waits song. While each song may seem bizarre on paper, each one not only works with each scene it is featured in, but creates a cohesive flow as a full soundtrack.
The visuals feel decadent, the perfect complement to Fox’s music selection, luring the audience further and further into a trance. Cinematographer Mark Lee Ping-bing out does himself with Looking For A Lady With Fangs And A Moustache. Taking the already breathtaking Nepali landscapes, Ping-bing somehow squeezes every drop of color out of the riverbanks and mountains and dials its saturation up to eleven. The effect is mesmerizing, as if we are hallucinating and daydreaming along with Tenzin.
Lilly (Valerie Jane Parker) has had to deal with quite the hardships throughout her life. At a young age, Lilly (Chloe Romanski) was blinded from an auto accident that killed her mother. She can see some shades of blurry colors, but her sight is almost completely gone. Lilly was taken in by her aunt Becca (Jordan Ladd) who put her own life aside for Lilly’s. Almost immediately Lilly began to hear voices and was able to communicate with the dead in The Voices. Even into her teenage years, Lilly (Jenna Harvey) had to balance teenage life with pseudo psychic abilities. She did manage to meet her future husband Will (Colton Reese) and have some good times with her best friend Emily (Romy Reiner). Although in the back of her mind the voices were always there.
Now years later Lilly is pregnant, and the voices are beginning to intensify. So much so that Will (Jonathan Stoddard) and Emily (Rezeta Veliu) become extremely worried. The issue is only Lilly can hear them and she can have trouble telling who they are coming from. These voices start to impact her everyday life, including her profession. Lilly has taken the tragedies she’s gone through and spun them to try and help others as a grief counselor. One of her new clients, Diana (Jo Ann Olivera), is a medium who can sense Lilly’s gift. Diana warns Lilly of an evil coming, one that wants its soul to inhabit Lilly’s unborn child. Lilly is now not only fighting for herself, but for her child’s soul.
The Voices had some interesting ideas and certainly a bit of potential. However, the film takes far too long to really flesh out the main antagonist. On top of that when we finally are introduced…well it leaves a lot to be desired. The Voices worked best with little snippets of “horror.” A few dead people here, some ominous music there. When the film tries for too much, that’s when it starts to unravel. The expression ‘less is more’ comes to mind and, in the case of The Voices, fits perfectly. That also goes for most of the performances. As the complexities of the scenes were ratcheted up, some of the talent didn’t rise to the occasion. However, Parker was solid throughout and able to carry the film.
Writer/director Nathaniel Nuon and writer Daniel Hathcock weave flashbacks in and out of the narrative. They help to paint a picture of Lilly’s experiences and the evolution of her abilities. They also have Parker narrating on top to further help push the story along. Nuon uses framing incredibly well to give more context. The Voices has some creepy moments but is overall lacking on the scares. Some of the scares don’t seem to fit and may have been thrown in just to add some umph to the film. The typical horror movie head scratching decisions are in no short supply, so the audience can rest easy knowing that. The Voices has an interesting premise, but it fails to fully capitalize leaving it as another forgettable horror film.
When I sat down to watch Thunder Force, I wasn’t expecting Black Panther for fat women. I didn’t go in thinking that a Ben Falcone directed movie would make groundbreaking strides in cinematic body diversity. Instead, I went into the first fat female led superhero film with relatively low expectations, the main one being that Melissa McCarthy and Octavia Spencer’s characters would be treated with dignity.
It starts out on the right foot. Lydia (McCarthy) and Emily (Spencer) grew up in a world without superheroes but overrun with supervillain mutants, called miscreants. In true comic book fashion, one such villian kills Emily’s parents and in retaliation she vows to grow up and stop miscreants from their evil deeds. Along the way, the dedicated, hesitant, and bookish student meets her polar opposite, Lydia, a streetwise and reckless teenager who hates bullies and likes to stick up for the little guy by being obnoxious. After a falling out and years of not speaking, Lydia decides to visit Emily at her new lab where she accidentally injects herself with the chemical formula for super strength.
It’s pretty formulaic from there. The two form a team, try to fight miscreants played by Jason Bateman (Ozark, Arrested Development), Pom Klementieff (Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.2), and Bobby Cannavale (Blue Jasmine), fail a few times, and clash over their respective plans to save Chicago before putting aside their pasts and deciding to fight together to keep the city safe.
As performances go, McCarthy gives the standard “lovable’ slob we’ve come to expect from her when she works with Falcone, who happens to be her husband. Her characters in Tammy, The Boss, Identity Theft and The Happytime Murders all seem to feel like shades of each other. With Thunder Force, McCarthy’s over the top performance is expected, and at times, feels like a parody of itself. Lydia feels like a caricature of a person. In fact, Vivian Falcone’s version of the younger Lydia feels more natural and charismatic than her mother’s take on the character.
As for Spencer’s Emily, she’s completely wooden. Despite being friends with McCarthy for over twenty years, the two lack chemistry in these roles. McCarthy completely bulldozes over Spencer with her comedic antics, leaving the Oscar winner to pick up the emotional slack. Ben Falcone’s script does her no favors. Her character is completely underwritten and is given less of an arch compared to McCarthy.
With the plot being as predictable as it is and McCarthy giving us a character we’ve seen from her before, Falcone’s script plays it safe. Not only does it try to hit the comic beats you’re expecting and play into tired gags, he completely ignores the fact he is making a superhero film with two plus size women over the age of forty. While Falcone is never one to make a socially conscious comedy (Super Intelligence is the exception), his decision to ignore the impact of the groundbreaking firsts the film touts hurts Thunder Force overall. Paul Feig’s 2015 spy comedy Spy (which McCarthy also starred in) demonstrates the right way to explore these ideas, creating tension and comedic situations from conceit that no one would believe a middle aged, overweight woman in her forties could be capable of taking down the world’s most accomplished spies. The result is one of the most body positive comedies to date.
Falcone’s failure to acknowledge fatness in the film is nothing new to the superhero and comic book world, as body diversity is still a rather contested issue. Fanboys want their hot thin women with unrealistic proportions. Many argue that a fat physique goes against superhero type. I would counter that superheroes who receive their powers genetically could theoretically still be fat, just like fat people can be double jointed. Characters could still retain their fatness if they gain their powers through experimentation or a vat of toxic waste. If the only difference between our world and a superhero one are superpowers, then logically fat people would be able to fly, turn invisible, and have super strength, as we see in Thunder Force.
Comic book houses have rarely cashed in on that idea, making most of their fat characters villains, often portrayed as dumb slobs (The Blob, Penguin, The Shadow King, King Pin, to name a few of the most famous). There is a notable plus sized Marvel superhero known as Big Bertha, who can balloon up to 630 lbs and uses her body mass to become indestructible. Depending on the iteration, Bertha is portrayed as a freak show attraction, prostitute, and in her 1989 debut, as a supermodel who throws up in order to return to her size-two figure. You can imagine why Marvel hasn’t integrated her into the MCU.
Fatness is pretty much nonexistent in film adaptations of comics, except for a few side characters. The Blob has popped up in X-men Origins: Wolverine and X-Men: Apocalypse, Peter Parker’s best friend Ned is easily the largest “good guy” character in the MCU, even though he doesn’t have any powers. Happy Hogan appears in various Iron Man and Spiderman vehicles with fluctuating weights, again as a side character with no powers. Chris Hemsworth did don a prosthetic belly to become “Fat Thor” in Avengers: Endgame, but instead of using the weight gain as a device to talk about binge-eating and mental health, it was mainly an excuse to turn the God of Thunder into a depressed Big Lebowski type for comic relief. For the most part, the few fat characters who make a cinematic superhero transition are all male and mostly evil, portrayed as gross, disgusting creatures or as cheap comic fodder.
Other characters are “thinwashed” all together. The Marvel villain King Pin, who appeared in both the film and television versions of Daredevil, are played by large imposing actors who are more muscle than fat. In 2019’s Shazam, Pedro, a fat teenager, gains the ability to magically turn into an adult superhero, but instead of embracing his size and incorporating his natural body type into his superhero persona, he turns into a muscular hunk.
Like past fat superhero depictions, Thunder Force feels like a missed opportunity. Not only is it the first time fat female superheroes have appeared onscreen, its one of only a handful of superhero films led by women. Instead of Falcone and McCarthy embracing these facts and creating a smart narrative around it, the film breezes right past it. They go for the cheap laugh. “Oh a fat character is experiencing a weird side effect to their power? Let’s have her gorge herself on raw chicken. Lydia needs a love interest! Let’s have Jason Bateman wear crab claw arms! We’ll douse him in butter and Old Bay during the sex scene! It will be hilarious!” You wouldn’t see Scarlet Johansson or Zoe Saldana participate in a scene like that. These stereotypical gags may seem meaningless, but they contribute to the societal narrative that fat women are sloppy, lazy, and gluttonous archetypes without strength, control or valor. Any superhero butt-kicking that Spencer and McCarthy actually do in the film is completely overshadowed by these lazy and harmful bits.
In 2018, Sony announced they were developing a feature film based on the Valiant Comic character Faith. Easily one of Valliant’s most popular and beloved heroes, Faith is a comic book nerd and entertainment news writer by day, a superhero by night, and a passionate, funny, self-aware do-gooder all the time (think a bubbly & positive version of Deadpool). She has the ability to control air, meaning she can create force fields, shields, wind blasts, and even fly. She’s also fat, meaning if this movie were to be made, we would see a fat woman fly across the screen, defying gravity and societal expectations. It’s a shame Thunder Force can’t be that film. If only the producers were brave to save this film from itself.
Thunder Force is streaming on Netflix. Watch the trailer below.
I think we’ve all been waiting for this moment in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. No, not the moment when we get to see Zemo cut a rug like he did last week (or for an hour if you so prefer), but when the new Captain America John Walker (Wyatt Russell) would get pushed too far. From the moment he was introduced at the end of the first episode, we’ve known this guy, who comes from a place of earned privilege and gigantic ego, was no Steve Rogers. And those familiar with USAgent know he’s got a dark side to his patriotism. I don’t think we knew just how dark that side would be, but boy, did we find out.
But first, there’s the little issue of the arrival of Ayo (Florence Kasumba), second-in-command of Wakanda’s Dora Milajae. Damn, do they make an impact on this episode. The story actually begins six years prior, as Bucky (Sebastian Stan) is helped by the Wakandans to break his Winter Soldier programming. Specifically, he gets aid from Ayo and the two become friends. Cut to the present, and Ayo is not at all happy that Bucky helped free Zemo (Daniel Bruhl), who killed their King T’Chaka. Since the Dora Milajae don’t need to be subtle, she basically threatens him to hand over Zemo in eight hours or face their wraith.
That Wakanda is now in the picture really ramps up the stakes and puts Bucky, Sam (Anthony Mackie) and Zemo on a clock. Returning to Zemo’s joint, the trio decide to approach Karli (Erin Kellyman) with a more gentle approach. Not that Zemo agrees. He sees her as a supremacist, as anybody who takes the Super Soldier serum must be. Sam shoots back that it didn’t do that to Steve Rogers, to which Zemo rightfully counters that there’s never been another Steve Rogers. That stings for Sam on multiple levels, as someone who was given the opportunity to be Captain America but rejected it.
Zemo’s a trip here. He’s got this thing with Turkish Delight candy…”Irresistible”, he purrs. He then uses it to coerce some kids to give up Karli’s location, so I guess he and The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe were both right. When Karli is found at the funeral of her dead friend, Sam wants to talk to her alone but who should come and blow up the spot? A snarling, aggressive Captain America and his pal Lemar Hoskins aka Battlestar (Cle Bennett), who wants to bull right in and take her down. He gives Sam just 10 minutes, which is a ridiculously short amount of time to talk down the leader of an international revolution. Just sayin’.
It’s really beautiful the way Marvel is exploring what it means to be a hero like Captain America, and what it takes to be a symbol to millions who look up to you. The conversation between Sam and Karli finds that they actually have a lot of common ground. It’s all about tactics. Karli’s story is a sympathetic one; during the five years people were blipped out of existence, refugees were welcomed everywhere. There was prosperity and openness; humanity came together and helped one another through the crisis.Then, suddenly, everyone returned and things went back to normal. Discrimination, poverty, it all came rushing back. Sam can relate, but Karli keeps murdering people (Sam killed a rack of folks in Ep. 1, just sayin’) and he can’t let that go.
Sam might’ve been able to talk Karli down if it weren’t for Cap losing his shit, busting in and attempting to take her down. She gets away, of course, but so does Zemo…who finds Karli and shoots her before smashing the vials of Super Soldier serum she was holding. Well…all except one. And guess who finds it?
So, what does an egotistical, oft-disrespected Captain America who can’t win a fight do with a serum that could give him superhuman powers? What do you think? To be fair, he doesn’t take it right away. He has a heart-to-heart with Lemar first, who assures him that having super powers just makes you more of yourself. Now, I know Lemar meant well by that, and maybe he’s blinded because John is his buddy, but the rest of us know that more of John Walker Captain America sounds like a shitty idea.
I know I’ve said this a lot, but damn…I think my favorite Marvel scene ever plays out this episode, too. Shortly after, the Dora Milajae arrive to claim Zemo, and Captain America, unaware dufus that he is, gets all uppity towards them. He even dares…DARES to put his hands on one of the Wakandan royale soldiers. Ayo and the rest of her badass crew wipe the floor with Captain America and Battlestar, even going so far as to show him they can wield his shield better. I mean, it is made of Vibranium, after all. Furthermore, Ayo shows that she can literally dis-arm Bucky anytime she wants to, which throws him for a loop.
“They weren’t even Super Soldiers…”, a sullen Cap grumbles. Uh oh, we know where this is going.
During all of this fracas, Zemo slips away. They were all fighting over him but nobody bothered to keep an eye on him. Genius. If anything, we know these guys are badly missing Steve Rogers as their tactician and the guy who knew to KEEP BOTH EYES ON THE BAD GUY!
Sam’s sister Sarah (Adepero Oduye) pops up again, and it’s sad to see her storyline sidelined so badly. Anyway, she gets a call from Karli, disturbing how easily she gets her number, and wants to know who Sam really is. It seems his talk with her really did mean something, but still Karli felt betrayed when Cap decided to showoff. She wants to meet with Sam one more time to see where he really stands.
The meeting actually goes well, despite Bucky tagging along when Sam was told to come alone. Sam and Karli might have been able to come to some accord if you know who didn’t plow his way into the action. This was her plan all along, not to kill Sam but to destroy a false symbol of patriotism and an actual symbol of imperialism, which is, duh, Captain America. Cap begins plowing his way through the Flag-Smashers with surprising ease and some ridiculous displays of power. It’s clear this is not the same John Walker we’ve been watching get his ass handed to him.
Cap’s aggression is through the damn roof, but he goes absolutely nuclear when his buddy Lemar, who had been captured and escaped during the fight, gets thrown by Karli into a stone pillar. He dies instantly, and everybody is like “Awwwwww shit, we done fucked up now!” While Karli flees, Cap chases after one of her lieutenants and drills him in the back with a thrown shield. With the entire city watching and recording him on video, Captain America bashes the man repeatedly, before finishing him off with one final vicious blow.
Then, an image that I think will be iconic in Marvel lore: Captain America, framed like a true patriotic hero but has just committed an unspeakable act, his shield covered in blood.
Incredible episode that advances Sam’s feelings about becoming Captain America, while exploring what actually would mean. There’s a little moment here where Karli is told by one of her group that she should be Captain America for all of the good she’s doing for people. And the interesting thing is that her position doesn’t come from self-interest or straight up villainy, and that’s what Sam recognizes in her even if Zemo doesn’t. Under the right circumstances, Karli COULD be a good Captain America and Sam has to grapple with why he feels such a kinship with someone who has been branded a terrorist.
John Walker’s downfall is something we all knew was coming, and I think what’s remarkable is how it went down so naturally in only four episodes. That’s a credit to writer Derek Kolstad, who also penned some amazing action sequences in this film. Cap’s bruising of the Flag-Smashers has some really great shield and knife work, while the battle with the Dora Milajae is comical for how it undermines Cap so thoroughly.
With only two episodes to go there’s still a lot of ground to cover. Zemo is in the wind, the Power Broker is still out there, and what’s up with Isaiah Bradley? Is he coming back? Will Sarah get her bank loan? Can The Falcon and the Winter Soldier get to all of this with so little time left?
The cast of Marvel’s She-Hulk Disney+ series has just added a Tony and Grammy Award winner. Hamilton breakout Renée Elise Goldsberry has joined the show, according to Deadline, taking on a character named Amelia.
Details on the role don’t go beyond that first name. The only Marvel character that springs to mind is Amelia Voght, a mutant with transubstantiation powers who has been aligned with both Professor X and Magneto. She was also previously a member of SWORD, which is the government agency recently seen in WandaVision.
Goldsberry joins Tatiana Maslany who is set to play Jen Walters aka She-Hulk, who has all of the big green powers of her cousin Bruce Banner the Hulk, but less of the uncontrollable rage and split personality. The series is being framed as a half-hour legal comedy, with Mark Ruffalo expected to appear as Hulk and Tim Roth as the Abomination. Ginger Gonzaga is also on board as Walters’ best friend.
Outside of Hamilton, Goldsberry is also known for her roles in the acclaimed drama Waves, and Netflix series Altered Carbon. She’ll also star in Tina Fey’s upcoming Peacock comedy Girls5eva.
If you tuned in to this week’s Cinema Royale (if not, click the link and check it out!) you’ll know that one of my favorite moments was when Bucky, Sam, and Zemo went undercover in a Madripoorian nightclub to find the source of the super soldier serum. While there was a great fight scene involved it was the quick clip of Daniel Bruhl’s Baron Zemo cutting a rug that stuck out as the most memorable. Simply put it was the pinnacle of rich white guy moves, think Leo in The Wolf of Wall Street with way less energy.
In a move that proves the studios are listening to the fans Marvel has released a one hour clip of Zemo getting stanky in da club. It’s just amazing. To be honest, I’m not sure I’m onboard with studios getting in on the meme game. This is something that I would have swore a fan put together until I saw that it was submitted by Marvel’s official YouTube page. It’s like when a slang term starts showing up on The Simpsons or your mothers FaceBook post, I guess you could say “That is whack!”
There’s a reason Lord of the Flies is so enduring and is taught to kids in schools at an early age. It’s a timeless story about the nature of man, but also untamed youth and the poisonous effects fear, jealousy, and ego can have on a civilized society. Every generation gets their version of this story, and Neil Burger offers his own with Voyagers, which takes the same basic premise and rockets its unruly youngsters into deep space with Colin Farrell as their lone guardians. It’s an intriguing sci-fi premise that teases something more salacious than actually delivers, but Burger guides his cast of rising stars through familiar terrain like a pro.
The trick is that Burger knows exactly what Voyagers is. We could break it down to shorthand like “Lord of the Flies in space”, and that would be totally accurate. There’s nothing wrong with that as long as it’s more than a surface level recreation. It speaks to the strength of William Golding’s novel that it can be reimagined, taken out of an island jungle and transplanted into the future aboard a starship without losing much of its impact. The problems lie in some of the execution and the sanitized nature of a story that should be off the friggin’ chain with chaos.
The year is 2063 and, naturally, humanity has screwed up Earth so bad it needs to find a new planet to call home. When one is found, brilliant minds conjure up the idea of genetically breeding children for the 86-year voyage aboard the Humanitas. Farrell, who at one point in his badboy career would’ve been a ridiculous choice to play anyone’s chaperone, is Richard Alling, the guy in charge of this desperate mission. He’s meant to watch over the children, keep them safe, trained, and prepared to repopulate when the time comes.
Here lies the key: the passengers aboard the Humanitas aren’t meant to reach the destination. It’s their grandchildren who will reap the benefits of their sacrifice, and that is where Voyagers gets very intriguing on multiple levels. The kids, who are made docile by the blue Kool-Aid they drink every day, mature into obedient young adults, dutifully doing their tasks and admiring Richard as their father figure. But they never asked for this responsibility. They have this one life and they don’t really get to live it, they’re sworn to this obligation they won’t even see the rewards of. Is that fair?
Well, not to everyone aboard when they discover the truth about their blue drink. The responsible Christopher (Tye Sheridan, always the responsible one) and his wild-eyed cohort Zac (Fionn Whitehead) don’t think so, and they stop drinking it, encouraging others to do so, as well. What’s next is predictable. Hormonal kids are gonna be hormonal kids, ya’ll! Soon, they’re both lusting over the comely Sela (a reserved Lily-Rose Depp)…”You look different!” and wrestling like WWE superstars to the fascination of the others. It isn’t long before tragedy strikes, battle lines are drawn, a rock gets dropped onto Piggy’s head…oh wait, that’s a different story, but you get my drift.
Shot in cold, blue-white sterility, Voyagers presents a peak utopian society, one where virtue is cultivated artificially as if to keep man’s baser instincts locked away in the cargo hold. It makes a terrific counter-balance to the second half of the film when things go half-cocked, reports of killer aliens spring forth, and people start getting killed. Production values are top-notch, done with the kind of simple efficiency that would’ve made sense for this time period and for this mission.
Burger is a veteran filmmaker who knows how to deliver entertaining mainstream content with the barest hint of an edge to it. He directed the Bradley Cooper smart-pill thriller Limitless, and the first chapter of the Divergent franchise. There was also the catchy magician thriller The Illusionist, and somewhat controversial military drama The Lucky Ones, a personal favorite. However, Burger takes on material that pushes too far, and Voyagers is no different. Sex between the passengers is teased mightily in promos but is only a suggestion in the actual film. Instead, we get a crazy flash of hair-raising, animal-attacking images to hint at the swirling emotions of those who are experiencing them for the first time. Why is a movie about sexual awakening and revolt playing it so safe?
Farrell gets the most to work with here, proving once again that he is one of our best actors even in a role that’s not really meant to shine. I think we forget how good Farrell is when showing his sensitive, kind-hearted side, and Richard is someone who has sacrificed his own happiness to be a protector for kids he doesn’t even know. He has all of the emotional attachment of a parent but the burden of knowing his “children” have a dire fate ahead. Sheridan, Depp, and Whitehead are the only actors who get anything of significance while rising stars such as Viveik Kalra (of Blinded by the Light), Chante Adams (Roxanne Roxanne), Quintessa Swindell (Black Adam), and Isaac Hempstead Wright (Game of Thrones) do little but blend into the mix.
Voyagers is more efficient than exemplary, which pretty much describes Burger’s filmography to a tee. Even as the film devolves into a fairly standard thriller, with one group of fanaticized future-leaders hunting down another, it remains totally watchable and committed to mirroring moments established in Lord of the Flies. Cinematographer Enrique Chediak (Bumblebee) even manages some cool time-lapsed imagery as the years zip by. As the time speeds through, rushing us through the hallways of the Humanitas, you can’t help to feel Voyagers could’ve done more than simply mimick Lord of the Flies, but to give it some exploration.
Now years later Lilly is pregnant, and the voices are beginning to intensify. So much so that Will (Jonathan Stoddard) and Emily (Rezeta Veliu) become extremely worried. The issue is only Lilly can hear them and she can have trouble telling who they are coming from. These voices start to impact her everyday life, including her profession. Lilly has taken the tragedies she’s gone through and spun them to try and help others as a grief counselor. One of her new clients, Diana (Jo Ann Olivera), is a medium who can sense Lilly’s gift. Diana warns Lilly of an evil coming, one that wants its soul to inhabit Lilly’s unborn child. Lilly is now not only fighting for herself, but for her child’s soul.
The Voices had some interesting ideas and certainly a bit of potential. However, the film takes far too long to really flesh out the main antagonist. On top of that when we finally are introduced…well it leaves a lot to be desired. The Voices worked best with little snippets of “horror.” A few dead people here, some ominous music there. When the film tries for too much, that’s when it starts to unravel. The expression ‘less is more’ comes to mind and, in the case of The Voices, fits perfectly. That also goes for most of the performances. As the complexities of the scenes were ratcheted up, some of the talent didn’t rise to the occasion. However, Parker was solid throughout and able to carry the film.
Writer/director Nathaniel Nuon and writer Daniel Hathcock weave flashbacks in and out of the narrative. They help to paint a picture of Lilly’s experiences and the evolution of her abilities. They also have Parker narrating on top to further help push the story along. Nuon uses framing incredibly well to give more context. The Voices has some creepy moments but is overall lacking on the scares. Some of the scares don’t seem to fit and may have been thrown in just to add some umph to the film. The typical horror movie head scratching decisions are in no short supply, so the audience can rest easy knowing that. The Voices has an interesting premise, but it fails to fully capitalize leaving it as another forgettable horror film.
