Category Archives: Thriller

Saltburn

Saltburn               4 ½ stars

It was in 2020 that I saw Promising Young Woman (at Sundance), the revenge movie written and directed by Emerald Fennell, who went on to win an Oscar for Best Screenplay, about a woman on a mission of revenge on behalf of women who are raped by men preying on them on the local bar scene. So, I had to see her new movie, Saltburn where she takes on the superrich and the war of class society in Britain. This is a movie about desire and deceit and the need to get whatever one wants no matter the cost. (And all set in the picturesque English countryside). We meet Oliver Quick (Irish actor Barry Keoghan who made quite an impression in The Banshees of Inisherin and The Killing of a Sacred Deer and has a face you will never forget), a working-class young man who is starting to attend Oxford in the early 2000’s. Oliver is smart but is a bit dorky and doesn’t make friends easily. Then one day he happens to let a fellow student, Felix Catton (Jacob Elordi of Priscilla as Elvis Presly) borrow his bike when Felix’s bike is broken. Felix is incredibly handsome and well-liked by guys and girls alike and most importantly is from a family of vast inherited wealth. Oliver is very fortunate to have this new rich friend who is so willing to help him out in situations at the college. But other students around them insist that this friendship is misguided and won’t work out. At the end of the school year, Oliver finds that he has no place to go due to an unfortunate family situation. But that is no problem when Felix insists that Oliver come and stay at Saltburn, the Catton family estate and mansion in the English countryside. At this grossly opulent and gargantuan property Oliver meets the family consisting of mother Elspeth (Rosamund Pike), father Sir James Catton (Richard E. Grant), and sister Venetia (Alison Oliver). Also, there is another one of Felix’s school friends Farleigh (Archie Madekwe) and a friend of Elspeth’s, “Poor Dear Pamela” (a fiery redheaded and tattooed Carey Mulligan like we have never seen). Saltburn is the kind of place where people lie naked in the grass but play tennis in tuxedos. There are also servants that are nameless to Felix and extravagant dinner parties. It is then that we see how things change as Oliver appears much smarter and manipulative than we had imagined and is driven by a desire to get what he can out of this family. He appears to be in love with the handsome Felix as we gather from certain homoerotic scenes but is also not above seducing the confused Venetia. And he can strike back at Farleigh in revenge when Farleigh embarrasses him at a party. But Oliver is not the only one controlling people as he learns when Felix is not fooled by Oliver’s act and tries to turn the tables on him. Like the thriller Promising Young Woman, events spiral further into the unexpected and we wonder how far it will go, and then yes, the movie delivers and goes even further. The film defines obsession showing us no limit as to what certain people will do to fulfil their wants. There are sex acts and total nudity abounding especially as the film reaches its climax. Perhaps Emerald Fennell will be earning more awards including Academy Awards with this one. It’s not one that will bore you.

Nimona

Nimona                 4 stars

From the studios of Annapurna and Netflix comes the animated movie, Nimona, originally a graphic novel by ND Stephenson. This energetic story takes place in a futuristic medieval kingdom where knights wear suits of armor, carry swords that fire energy beams and ride around in flying cars through the streets of a busy metropolis. Everyone there is aware of the legend of Gloreth, who defeated a fearsome monster a thousand years ago and is still revered. In the present we meet Ballister (Riz Ahmed), a knight who has few friends, but is close to fellow knight, Ambrosius Goldenloin, a descendant of Gloreth. It is clear that the two men have a romantic relationship, with this being the most gay-friendly animated movie I can remember. Early is the story, poor Ballister is framed for a murder and the knights of the kingdom are tasked with hunting him down. But Ballister is befriended by a young girl named Nimona (Chloe Grace Moretz) who isn’t all she appears to be at first. Nimona is a shapeshifter, a being that is not human and can assume the appearance of any creature in an instant and is practically invulnerable to things that would be fatal to a human. She is also a thousand years old and the only one of her kind. Ballister and Nimona see something in each other with Nimona wanting to protect Ballister and clear his name of the crime. She protects him by changing into a rhinoceros, an ostrich, a small bird and even a whale among other animals and runs circles around the hapless knights. Besides fighting knights she loves to wreck things destroying structures and statues that get in the way and doing it all in a bright shade of pink. It is apparent that the character is a stand in for a transperson. She is reviled by all and at one point says she doesn’t know what is worse, knowing that everyone wants to drive a sword through her heart or wanting them to do it. Nimona is seen as a monster to the population, but we learn that this image is really a creation by a society unwilling to accept someone that is different from everyone else. She is alone in this world and desperately needs to connect to someone. Besides the message, the movie has plenty of comic bits for the kids and plenty of action that will keep their attention. The movie was originally a project of Blue Sky Studios, which was acquired by Disney. Disney apparently thought the film was too gay for them and shut it down at which point Annapurna took over to complete it. The LGBTQ nature of the characters will not be lost on anyone. Good for the filmmakers for having the vision to see the project through.

Limbo

Limbo    4 ½ stars

Limbo is a film noir set in the Australian desert that follows the investigation or “review” of the murder of an indigenous girl that occurred 20 years earlier. Director/screenwriter Ivan Sen has created something very stark and bleak in this film depicting the disregard for indigenous people’s lives by the white population of Australia. Besides directing and writing, Sen was also responsible for the cinematography, the music, the editing, and the casting. He doesn’t star in the movie though. That is up to Simon Baker who plays Travis, the officer who must question those originally involved and affected by the case 20 years earlier. If you remember Baker from the TV show The Mentalist, you won’t recognize him. He has a buzz cut, is sporting a beard, and has glasses and many tattoos. Travis arrives in the town of Limbo where the crime occurred. He takes up residence at the Limbo Motel, an isolated building dug out of the earth. The town has few buildings and is sparsely populated with some indigenous and some white inhabitants, all of whom are poor. Many live in homes that are carved out of the earth like the hotel in order to escape from the heat of the desert. The name of the town is symbolic of the conditions they live in, seemingly in the middle of nowhere. Travis, who besides being a cop is a heroin addict, sets out to question the murdered girl’s relatives and others who were originally questioned years before. There is a brother and a sister of the girl who resent that so little was done by the police after the disappearance. It would have been very different if it were a white girl. There are others who were questioned by the police before, but that investigation went nowhere. Travis with his drug use and way of speaking, appearing distant makes him seem very aware of what this world is like. The movie isn’t so much about solving the crime as it is about exploring the hopelessness of these characters and how they have to struggle to survive. The landscape appears vast and barren using wide shots, including drone footage with everything filmed in black and white. It makes the people of the town appear small and insignificant. Don’t expect there to be any justice realized in this case. None of the characters do, including Travis. I have seen other Australian movies depicting the divide between the races in the country and this one is among the starkest and most unnerving among them. Ivan Sen is noted for directing a crime drama TV show set in the outback called Mystery Road. Judging by his work in Limbo that would be a series to check out.

Love Lies Bleeding

Love Lies Bleeding           4 stars

Love Lies Bleeding from second time director Rose Glass first played at the Sundance Film Festival this year and was one hot ticket that I could not score as the movie was so popular. It was just released this past week and it is as hot and violent as it is reputed to be. As the title suggests, there is a lot of love based on the steamy sex scenes, many lies are told and there is a whole lot of bleeding. “Love” is a classic B movie sexual thriller where you just know the characters are doomed and bad decisions will be made from the moment you see them. I thought of 1990’s Revenge starring Kevin Costner as I watched it. Kristen Stewart (Twilight Saga, Clouds of Sils Maria, Personal Shopper and Spencer) is in her queerest role yet as Lou who passes her days managing a gym in a small town in the middle of nowhere, New Mexico in 1989. The film begins with Lou cleaning a clogged toilet, telling you this is a dead end existence. One day, Jackie, a young pumped up body builder (who dreams of competing in the women’s World Bodybuilding Championship in Las Vegas) enters Lou’s life and judging by the hot sex scenes that follow, the two hit it off immediately. Jackie is played by Katy O’Brian whose bulging muscles, ripped abs, and raised veins practically pop out of the screen at us. She has managed to land a job at the local gun range that is owned by scumbag number one, Lou’s father (Ed Harris who looks like a decrepit hippie from Tales from the Crypt) and who has become rich by running illegal guns to Mexico. Over the years anyone who dares to stand against him has a way of mysteriously disappearing. Of course, it helps that the local cops take orders from him. Also, the FBI has been sniffing around asking questions of anyone including Lou. We learn that the only reason that Lou has stayed in this unnamed godforsaken town is for her sister, Beth (Jena Malone) who has a family and is married to scumbag number two, JJ (Dave Franco in a mullet) who likes to take out his frustrations on Beth’s face. One more character in the mix is Daisy (Anna Baryshnikov), a young woman who frequents the gym and finds Lou very attractive and forces her attention on Lou. With this mix of characters, criminal behavior, and bad judgment it is only a matter of time before things spiral out of control and the bodies begin to pile up. The feel of the movie is enhanced by the filming of most of it at night, the intense musical score and satanic looking images of Lou, Sr. in red. Add some hallucinatory images that give Jackie a fantasy-like appearance and you have a thrillingly hot and sexual B movie. I am hoping that Love Lies Bleeding has a good run and that Rose Glass has some more plans for such movies in her future. It will also be interesting to see what is next in Kristen Stewart’s career.