January 5, 2023
The Disney Plus app is not only filled with all the family-friendly animated classic films that the Walt Disney Company built their name upon. These three films, all with decidedly un-Disney dark themes, were produced by Disney subsidiary, Searchlight Pictures. Searchlight was founded in 1994 as Fox Searchlight Pictures, Inc., as the art-house arm of the 20th Century Fox Studios, so you can still hear their familiar theme music when their logo is shown.
Director: Mike Mylod
Margot Mills (Anya Taylor-Joy) was invited by obsessive foodie Tyler (Nicholas Hoult) to be her substitute date for an exclusive dinner by his idol, celebrity chef Julian Slowik (Ralph Fiennes) set on a private island. Also attending were food critic Lillian (Janet McTeer) and her editor, wealthy couple Richard and Anne (Reed Birney and Judith Light), has-been ham actor George (John Leguizamo) and his PA, and a trio of business partners.
This had all the ingredients of a murder-mystery, with the isolated location and a gathering of eccentric rich folk. However, this one went totally in another direction when Chef Julian began to describe the concept of his one-of-a-kind menu planned that evening. Hong Chau gave off creepy vibes in her every scene as the hostess Elsa. Hoult's portrayal of the pretentious know-it-all foodie Tyler was black comic gold. Mylod's scenes of shocking violence provide the additional jolt on top of the sharp social commentary. 7/10.
Director: Zach Cregger
Coming into town for a job interview, Tess (Georgina Campbell) booked a house in a rundown neighborhood of Detroit. Upon arriving at the house, Tess finds out that the place has been double-booked and is already occupied by a young man named Keith (Bill Skarsgaard). Caught with no other choice, Tess decided to stay the night as Keith seemed to be a good guy. In the morning, several red flags indicate that she should not get out of there at once.
Two young people booking the same AirBnb house was the same scenario as rom-com "Love in the Villa" but this one was in the horror-thriller genre. Tess was very annoying with all the crazy decisions, so this long ordeal of hers was essentially a product of her own bad judgement. Justin Long's character AJ must be one of the most annoying creeps ever, and deserved everything that happened to him. This was just so-so for me, I frankly do not understand the critical acclaim for this. 5/10.
Director: Mimi Cave
Noa (Daisy Edgar-Jones) had always been meeting the wrong guys from the dating app she used. Just by chance at the supermarket, a friendly young reconstructive surgeon named Steve (Sebastian Stan) approached her and asked for her number. After a few dates, Steve invited Noa for an out-of-town trip alone with him. Her best friend Mollie (Jojo T. Gibbs) was against it, but Noa agreed to the trip even without knowing the destination.
Sebastian Stan's Steve was so charming in Act 1, you will never expect what he had in store for Noa in Act 2. Too good to be true, he certainly got us all fooled, especially with what he planned to do with Noa. The premise of this film was disgusting, hard to swallow, certainly not for the faint at heart. This is especially true in that long scene when Cave actually had Steve skillfully and lovingly preparing the fresh main protein of his unconventional food business. 7/10.
No comments:
Post a Comment