Three Films Make A Post: They said he couldn’t cut it – they were right!

Cosmic Dawn (2022): There are exactly three things Jefferson Moneo’s very mysterious cult plus aliens movie has going for it: cheap but clever production design, a bright yet strange, sometimes even psychedelic, use of colour, and a perfectly decent central performance by Camille Rowe. Alas, the rest of the film is terrible: the pacing is drawn out and slow for no reason apart from keeping things “mysterious” and “ambiguous” (both of which they aren’t, if you’ve ever read about actual cults or have seen movies about fake ones), the dialogue tends to the inadvertently comical, the rest of the acting is so broad one might think this is supposed to be a comedy (it apparently isn’t?), and all the script’s structure of shifting between different time periods does is draw out things even more. Sometimes, narrative devices that are good for TV or can be used productively by really great screenwriters aren’t what more pedestrian talents should use, apparently.

And since there are at least a handful of movies about UFO cults that are actually good (decent would be enough in this case), I don’t see why anyone should waste their time with this one.

Ghosts of the Ozarks (2021): While it isn’t without its problems either, I’m rather more fond of this Weird, somewhat philosophical, Western-ish film by Matt Glass and Jordan Wayne Long. Sure, its script does have some unnecessary lengths too, but it also has something to say, saying it via a fantastical narrative because that’s simply a great way to talk about complicated things without getting distracted. That Ghosts does this in ways which are sometimes a bit cheesy, perhaps even silly, will be a problem to some viewers, but does feel so personally and individual to me in this case, it actually becomes one of the film’s strengths.

The direction is a bit awkward sometimes, but mostly in the way films straining against their budgets can get. The acting is generally good to great – with leads Thomas Hobson, Tara Perry (who also co-wrote) and Phil Morris doing fine work. And it’s always nice to see Angela Bettis, and David Arquette being weird.

The Map of Tiny Perfect Things (2021): As if we were trapped in one, we are living in the age of the time loop movie again. Like certain characters in many entries of the genre, I’m perfectly fine with it, at least as long the time loop movies are as good as the current batch. Quality-wise, this teen romance version by Ian Samuels (with a script by Lev Grossman in a very uncynical incarnation) is certainly keeping with modern sub-genre standards, hitting all the mandatory beats of the time loop film and the teen romance, but giving all of them a neat, even mildly subversive twist of their own. Kathryn Newton and Kyle Allen make for very likeable leads indeed, too. Newton should have a nice career in front of her even when she’s not playing characters possessed by Vince Vaughn, it seems.

Apart from making a film that’s charming as all get out, the filmmakers also succeed in giving it one of those “positive emotional messages” without letting it get schmaltzy; instead the emotional beats feel genuine and deserved. Perhaps a bit too optimistic about the non-crappy nature of the universe, but them’s the breaks.

In short: Freaky (2020)

Some days, I feel like half of what I do around here is complaining about films a lot of other viewers seem to like quite a bit. So how about Christopher “Happy Death Day” Landon’s newest effort, that continues his series of gimmicky, self-conscious romps. Well, at least in this case, I’m really complaining about a film that I found very entertaining throughout.

It’s a body swap movie between a slasher (Vince Vaughn) and a teenage girl named Millie (Kathryn Newton) and the usual attempts by the girl in the old guy’s body to reverse the swap before it becomes permanent, while the killer first proves that he has a better sense of style and knows how to apply make-up properly, before he kills his way through a few people.

We don’t really have to be too sorry about anyone the slasher kills in our heroine’s body, though, for he’s managing quite well to only kill the bullies and assholes in her life, if with very satisfying amounts of gore. He also, conveniently, never does his thing in any way that’ll get Millie in trouble if and when she returns to her own body.

Which, on one hand, is a perfectly logical direction to take for a film, but it’s also a very safe direction that leads to a film that never can be anything more complex than a violent romp because it doesn’t dare to create true emotional and physical stakes, nobody the film actually cares about ever being believably at risk either in body or in mind, or in future college prospects. It’s a bit like an ultra-violent version of Chris Chibnall’s Doctor Who in this way, risk-averse to a nearly ridiculous amount.

If you can adjust your expectations accordingly (something I sort of managed while doing a bit of internal grumbling), though, Freaky does have quite a few charms. It certainly is never anything less than a fun, fast, sometimes funny romp, with some good gore gags, expert pacing, and just about the right amount of self-consciousness, looking slick but not too slick.

Vaughn and Newton give lovely performances throughout (Vaughn probably now having to fight it out with Jack Black when it comes to who is the best older guy playing a body-swapped teen girl), as does the organically diverse supporting cast (Celeste O’Connor and Misha Osherovich being the obvious stand-outs).

So, while not exactly getting the film I would have wanted, I can’t blame Freaky for being what it is.