Chloe Domont’s “Fair Play” made a sensational debut at the January 2023 Sundance Film Festival, then made a belated premiere on Netflix this month.

Like any film festival favorite that premieres on a high-profile streaming site, there’s the danger of it being overshadowed by flashier fare.

Whether you’re fully on board with writer/director Domont’s take-no-prisoners thriller or (like myself) find the third act lacking plausibility, this is an admirable, risk-taking work that is worth seeing alone for the courageous performances of its stars, Phoebe Dynevor and Alden Ehrenreich.

Luke (Ehrenreich) and Emily (Dynevor) work at a Manhattan hedge fund and manage to keep their passionate relationship a secret from their co-workers. While Luke works as Emily’s analyst and can’t seem to get the promotion he feels is within reach, Emily ascends to the upper ranks at the beckoning call of Campbell, her powerful, repulsive boss (a vividly despicable Eddie Marsan).

While Emily and Luke are business-only colleagues during the day, their romance and plans to further their relationship power their time alone together, hidden away in their apartment. The real trouble for them begins when the power dynamic between them shifts.

Imagine the setting of “Margin Call” combined with the uncomfortable frankness of “Marriage Story” and you have this movie. “Fair Play” is easy to admire and the two lead performances are stunning – Dynevor, a “Bridgerton” favorite, conveys the tortured path her character takes and Ehrenreich (“Solo: a Star Wars Story”) matches her scene for scene.

While the film may cause some to declare it feminist, Domont is actually exploring how a terrible work environment inwardly destroys both of its protagonists in different ways. Yes, by the film’s end, Luke has sunk to a new low but so has Emily, who mirrors her vile boss in the film’s painful final moment.

Picking sides isn’t the point here – this isn’t the “Barbie” movie.

The opening scene, both outrageous and tender, had me hooked. The film manages to sustain enough suspense over whether Emily and Luke’s relationship will become an HR cautionary tale or remain hidden from their cruel co-workers.

The early intrigue falls prey to contrivance and showy actor set pieces don’t ring true. How is it that the company car picks up Emily in the morning and never notices Luke walking out of the same building just seconds after her?

Who on Earth would actually go to the climactic wedding party that acts as a last stand for the protagonists?

FAST FACT: Netflix gobbled up the rights to “Fair Play” for a reported $20 million after the film wowed a Sundance Film Festival crowd.

Also, my biggest complaint: that in-the-office freakout that causes a main character to be fired. I didn’t buy it for a second and only admired the actors for going through with it. If anything, a scene that occurs earlier, where a character literally gets down on his knees and lays everything on the line for his boss, is far more plausible and painful.

When Domont is connecting her characters to unearthed emotional honesty, it’s as harrowing as it intends to be. However, when she stacks the melodrama and public embarrassments to the breaking point, “Fair Play” doesn’t play fair.

I understand why the lead couple wouldn’t be discovered in the laboratory of the opening scene but that drawn out shocker in the third act? There’s no way someone wouldn’t have interrupted them.

Asked some HR professionals to watch Fair Play and they have notes! pic.twitter.com/V60gyqHakt

— Netflix (@netflix) October 15, 2023

Domont doesn’t need to spell out all her points, but some issues get lost, like a massive check that is neglected in favor of nighttime debauchery and how, from what we see here, anyone who succeeds at this company will eventually become a monster.

Oliver Stone’s “Wall Street” (1987) is better is making this setting a moralistic cautionary tale, and Meera Menon’s “Equity” is better at depicting how differently and unfairly women are treated in an environment of toxic males in suits.

Dynevor and Aldenreich made me care about Emily and Luke, even when they disappoint one other and us, but “Fair Play” eventually lost me by nudging me in the ribs with its over-the-top dramatics.

As a conversation piece, Domont and her stars have really come up with something, but this is also the kind of unpleasant, mean and cold boardroom drama that you watch once, tops.

Two and a Half Stars

The post Provocative ‘Fair Play’ Doesn’t Play Fair appeared first on Hollywood in Toto.

Crocodiles don’t get the genre love that sharks do, but Hollywood still finds something scary about the critters.

Modern croc romps like “Rogue,” “Lake Placid” and “Black Water” stoked our fears of these scaly beasts. We’re still waiting for the crocodile equivalent of “Jaws,” the movie that sets the bar impossibly high for the sub-genre.

“Crawl” didn’t do the trick, but it’s still a creature feature worth your while.

Kaya Scodelario stars as Haley, a collegiate swimmer who returns home to check on her estranged father (Barry Pepper). A major tropical storm is threatening his neighborhood, and she wants to make sure he’s prepared.

Good call.

Not only is Dad incapacitated, but the waters flooding his neighborhood bring some unwanted visitors into his home.

Crocs. And boy, are they famished.

The father-daughter dynamic keeps the croc-free sequences fresh, and setting much of the movie in the flooded home’s crawl space proved a stroke of genius.

Director Alexandre Aja (“High Tension,” the “Hills Have Eyes” remake) shared his secret to films like “Crawl” and how he tried to upend genre cliches in the process.

I think it’s a key of survival movies is when you expect something, something else happens and everything goes wrong every time. And so you really, really feel that they have no chance to make it to the end of the day.

“Crawl” sounds like something the Syfy network might crank out on the tiniest budget possible, but the horror flick had two powerful friends. The first is “Evil Dead” legend Sam Raimi, who instantly warmed to the script and served as a producer on the project.

The other?

 Quentin Tarantino said “Crawl” just might be his favorite film of 2019, the same year “Jojo Rabbit,” “Joker” and “Uncut Gems” hit theaters.

31 Days of Horror:

• “Splinter“
• “Rogue“
• “Train to Busan“
• “The Battery”
• “Eden Lake“
• “Housebound“
• “Fresh“
• “Bone Tomahawk“
• “Another Evil“
• “The Blob“
• “The Descent Part 2“
• “Hush“
• “Wrong Turn” (2003)
• “Tourist Trap“
• “Cargo“
• “Psycho II” (1983)
• “Haunt“
• “VFW“
• “Girl on the Third Floor“
• “X“
• “Slither“
• “Backcountry“

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Greet horror movies “based on a true story” with extreme skepticism.

“The Blair Witch Project’s” marketing machine teased the “truth” behind its fictional found footage yarn to great effect.

The 1974 horror classic “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” similarly stretched a kernel of truth like taffy to fit the advertising campaign.

The events depicted in 2014’s “Backcountry” actually happened. Sort of. First-time director Adam MacDonald researched black bear attacks and used two incidents to inspire his film. The filmmaker’s research gives the thriller a palpable sense of dread, something many horror movies can’t convey.

We know Freddy, Jason and Michael Myers aren’t real, but campers should fear black bears roaming near their camp sites.

Alex (Jeff Roop) and girlfriend Jenn (Missy Peregrym) set out on a camping adventure that takes a wrong turn from the start. He’s cocky and eager to flex his outdoor chops, and she’s more than willing to play along.

At first.

Except Alex’s “chops” aren’t as advertised, and a chance encounter with a genuine outdoorsman (Eric Balfour) upends the trip’s romantic potential. Alex’s wounded ego makes for an unpleasant companion, and what began as a fun getaway slowly becomes a test of their compatibility.

Could this be their last vacation as a couple? None of that matters when they realize they’re not alone in the woods.

MacDonald set out to upend survival movie cliches, and he mostly succeeds. He’s aided by Roop and Peregrym who connect as a couple in distress before and after the bear makes its appearance.

“Backcountry” is mostly fiction, but bear attacks kill people every year.

The National Park Service says the color of the bear in question dictates your best chances of survival. If a brown bear charges, the best defense is to play dead.

That isn’t wise If the bear in question is black. In that case, fight back with everything possible.

One thing is clear: Bear spray may be your best defense against a scared or predatory beast.

31 Days of Horror:

• “Splinter“
• “Rogue“
• “Train to Busan“
• “The Battery”
• “Eden Lake“
• “Housebound“
• “Fresh“
• “Bone Tomahawk“
• “Another Evil“
• “The Blob“
• “The Descent Part 2“
• “Hush“
• “Wrong Turn” (2003)
• “Tourist Trap“
• “Cargo“
• “Psycho II” (1983)
• “Haunt“
• “VFW“
• “Girl on the Third Floor“
• “X“
• “Slither“

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Some of our biggest stars first got noticed in low-rent horror films.

Kevin Bacon met Jason Voorhees’ ma the hard way in the original “Friday the 13th.” Renee Zellweger and Matthew McConaughey graced “The Return of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre,” the 1995 sequel that failed to replicate the terror of the 1974 classic.

“Slither,” from the delightfully warped mind of James Gunn, gave Elizabeth Banks an early, extended close-up. She’s joined by fellow standouts Michael Rooker, Jenna Fischer of “The Office” fame and “Firefly” alum Nathan Fillion, all of whom emerged with solid careers across film and TV genres.

The film follows a small town overrun by alien worms that take over their hosts and turn them into, well, the ugliest critters you can imagine.

Fillion plays the long arm of the law, and his way with the film’s wink-wink screenplay is one of many highlights. “Slither” is unapologetically a horror-comedy hybrid, and Gunn has the perfect cast to pull the tonal shifts off.

Banks is coming off her scene-stealing moments from 2005’s “The 40-Year-Old Virgin,” and she’s forced to get up close and personal with Rooker as his body morphs into a scaly, gelatinous mess.

Yech.

The splatterfest leans heavily on practical effects, the gooier the better, and Gunn’s willingness to go for broke adds to the merriment.

The future “Guardians of the Galaxy” director once described his film as “the weird kid in the back of the class that is putting his boogers underneath the desk.” It’s hard to imagine a more accurate take on the movie’s wacky spirit.

31 Days of Horror:

• “Splinter“
• “Rogue“
• “Train to Busan“
• “The Battery”
• “Eden Lake“
• “Housebound“
• “Fresh“
• “Bone Tomahawk“
• “Another Evil“
• “The Blob“
• “The Descent Part 2“
• “Hush“
• “Wrong Turn” (2003)
• “Tourist Trap“
• “Cargo“
• “Psycho II” (1983)
• “Haunt“
• “VFW“
• “Girl on the Third Floor“
• “X“

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Steve Miner’s “Halloween H20: Twenty Years Later” (1998) opens with “Mr. Sandman” by The Chordettes (as did “Halloween II”) and a pumpkin being stabbed with a large kitchen knife.

The filmmakers are telling us, after the murky world-building of “Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers” (1995), we’re back to John Carpenter’s stripped-down, original vision.

Set on October 29th, 1998, we’re introduced to a charismatic young Joseph Gordon-Levitt (during his “3rd Rock from the Sun” years). An investigation inside a foreboding house leads to the discovery that Michael Myers is alive and still searching for his sister.

It’s a scary, fittingly disturbing start, as we witness how cops are just seconds away from an intervention that could have saved someone’s life.

The effective opening credits (which cleanly lay out the story for newcomers and exhibit John Ottman’s hefty orchestral take on Carpenter’s classic keyboard score) connect us to the legacy of the 1978 original. Yet, Miner’s film was made so long ago, it has a credit that reads, “Introducing Josh Hartnett.”

Jamie Lee Curtis returns as Laurie Strode for the first time since “Halloween II” (1981), in which Michael Myers, her masked serial killer brother, blew up in a hospital hallway and subsequently burned to death after that (he’s famously hard to kill).

Now, Strode is living in Summer Glen, California, under the identity of “Keri Tate,” the headmaster of Hillcrest Academy High School. Her relationship with a colleague, played by Adam Arkin, is certainly passionate but cloaked in deception, as Strode has instructed her son (Hartnett) to keep her real name a secret.

This is the best “Halloween” sequel to date, as it’s as atmospheric and suspenseful as the superior entries, but also really exciting.

Curtis is excellent here. Between this and David Gordon Green’s dramatically strong 2018 “Halloween,” the Oscar winner gave performances worthy of comparison to Sigourney Weaver’s decades-long return to Ellen Ripley in the “Alien” quadrilogy.

The lingering controversy this generated comes from fans unhappy with the mask, which varies in appearance and has disheveled hair (apparently, Myers doesn’t take good care of his William Shatner mask).

NW: #HalloweenH20 (favorite) pic.twitter.com/Y9OuOQhefW

— CriticalOverlord (@CriticalOverlo3) October 19, 2023

The best thing about “Halloween: H20” is that it’s Curtis’ gift to longtime fans seeking closure, narratively and commercially. The worst thing? The film arrived after 1996’s “Scream” and feels slick and safe, with the teen peril as overly familiar as it was a decade earlier.

“Scream” author Kevin Williamson made an uncredited contribution to the screenplay, but his fingerprints are all over this. From the shot of Leavitt cheekily wearing a hockey mask to “Scream 2” playing in a dorm room, the scenes that try the hardest to appeal to the demographic are the ones that are the most dated and predictable.

The grownups are far more fleshed out and interesting than the hickey and flannel-obsessed teens. Aside from the aforementioned scenes that don’t take place at the school, the stalk n’ slash sequences here are generic, until we get to Strode deciding to face her brother.

Like the exhilarating moment in “Aliens” (1986) where Weaver’s Ripley has hit her limit in fear and transforms into a fierce warrior, the Strode vs. Myers portion of this is thrilling and worth waiting for the cliches (dropped keys, a car that won’t start, etc.) to cease.

The teen characters are only interesting because of who is playing them, as budding Hartnett and the eventually brilliant Michelle Williams are joined by “Little Man Tate” star Adam Hann-Byrd and onetime teen star Jodi Lynn O’Keefe.

There’s also LL Cool J, awkwardly included but sticking out in a comic relief role that never really takes (he would be much better utilized the following year in Renny Harlin’s “Deep Blue Sea”).

Arkin works well to bring grounded reality to Curtis’s character – the sad, quiet scene where Strode admits who she really is beautifully written and acted. Gordon Green’s 2018 sequel/reboot dug into Strode’s psychology far deeper, but this wisely portrays her as an alcoholic with PTSD and a focus on work to distract from the boogeyman who may still be out there.

There’s also a small role for Janet Leigh, who is adorable and forceful in the two scenes she shares and steals from Curtis – considering that this was her final film and that she exits to the faint strains of Bernard Hermann’s “Psycho” score on the soundtrack, this is a fine tribute.

In addition to the chilling opener, there’s a terrifying scene in the first act, set in a rest stop. Between this, “Friday the 13th Part 2” (1981) and “House” (1986), Miner (despite not being a showy or nuanced filmmaker) is good at straightforward horror.

RELATED: ‘HALLOWEEN: RESURRECTION’ MARKED FRANCHISE’S LOW POINT

Unfortunately, Miner’s double whammy of a climax (both the violent cat and mouse game and the wild closing moment) would be undermined and retconned by the unwelcome and needless sequel, “Halloween: Resurrection” (2002).

If you pretend that movie doesn’t exist (and for that matter, that only this and Carpenter’s ’78 classic are it for the series), the ending plays even better.

The jaw-dropping final moment of “Halloween: H20” is a perfect, abrupt and entirely satisfying conclusion to both the film and everything that came before it. Greed kept this franchise going but true inspiration and a literal bold swing allowed this series to end on a strong note in ’98 but…evil never dies, so we will be seeing Michael Myers again.

The post ‘Halloween H20: 20 Years Later’ Should Have Ended Franchise for Good appeared first on Hollywood in Toto.

Slasher films once obsessed over sex.

The genre’s young, attractive victims had plenty of it, or they shed their clothes before getting impaled by the nearest sharp object.

Director Ti West understands that not-so-rich history and tweaks it via his sturdy horror film “X.”

A group of pretty, ambitious teens seek a place to shoot an adult movie in the late 1970s. The VHS revolution is about to upend the American marketplace, and these horny friends hope to take advantage of it.

A star or two may be born, they hope. Too bad they shoot the project in an abandoned home owned by an elderly couple with anger control issues.

Mia Goth gets two juicy roles – the adult film ingenue and one half of the elderly couple. Yes, her makeup is both extensive and effective, one of many creepy factors working in the film’s favor.

West’s horror efforts rely on a slow-burn principle — viewers must be patient while the horrific details slowly assemble before them. “X” is different, if only due to the on-screen nudity and colorful banter between the leads.

We’re plenty distracted before the body count starts to rise.

The film honors classic horror movies like “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” while acknowledging the ties between sex and death in the genre. Plus, West set the story during a specific time in U.S. cultural history.

With Texas, I wanted this sense of the entrepreneurial Americana of the late ’70s and being an outsider filmmaker trying to break into an industry — whether it’s horror or porn. I just wanted to get that sort of entrepreneurial go-getter spirit of it. It just felt like the place to do that. I knew it would be about a bunch of people going to a place to do something.

The director envisioned “X” as part of a horror trilogy. We’ve already seen “Pearl,” a modest shocker featuring Goth as the youthful version of the character she plays in “X.” “MaXXXine” has no release date as of yet, but it follows Goth’s “X” character as she attempts to become a star in ’80s era America.

31 Days of Horror:

• “Splinter“
• “Rogue“
• “Train to Busan“
• “The Battery”
• “Eden Lake“
• “Housebound“
• “Fresh“
• “Bone Tomahawk“
• “Another Evil“
• “The Blob“
• “The Descent Part 2“
• “Hush“
• “Wrong Turn” (2003)
• “Tourist Trap“
• “Cargo“
• “Psycho II” (1983)
• “Haunt“
• “VFW“
• “Girl on the Third Floor“

The post 31 Days of Horror – ‘X’ appeared first on Hollywood in Toto.

Creaky floors. Flickering lights. Objects that move on their own.

Haunted house movies are a staple of the Halloween season, but it’s hard not to be bored by the sub-genre’s tropes by now.

That’s why “Girl on the Third Floor” proved such a respite from the status quo.

The 2019 film follows a man who seemingly beat back the demons in his past and is ready for a new chapter in his life. His home renovation plans bring them back to the surface.

And they have company.

Wrestler/MMA star CM Punk plays Don, a man anticipating the birth of his first child. He’s purchased an old home and is eager to renovate it for his budding family. That’s when strange events begin bubbling up around him.

The house itself appears to ooze under his touch, for starters. That’s never good.

Next, a comely neighbor throws herself at him, threatening the resurrect his worst instincts. The genre fun is just beginning, but for Don it means his grasp on reality may be a thing of the past.

Horror producer Travis Stevens, making his directorial debut, wrings the most out of the limited setting and budget. He also leaned almost entirely on practical effects, falling back on CGI to enhance one specific sequence.

Punk delivers an intense performance that shatters expectations, and the balance between the supernatural and the main character’s moral decay makes for a fascinating counter-balance.

31 Days of Horror:

• “Splinter“
• “Rogue“
• “Train to Busan“
• “The Battery”
• “Eden Lake“
• “Housebound“
• “Fresh“
• “Bone Tomahawk“
• “Another Evil“
• “The Blob“
• “The Descent Part 2“
• “Hush“
• “Wrong Turn” (2003)
• “Tourist Trap“
• “Cargo“
• “Psycho II” (1983)
• “Haunt“
• “VFW“

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