New-ish Releases, Spoiler-Free Reviews: Justice League (2017); It (2017)

Justice League (2017)

No Spoilers!

Director: Zack Snyder

This one was OK, which actually qualifies as a pleasant surprise to me.

Justice League was the fifth film in the "DC Extended Universe" (DCEU). After paying to see the underwhelming Man of Steel in 2013 and then the utter mess that was Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice a couple of years ago, I swore off paying theater prices to see any of the DCEU flicks. While I broke that vow to see Wonder Woman, after all of that movie's mostly-deserved high praise, that initial boycotting paid off by my avoiding the sloppy Suicide Squad. While I am glad that I didn't shell out theater price for Justice League, I have to say that it was a reasonably satisfying at-home rental.

The story picks up several of the ostentatiously dangling and flapping threads left over from Batman v. Superman. With Clark Kent/Superman's apparent death at the hands of the Doomsday monster, the alien conqueror Steppenwolf sees his chance to lead an assault on Earth and take over the planet. It's an attempt which he had made in the past, only to be rebuffed by the collective forces of several of earth's mythically powerful races. Now that Steppenwolf is back with a massive army of fear-feasting insectoids, Batman recruits one known ally, Diana Prince/Wonder Woman, to enlist the aid of other people with apparent superpowers. These lead them to band together a group that includes Barry "The Flash" Allen, Arthur "Aquaman" Curry, and Victor "Cyborg" Stone.

In most ways, the movie is fairly paint-by-numbers. I will admit that I suspect Joss Whedon, who was brought in to take over as writer/director after Snyder had a family tragedy to deal with, probably was responsible for some of the more intriguing and clever narrative ties in the film. I also wouldn't be surprised if he had a hand in writing some of the more engaging fight sequences. The one which I found most entertaining seemed very much like something we would have seen in The Avengers. Whether it was Whedon or co-writer Chris Terrio, this movie definitely had the lighter tone and funnier gags that Batman v. Superman was painfully lacking. It still wasn't nearly on par with the best MCU or even X-Men flicks, but it was a clear improvement.

Jason Momoa certainly cuts a striking figure as Aquaman, but
the outline and dialogue never came together for me. Most of
the other characters were handled more deftly.

The core characters are a mixed bag. The villain Steppenwolf is dull - a typically one-dimensional warmonger who wants to crush everything in his path. The voice acting by Northern Irish acting veteran Ciaran Hinds is powerful, though. In terms of "The League," I found it hit-and-miss. I've personally never had a problem with Ben Affleck as Batman, and he continues to be fine here. Gal Gadot continues to be great as Wonder Woman, as well. Ezra Miller was rightfully hailed as maybe the biggest revelation in this one, as he plays the iconic Flash exceptionally well, lightening things up nicely. Cyborg, however, I found extremely dull, and this particular vision of Aquaman felt completely off to me. As a group, though, the good outweighed the bad, and the dynamics work well enough.

I can't say that Justice League won me back over to the DCEU, but it did give me an enjoyable two hours. Looking ahead, the film franchise's next movie is Aquaman, headed up by James Wan, known for recent "Fast...Furious" films and the recent Star Trek Beyond. Given my feelings for how Aquaman was handled in Justice League, and my apathy towards the Fast and Furious movies, I don't anticipate that I'll be seeing that one. I do hope that the powers behind the DCEU take some note of what worked in Justice League, though, as they really are sitting on a wealth of great fantasy characters whom they could use to make some wildly entertaining movies.

Spoilers!! You've Been Warned!

Great intro sequences with Wonder Woman. While her solo movie last year had some solid action scenes, her rescue at the bank was top-notch. And the sequence with the Amazons trying to defend the Mother Box from Steppenwolf's attack has some really fun visuals, too.

It was a brief moment, but I absolutely loved the moment when the Flash is running up on a still-deranged Superman, thinking his he has the jump on him, only to have the Man of Steel's eyes turn directly towards him, well aware of the Scarlet Speedster's approach. I have to think that that was a Joss Whedon addition, as it seems like just the type of subtle-but-awesome moment that Whedon has a knack for.

Speaking of Superman, it was probably the least surprising "twist" to bring him back in this one. It was handled fine, if not exactly in a compelling or creative way. The iconic superhero does serve as a half-decent deus ex machina, but he does raise the eternal concern with such a powerful character - how do you find a villain strong enough and interesting enough to contend with him, let alone him and his super-powered buddies?

It (2017)

Director: Andy Muschietti

A solid horror movie, if one that is drawing from several wells that have been heavily tapped by earlier scare flicks.

Based on the hit 1986 novel by popular horror master Stephen King, It follows a group of young kids in their pre- and early teens in the fictional town of Derry, Maine, a seemingly quaint little area that has a history of disturbingly high rate of missing children and horrific disasters. This tale begins in the summer of 1988, when a little boy, Georgie, is apparently sucked into a drainage opening by a monster masquerading as a circus clown. We fast forward a year, with Georgie's older brother, Bill, and his friends wrapping up the school year and looking forward to a summer of freedom. Soon, however, other children start to disappear, and Bill and his friends start to have terrifying hallucinations embodying their worst fears. Wrapped up with these fears isthe same clown, which calls itself Pennywise, that took Bill's kid brother Georgie. Sure that Pennywise means to take and devour them all, Bill and his friends must decide what to do in order to survive and possibly find any of the other children whom Pennywise has already taken.

The movie is a very solid horror movie that I put in the same box as recent horror hits like The Conjuring - it's not really doing anything new, but it uses tried-and-true horror movie techniques extremely well. You get the creepy piano music, a scary clown, creaky doors, dark basements, a spooky and dilapidated house, and almost every other trope you can imagine from such films from the past. Fortunately, director Andy Muschietti executes everything effectively, and he does implement some creative visual scares with sharp editing and a few truly startling moments. On the whole, though, I wasn't dazzled by any wealth of novelty here.

Although this movie is based on a much earlier novel, which had previously been adapted for TV in 1990, it's almost impossible to ignore its similarities with recent nostalgia-laden smash hit TV show Stranger Things, which itself is a bit of a love letter to fiction creators like Stephen King. If the 1980s setting, small town, and gang of 12- and 13-year old misfits isn't enough to make the comparison clear, It even features Finn Wolfhard, one of the young stars of Stranger Things. It doesn't do quite as good a job as the Netflix TV show of invoking the sense of fun and camaraderie, but the bond between the young kids - who dub themselves "The Losers' Club" - is effective enough.

Dank, shadowy sewers are only one of many well-known horror
tropes here. We also get eerie old houses, creaky doors, and
more, to go right along with the scary clown at the center.

The movie isn't one for subtlety, beyond even the standard horror elements already covered. The secondary characters leave no scrap of doubt as to their roles. The bullies are sneering, cackling, jackal-like predators whose every actions are despicable. The single, sleazy father of female Loser's Club member Emily simply oozes lecherousness. The shut-in mom of hypochondriac Eddie seems to have no redeeming qualities whatsoever. And on it goes, with anyone who is not a Loser's Club member being no more than two-dimensional, and basically of no help to the kids. This is an overly convenient narrative device, as it is about the only way that the kids are left to fend for themselves. It's not a fatal flaw, as the movie does need to keep its focus on the kids themselves, but I would have appreciated seeing one or two adults who actually seemed to care about their kids suffering through hellacious trauma.

Though It didn't stun me with anything exceptionally novel, it was a decent enough horror flick. It was always meant as the first of a two-part film series, with the sequel It: Chapter 2 set for a September 2019 release. I doubt that I'll bother seeing it in theaters, but I'll check it out eventually. The concept of a horror movie flashing forward 27 years to see the adult versions of the first movie's children protagonists deal with the returning horror is an interesting concept. 

New Documentary Releases! RBG; Won't You Be My Neighbor? (2018)

RBG (2018)

A surprisingly engaging and inspiring biopic about Ruth Bader Ginsberg - the now-86-year-old still-sitting Supreme Court Justice.

I went in knowing only so much about Bader Ginsberg. Namely, that she had been on the Supreme Court for a couple of decades, was a champion of equal gender rights, and that she was on the more liberal side of the political spectrum. Little did I know just how impressive her background was, or just how immensely smart and tough the woman has always been.

It would defeat the point for me to list out the fact and details about Bader Ginsberg's life that are fascinating. For that, I would only recommend that you see the movie. Rather, I'll just point out that I had no idea of just how monumental were some of the cases which she brought to the Supreme Court back in the 1970s, or just how intelligent she was, as evidenced in her winning some massive cases that have changed the course of law in the U.S.

Of course, documentaries have to be more than just a list of interesting facts about a person. And RBG has that in spades. By looking at the more recent icon status that Bader Ginsberg has attained and interviewing the many, many powerful political figures who have been her contemporaries, we get a fuller picture of how this relatively quiet, unassuming woman has steadfastly made her strong, thoughtful voice heard over the decades. There are more than a few humorous anecdotes offered, and the pacing and editing of the movie are great.

This is an excellent one, even for those who don't particularly care for documentaries. If you have a shred of curiosity about this country's recent legal history, then RBG should have something for you.

Won't You Be My Neighbor? (2018)

Touching biopic of the unlikely TV icon Fred "Mr." Rogers, whose children show was beloved by children for decades.

I can't speak for Millenials, but I can safely say that anyone in the U.S. over the age of 30 knows all about Mr. Rogers Neighborhood, and it's eponymous and unlikely star Fred Rogers. From its inception in the late 1960s, it was an oasis of calm in a landscape of children's shows which was growing ever more flashy, bombastic, and shallow. In stark contrast to dazzling superhero and rebel cartoon and live action shows, Fred Rogers welcomed children into his fictional house, where the Zen-like figure spoke directly to children about their worries, concerns, and made them feel like someone was listening and understood them. This documentary traces the history of not only the marvelously unique show, but its marvelously unique creator and star.

Just about all of us know the TV show, and Fred Rogers himself has long since become a figure - often esteemed and sometimes mocked and lampooned - of boundless patience and kindness. This documentary certainly covers much of that ground, and the many scenes of Rogers's interactions with other people, especially children, both on and off the show are often amazingly touching. I actually found myself getting choked up several times during the picture, and I'm not one who is quick to tears. Perhaps even more fascinating, though, are a few facts about Rogers and the very early history of the show in the mid and late 1960s. When PBS was facing the possibility of losing much of its funding due to looming federal budge cuts, Rogers single-handedly convinced an extremely hard-nosed congressman to give the public network the millions that they needed. The video of this is worth the price of admission alone. And then there are the socially progressive moves which Rogers made, such as having an African-American man play the mailman character, and going so far as to share a simple foot bath with him - an act that would have little meaning in the 21st century, but was a tremendous gesture in a country where strict segregation was still the rule of the  much of the land. Reminders about such moments on the show help revive my appreciation for Rogers's positive impact on our society.

While I can't say that there were any grand revelations about Rogers or the show, there are certainly some curious and engaging facts about the man and his impact on American culture. This was a solid biopic that documentary fans are certain to enjoy, and those who remember Rogers and his TV show fondly will almost certainly love. 

New Release! Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018) [Spoiler-Free Review]

I feel that it's highly appropriate that this
poster has Hope "The Wasp" van Dyne
front and center. In many ways, she owns
parts of this movie as much, or more, than
the Scott Lang character.

No Spoilers! Read On!!

Director: Peyton Reed

A light and entertaining follow-up to the original Ant-Man, and a drastically peppy apertif to the massively epic and ultimately grim Avengers: Infinity War from just a couple of months prior.

In the grand-scale Infinity War movie from this spring, which included nearly every single hero and villain from the ever-expanding, 18-film Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), there were only a couple of conspicuous absences. One of them was Scott Lang, a.k.a. "Ant-Man," (Paul Rudd) the cat burglar-turned-techno-hero who had last been seen in a massive underwater prison towards the end of 2016's Captain America: Civil War. At the start of this movie, we get the full explanation of where Lang has been for the last couple of years, right up to a few days before the events of Infinity War.

In short, Lang's now rather quiet life is interrupted by a strange experience which puts him back in contact with Dr. Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) and his daughter, Hope Van Dyne (Evangeline Lilly). Hank and Hope have been hiding from the law, secretly pursuing a lead to Hank's wife, the long-presumed dead Janet Van Dyne, a.k.a. "The Wasp." In their quest to see if Janet is still, indeed, alive they must dodge not only the federal authorities, but also contend with a mysterious figure known as "Ghost," (Hannah John-Kamen) as well as the greedy, amoral capitalist Sonny Burch (Walton Goggins).

This movie was very much in keeping with the original. It's light and fun, with more than a few really entertaining uses of movie magic to illustrate the shrinking and growing powers of Dr. Pym's astonishing technologies. Since the first movie was originally under the helm of Edgar Wright, I was never how much of the original I enjoyed because of Wright's ideas, rather than Peyton Reed, who was brought into oversee the actual film once Wright stepped away. I was pleased to see that, in this sequel, the humor and more personal scale are all still very much alive. This second film actually offers a little more of the fun back-and-forth between the smart-ass Lang and the cantankerous Hank. With Paul Rudd's instinct for comic timing paired with Michael Douglass's overall acting chops, it works like magic.

Blessedly, Luis is back. Even more blessedly, the writers
avoided the pitfall of overdoing a good thing. They used the
hilarious supporting character in just the right doses.

This is a good place to mention just how much I've grown to love Evangeline Lilly in these movies. Her portrayal of Hope Van Dyne was a real highlight of the first film for me, even though she was relegated to a support role who never got to show off her real fighting skills. In Ant-Man and the Wasp, though, she all but completely takes over. Her proficiency with the Pym particle technology, merely hinted at in the first movie, is now on full display. In short, she kicks serious ass. And unlike one or two of the other women who have been cast in MCU hero or villain roles, I completely buy Lilly as a tough-as-nails fighter.

All the other enjoyable elements of the first film are there. Fun supporting characters like the ever-affable Luis and others are used to good effect, without ever being overused. The plot moves along at a good pace, and the action never grows dull. The litmus test here is my wife, who tends to grow bored quickly with most movie action, but admitted that she actually found most of the action in this movie engaging and enjoyable. This was a testament to the creativity of the visual artists behind the movie.

Like the first Ant-Man, this is not a superhero movie that is going to redefine the genre or maybe even win over anyone who is categorically opposed to such films. It is, however, a fun popcorn movie that is blessedly self-contained. Even those who haven't seen most of the other MCU movies can jump right in and enjoy it, with only the first film being a suggested prerequisite. 

New Release! The Incredibles 2 (2018) [Spoiler-Free Review]

The Parr family, a.k.a. "The Incredibles." They deal with
the same problems as any standard family, along with using
their amazing abilities to stop evildoers.

No Spoilers! Read On!!

Director: Brad Bird

Though perhaps not the dazzling revelation of the first movie, The Incredibles 2 is another brilliant feather in the caps of the animation geniuses at Pixar Studios. And it satisfied this tremendous fan of the original movie quite nicely.

The story picks up only moments after the end of the first movie - with the super-powered Parr family about to square off against the subterranean villain "The Underminer," who emerges from underground to steal from several banks. The consequences of the ensuing fight reinforces the public's belief that "supers" (those with superhuman abilities) should still not be granted the legal right to use their powers in public. Enter Winston and Evelyn Deavor - a brother/sister pair of billionaires who are the heads of a massive communications company. Winston in particular is a longtime fan of superheroes and wants to use the Incredibles - Helen "Elastigirl" Parr, to be precise - to wage a positive public relations campaign to see supers granted license to publicly use their powers once again. Soon after this campaign is underway, a new villain - The Screenslaver - emerges with powerful hypnotizing technology which endangers anyone who sees it.

Helen "Elastigirl" Parr gets to be much more front-and-center
in the sequel. It's a highly effective shift from the original.

Back in 2004, I was completely blown away by the first movie. That year, it was hands-down the most fun I had at the movie theater. Pixar had already had several massive hit movies, with Monsters, Inc., the first two Toy Story movies, and Finding Nemo. But The Incredibles was something else, entirely. It was the first Pixar movie that showed a real sense of chic style and used a really fun fantasy/superhero premise that showed more sophistication than your typical family movie. The humor ran the gamut, and the action was pure joy to watch. While the sequel could never have been as novel as the original, it comes about as close to its predecessor in all other departments. The writing is still exceptionally sharp, the story is very much its own rather than just a retread of the successful elements of the first movie, and the action is as dazzling and inventive as one could hope for. Thanks to the freedom that animation provides and the wonderfully creative mind of writer and director Brad Bird, this movie follows the first in being one of the best superhero movies made - animated or otherwise.

I could nitpick a few things here and there, such as how the third act gets a little convoluted with characters and the finale isn't as impressive as the first movie. Still, there is a satisfactory resolution to everything. Anyone who has enjoyed superhero movies, Pixar movies, or simply fun action movies is bound to have fun with this one. 

Idiot Boxing: Westworld season 2 (2018); Luke Cage season 2 (2018)

Maeve is one of a few of the "women" of Westworld who flex
their new-found muscles and freedom in season 2. 

Westworld, season 2 (2018)

I have no doubt that this season probably lost a certain number of the fans that it garnered in its first season. I wasn't one of those lost, and I loved this second season.

In the final bloodbath episode of season one, we see a certain number of the Westworld park's hosts (the artificial humans) become self aware and kick off a full-scale uprising. The real ignition point is Dolores's (Evan Rachel Wood) very public execution of park co-founder and co-creator Ford (Anthony Hopkins), all of which Ford himself had very meticulously orchestrated. Along with Dolores, the host Maeve (Thandie Newton) has become self-aware and even upgraded herself to allow certain freedoms and abilities - freedoms and abilities which she plans to use to find her daughter somewhere in the vast Westworld landscape. Roaming around in all of this is William "The Man in Black" (Ed Harris), the owner of the entire park who is madly searching for some mysterious finding which Ford has teased him with for decades.

Season two follows these threads in a very measured way, with Dolores and Maeve mustering allies, and William fighting through now-deadly hosts while on his obsessive quest to beat Ford at whatever game he feels the now-dead genius had created. Unlike the first season, it soon becomes apparent within the first episode or two that we are not in a linear narrative. There are flashbacks galore, as we start to learn things about Dolores's and the park's origins that deepen the mysteries surrounding the place which ostensibly is a massive, violent Disneyworld for adults to play out their wildest fantasies. These back stories are presented in parallel with the more "modern" tale, which is a skillful technique that show creators Nolan and Joy have used to great effect. This second season is no different. While this non-linear method seems to frustrate some viewers, I've always enjoyed the puzzle being presented in such fashion, as it can be stimulating to keep an eye out for little details that serve as narrative connectors and small revelations which build into greater ones.

Akecheta. Episode 8, which sees all of the bizarre changes in
the park from his very unique and touching perspective, was
my favorite of the season.

Aside from the twisting narrative, another element which probably led to some viewer frustration had to do with the character perspectives. At this point in the story, we are mostly following the hosts. For most of the first season, especially the first five or so episodes, it was all about the human guests and the revelation of the park itself. In this season, now that all of those basics have been established, the show delves much deeper into the cerebral, speculative fiction elements which had gained steam towards first season's end. We dig into the minds and natures of Dolores and Maeve, which is interesting enough. And the Bernard host is an entire mess of conflicts all by himself. But perhaps my favorite episode was focused solely on a character who only had a few brief cameos in season one - the Native American Akecheta (played brilliantly by Zahn McClarnon). This episode spins several things on their heads, and actually provides a certain emotional depth to the hosts which I had felt was slipping away a bit, even with Maeve's heart-felt quest to find her "daughter."

The season did have what I found to be a bit of a lull around episodes four and five, which brought Maeve and her crew into the neighboring park of Samurai World. Despite having a ton of potential and offering a few interesting scenes and characters, this little part of the story felt as if it took a bit too long to work through and ultimately didn't have a great impact on the overall tale. Fortunately, this came and went by the mid-point of the season. After that, I found that everything picked up, built, and resolved itself nicely.

So another good season. Apparently, a third is on the way, though not for another 18 months or more. That's fine with me. I look forward to re-watching the entire labyrinthine story again before getting the next chapter, which looks to further expand upon what has come before.

Misty Knight and Luke, ready to bring some justice to the
streets of Harlem once again.

Luke Cage, season 2 (2018)

Like much of its Netflix MCU brethren, season two of Luke Cage suffers a bit in a few areas, but is a solid entry into the canon. This is thanks to a compelling villain and a strong finish.

Following on the heels of its first season and the subsequent Defenders mini-series, season two of Luke Cage picks up with Harlem's bulletproof protector trying to settle into his role as neighborhood celebrity. As he deals with efforts to monetize his fame, a new threat emerges, as the mysterious Jamaican John "Bushmaster" McIver arrived in Harlem with a vicious streak and a mission of vengeance against Mariah Stokes/Dillard, the dirty politician much to blame for the first season's problems. As Mariah and her right-hand man Hernan "Shades" Alavarez seek to divest from the criminal underworld, Bushmaster start to make his presence known, using rather violent tactics and his own inexplicably enhanced strength and healing abilities, to go along with immense martial arts prowess. As this deadly islander hones in on Mariah and Shades, leading to escalating bloodshed in Harlem, Luke Cage inevitably gets involved.

As with nearly every Netflix MCU show thus far, this season of Luke Cage has a solid premise, several highly workable pieces in terms of character and plot, and some excellent acting. The main weakness is that it felt like about 7 or 8 good episodes worth of material stretched out over a 13-episode season. This led to a fair amount of overly drawn out and repetitive story loops that took much too long to progress, most of them involving characters trying to suss out their identities. The two most obvious were Misty Knight and Mariah Stokes/Dillard. By episode 9 or 10, they lock in, but for nearly the entire middle section of the season, the two storylines seem to flounder in ways that are sometimes dull and sometimes inorganic or illogical. They do come around, fortunately, by season's end.

The other weakness to me was dialogue which was inconsistent, which I felt in turn affected the performances of nearly all of the primary actors at times. There are no doubt some fun and tense exchanges between the several strong and fairly dynamic characters in this series, but more than a few of the conversations felt forced or clunky at times. It seemed as if the writers occasionally started with the idea of giving certain characters their "speech" or "preach" moments, and then shoehorned them into scenes, regardless of whether it fit the context or natural speech patterns established for the character.

Arguably the best aspect of season 2 was Bushmaster as one
of the primary villains. Mustafa Shakir's portrayal of the
lethal, vengeance-obsessed Jamaican was brilliant.

Those gripes aside, I liked the season. John Colter still makes a great Cage, and the returning cast from the previous season brought everything they had, especially Alfre Woodard as Mariah. Even when I wasn't crazy about how she was being written in certain scenes, Woodard acted the hell out of each and every one of them. And Mustafa Shakir and the imposing Bushmaster was a revelation for me. The towering Harlem native radiates all of the physical strength and burning rage demanded of his vengeance-obsessed character. And as his story is revealed over the season, Shakir shows some versatility to adapt to the story's demands. It helped that he does the Jamaican accent (not an easy one to pull off at all) so well that I initially thought that he might be native to that island, and he seemed to do many of the stunts and fight sequences himself. Bushmaster ended up being one of the best and most well-rounded arch villains in any of the MCU TV shows to date.

After pointing out the pacing problems in the middle of the season, I would be remiss not to say that the final few episodes of the run saved it from being an overall tepid one. After some rather slow and meandering plotting, all of the primary and secondary storylines come together quite well at the end. I was actually quite satisfied with how nearly every major character's arc concluded and where they ended up. The one exception was that of Matilda "Tilda" Stokes/Johnson. Hers was, throughout the season, a tale that never seemed to figure out what really made her who she was. There are several moments when it seems as if she's resolved something inside of her, only to reverse course not long after, for reasons that are not always clear. Her aside, I found the final two episodes of the season highly enjoyable, and this generally speaks well of a show.

So I'm on board for another season, which I imagine will be forthcoming. I do, however, repeat a familiar refrain - Netflix really needs to figure out how to fill out a 13-episode season; something they still haven't managed to do in 5 different MCU shows, across 8 different seasons. Either that, or go with 8-episode seasons, like they did with The Defenders. 

New Release! Hereditary (2018) [Spoiler-Free Review]

No Spoilers. Read Away!!

Director: Ari Aster

An excellent horror movie that masterfully blends some of the very best elements of earlier classics of the horror genre.

The story begins with an obituary and funeral service for Leigh Graham, mother of Annie (Toni Collette). Leigh was, by Annie's account, a rather odd, sometimes reclusive, sometimes domineering figure who seemed to have strange plans and goals for her children and grandchildren. With her mother gone, Annie returns to her life as a  professional artist specializing in miniatures, particularly dioramas of homes, buildings, and the people within them. On the surface, Annie seems to have the things that many people would wish for - a beautiful home in a lush forested area, a loving husband, and two children, Peter (Alex Wolff) and Charlie (Milly Shapiro). However, things are far from ideal. Aside from Annie's mother's haunting influence on her life, Peter is a typically frustrated teenage boy, and Charlie is a 13-year old who is oddly detached and seemingly dealing with some sort of intellectual handicap. When horrific tragedy strikes the family, such a short time after Leigh's death, Annie can barely take it. As she tries to keep from losing her grip on sanity, strange things seem to begin happening to her and her family. These events even suggest some sort of horribly sinister conspiracy acting upon all of them.

Though clearly modern in its setting, scripting, and acting, this film is great classic throwback horror. While I'm not an aficionado of the genre, I feel that I've seen many of the classics; in particular, the grittier and more existentially horrifying films that started cropping up in the late 1960s. Hereditary takes the spirit of a film like Rosemary's Baby and updates it masterfully by adding in touches seen in more modern horror flicks like The Babadook. But while the shared elements are fairly obvious, and some of the visual scares are familiar, nothing felt like an outright ripoff. Writer and director Ari Aster does a brilliant job of taking familiar ingredients and working them into something that felt rather fresh and gets back to what I consider genuine horror in more of an H.P. Lovecraft or even Edgar Allen Poe vein. No, this movie doesn't contain some of the wildly fantastic elements of those noted horror writers, but Aster's philosophy of what makes a horror tale is clearly in tune with those early masters.

One of the many excellent aspects of this movie is how it manages to keep you guessing for much of its considerable length. While the movie certainly offers more than a few hints about what, exactly, is behind the dark chaos swirling around Annie, it doesn't fully tip its hand until the appropriate time. And even then, the final ten minutes are bound to shock most viewers - even ones who may have sussed out everything about the plot.

Steve looks over his peculiar daughter Charlie's drawings.
There are plenty of little allusions and pieces of fore-
shadowing all over this movie. But they don't become
clear until it's all steamrolling towards its dark climax.

The acting in this movie is top notch, as one might guess from seeing the top-billed cast. I won't be surprised if Collette isn't nominated for several major awards for this role, despite the movie being in a genre that historically does not get much recognition from the "marquee" award organizations. And the supporting cast is also excellent. Gabriel Byrne, the next most famous actor here, is appropriately muted, but their children played by Alex Wolff and Milly Shapiro are outstanding. It's actually rare to find such consistently excellent performances in such a dark horror movie, but Hereditary found and great cast and got the most out of them.

The visuals are great. They never utilize much in the way of dazzling special effects, but when visual flourishes are required, they are handled deftly. Sure, a few of the scares will seem very familiar to anyone who's ever seen a haunted house movie. But this movie adds elements of the eerie and psychological, adding extra impact to such scenes.

Fans of more graphic, sensational horror will probably see little to like in this movie, which is why I suspect that fan reception has been vastly more mixed that the glowing critical reception. It does ask for patience from its viewers, along with an appreciation for very slow-burn narratives. Being a fan of such things, I highly recommend it to others with similar tastes.