Well howdy, dear reader. It's been a little while. I could go on about everything that has been going on in the world, but that's not why you're here. You're here so find out if you should spend your hard-earned covid cash on this flick. Let's find out... Let's also find out of I remember how to ad videos and pics to this thing...
Ooh, old rules apply: I don't do spoilers unless the film is crap. This one isn't crap = no spoilers.
Old was written and directed by M. Night Shyamalan. If you follow me on insta, you'll know what I have been celebrating the release of this film by watching his older flicks as part of my #Shyamalanorama film fest. The flick is an adaptation of a graphic novel "Sand Castle" by Frederik Peeters. I might just have to check that out.
Parents Guy (Gael Garcia Bernal) and Prisca (Vicky Krieps) are about to separate. They thought they'd take their two kids on one last holiday together before they get told the news. Guy and Prisca, along with eleven-year-old Maddox (Alexa Swinton) and six-year-old Trent (Nolan River) arrive at a swanky beach-side resort, the name of which I forgot to write down (it's been a while since I took notes). They are met by the resort manager (Gustaf Hammarsten) and Madrid (Francesca Eastwood) holding personalised cocktails for the parents. Kids are ushered to a candy buffet.
A great way to get to know characters is to ask them their names and occupations, which is exactly what young Trent does when he meets people. Gosh this kid is funny. He makes friends with the manager's son, Idlib (Kailen Jude) and start writing letters to each other in code. They plan to be friends forever, go to college together, and become neighbours with mortgages. Kids these days...
Over breakfast, the resort manager (can't remember his name either, dang), tells the family about a secret beach where they can spend the day all by themselves. They get loaded in a shuttle bus, driven by M. Night Shyamalan, along with another family. Wasn't this supposed to be a secret beach? Definitely not because a whole bunch of folks end up at the super-secret beach which is really handy for the plot.
If you've seen the trailer (below)(you're welcome), you'll know the premise: people age rapidly on the beach. Why? I'm not telling. Do bad things happen? Of course bad things happen, it's by M. Night Shyamalan.
Charles, a doctor-going-through-a-mid-life-crisis (Rufus Sewell) is on the beach with his mother Agnes (Kathleen Chalfant), his trophy wife Chrystal (Abbey Lee), and their eleven-year-old Kara (Mikaya Fisher). Agnes is the oldest so she is one of the first to experience the fatal effect that super-fast aging has on bodies. Her heart fails. She dies. Not a spoiler.
Who goes next? I'm not telling. I'm not going to say much else about the plot either. I will note how cool it was to see Ken Leong from the TV show Lost in a film that was as mystery-laden as Lost. I miss Lost.
Tangent time: there's an amazing transformation in the 1932 film Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde directed by Rouben Mamoulian. Instead of taking ages with makeup and tedious frame-by-frame editing, the transformation we see is achieved with makeup and lighting and no editing. Here's a video from No Film School which shows how it was done so you know what I'm talking about....
Watching Old, I couldn't help but think of that process and how the practical effects people from the 30s would think about special effects these days. The changes are subtle, but I felt I was paying too much attention to them. Is that a new grey hair? Were those wrinkles there before?
Although, it's hard to not take notice because that is the premise of the film. Shyamalan makes us focus on fragments of faces and fragments of bodies by framing them in off-kilter close-ups. We can see part of Trent's face, part of Kara's face as they talk to each other, just enough to see that they aren't eleven anymore. Frames are filled with foreheads, eyes, necks with encroaching fine lines and creases.
As we get older, we don't just experience outward changes, there are also inward changes. Charles, for example, gets more racist and more misogynistic as he gets older. He also loses his mental faculties with a rapid onset of dementia. In others, eyes fail, hearing goes, medical conditions exacerbate.
*racism intensifies*
It's a bit of a downer when you think about it.
Thankfully, there's a mystery to be solved so we don't have to dwell on our own mortality for too long.
Yes, there's a twist. There's always a twist. It might seem hokey, but it does make you think about ethics and the needs of the many... so on and so on.
All up, I had fun. The casting was great and the change of actors as each character aged was stellar. I wonder if the younger versions will look like their older counterparts in a few years...
I love the rapper's name, Mid-Sized Sedan (Aaron Pierre). I loved how the camera would slowly pan from one side of the beach to the other like a pendulum of doom. The way we find out how someone is losing their hearing was clever. Lots of little things made me smile.
What I really liked about this film is something that didn't happen much in Lost. In Old, characters talk to each other. They share stories and discoveries and have intelligent conversations about what they thought was going on instead of not telling anyone about the polar bear or the underground hatch with the Scottish dude or how everyone ended up knowing everyone else. They could have figured out the island in one season of Lost if everyone shared more.
Things I learnt: take more calcium supplements; be sure to get a tetanus booster; Alex Wolff from Hereditary is awesome; the film starring Marlon Brando and Jack Nicholson is The Missouri Breaks.
Welcome back, me.
Eight out of ten.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.