THE INVISIBLE MAN— Sometimes a good idea is all you need. Leigh Whannell found that out with his reboot of “The Invisible Man,” which flips the concept on its head and makes the titular character the psychotic, toxic ex of the protagonist, played perfectly by Elisabeth Moss. In this version, the Invisible Man uses his power (which the world does not know he has) to slowly unravel our hero’s life, all while she begs for anyone to believe her that he’s behind all this. The parallels to actual male/female relationships are so loud the movie doesn’t need to announce them.
There isn’t a ton to say about “Invisible Man,” because it just works. Leigh had a smart–nay, brilliant–take on the material, he knew it, and he let it carry him into the endzone.
But that isn’t as easy as it sounds. I’ll prove it to you.
A few years back, another talented horror filmmaker named Fede Alvarez had a brilliant idea to remake an iconic horror franchise: “Evil Dead.” It was a gritty, macabre remix, told from the point of view of a woman trying to kick a drug addiction. But Fede wandered off the path. After a great setup, the drug addiction angle is tossed aside, and “Evil Dead” became a textbook gore shocker, indistinguishable from any other. It’s not a bad remake, per se, but it’s a study in unfulfilled potential. The same could be said for “Brightburn,” a very good movie that nonetheless left a lot of terrifying Freudian possibilities on the table.
“The Invisible Man” doesn’t make that mistake. They commit to their idea, and they push it as far as it will go. Elisabeth Moss brings a commanding performance, full of fear, anger, insanity and commitment. I was reminded of Steven Soderbergh’s under-seen masterpiece “Unsane,” which also uses genre to unpack the psychotic gaslighting that abusive men put women through. It sucks that these topics are still relevant, but as long as they are, I’m glad storytellers are shining a light on them with the power of great cinema.
UNDERWATER— In case you don’t remember what the hell “Underwater” is, it was a sci-fi horror flick starring Kristen Stewart and Vincent Cassel about a team of deep-sea workers who get stranded very deep… uh… underwater when some scary monsters come out of the ocean floor. I saw it kind of on a whim, not expecting much (the director’s previous effort, “The Signal,” did not impress me). I was pleasantly surprised with what I found.
“Underwater” is a grim, efficient, effective little horror-thriller machine. It reinvents exactly zero wheels, but it pops thanks to some hard-working actors, out of this world cinematography (if I’ve seen a better looking movie in the last year I can’t think of it), gorgeous production design, and rocket-ship directing and editing. The script for “Underwater” is a C+ at best, but the key creatives wrangled a B+ movie out of it by sheer force of will.
“Underwater” should be screened in directing/editing/cinematography/production design classes: “Here’s how you elevate what you’re working on and make it look better than it is.”
Also, Kristen Stewart gets a lot of hate but she goes for it on this one, and I liked her. Side note: why do we trash “Twilight” actors so hard? Do we really think it’s their fault we don’t like the movie? They just work here, man! They didn’t write the script! Someone called them and said, “Hey we’ll pay you six or seven figures to say these words in front of a camera,” and since they’re not idiots, they said yes. You would do the same.
FORMULA 1: DRIVE TO SURVIVE– Netflix has a documentary series about Formula 1 racing. It’s in its second season.
And you’re going to watch it. Now.
No, no no no, don’t argue with me on this. And don’t tell me “I don’t follow F1.” Sssh sssh ssh sshhh, hush that. The show is designed for people who don’t follow F1. I didn’t follow F1 before I watched the first season, now I follow it religiously. Leah did not follow F1 before she watched it, now she’s on all the drivers’ Instagrams daily and watches the races. “Drive To Survive” is the most potent recruiting tool in the history of documentaries about sports. Give this thing two episodes, you will DVR the next race, I promise you.
Clearly, the team who makes it are rockstars, from the editors and producers down to whoever gets the coffee, because the quality of the storytelling is beyond anything else in the genre. But that’s not why it’s so good. Its secret weapon is one word: access. Unlike the pussyfooting, whitewashed crap the NFL puts out, Formula One actually let Netflix get the good stuff. You will see the drivers flip out on each other. You will watch the politics and drama unfold. You’re gonna be there when drivers call each other unthinkable names, or smash glass doors. DTS isn’t a show, it’s a combination backstage pass and invisibility cloak. It’s the freaking looking glass.
No sport of this size does this. Nobody lets you watch the realness go down. And I’m not even saying they give you everything, but they sure as hell give you more than anyone else is willing to. I don’t know if I can go back to the anodyne press-release garbage of “Hard Knocks” after this spicy meatball. And you might say “oh well who cares about Formula One drivers.” Let me stop you right there. Formula One drivers are what’s up. They’re fifty percent child Mozart, fifty percent James Bond. They’ve been double-clutching since they were fetuses, and they look like they could model for J Crew. They have reflexes like a hummingbird and they’re cut like soccer players. They’re young, rich and beautiful and they spit in the face of death. If you’re not interested in that, I don’t know how to help you.
Formula One was recently purchased by an American company and they clearly want some freaking Americans to start caring about it. So this is what they’re willing to do to make it happen. They can’t afford the practiced diplomacy of other American sports, they are putting it all out there. To give you a sense of the balls on this show, several episodes feature footage of the drivers cursing out Netflix (sometimes in brutal fashion), etc, and then looking into the camera and explicitly stating “Don’t use this.” They used it. In one case, they opened an episode with it. DTS is a Honey Badger.
First race of the season is next weekend. I dare you, I mean I dare you, to watch a couple episodes of the second season this week (don’t worry about Season One, it covers 2018). If you do, something tells me I’ll be seeing you on race weekend.