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Tag: Allison Williams

  • ‘M3GAN’ slays her way into our hearts | movie review

    ‘M3GAN’ slays her way into our hearts | movie review

    A toy inventor and roboticist creates a lifelike AI doll to keep her recently orphaned to protect and befriend her niece. M3GAN takes her job deadly seriously.

    M3GAN slays (and dances) her way into camp slasher movie villain canon one spicy comeback at a time. Whenever she isn’t on screen, including during the movie’s setup, things don’t operate quite as well. But the second that M3GAN walks through the door dressed in a satin brown peacoat and enormous “here for the drama” sunglasses, the movie runs like a well-oiled robotic machine in a blonde lace front.

    By the time M3GAN, a lifelike AI doll programmed to be a child’s greatest companion, sings her 9-year-old charge Cady (Violet McGraw) an acapella lullaby version of Sia’s “Titanium” (after swearing she didn’t kill anyone on Cady’s behalf) you’re either completely locked into the movie’s specific brand of black comedy camp or you’re boring. Just kidding. Kind of. But M3GAN, already a viral sensation, does beget a certain brand of weird to appreciate a sassy doll with a penchant for spicy comebacks, breaking into song and… well, murder. Like Child’s Play for the AI era.

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    And just like Chucky (M3GAN vs Chucky movie when?), M3GAN gets plenty of mileage simply on the audaciousness of a child’s toy (albeit a toy that looks like Charlize Theron as Megyn Kelly) doing things a toy very much shouldn’t—like the aforementioned murder. Unlike Child’s Play—and it’s failed remake that attempts to update the story for the 21st century—M3GAN has an added layer of relevancy by exploring the ethics (and pure creepiness) of artificial intelligence and our overreliance on it. While Chucky (or Annabelle from The Conjuring franchise) are cursed dolls, M3GAN is created by us—specifically Gemma (Allison Williams), a roboticist and toy inventor. It creates a lore where our audacity is almost as unbelievable as M3GAN’s. We contributed to our own downfall.

    It’s even more hilarious when you consider that Gemma, who has been toddling in her development of M3GAN (short for Model 3 Generative Android), was only able to finally finish building her when she became overwhelmed caring for her recently orphaned niece Cady (Violet McGraw). Trying to find a way out of actually parenting—and to impress her boss (Ronny Chieng) at the toy company she works at—she programs M3GAN to not only continually learn behaviors and evolve to help Cady, but also do anything to protect her physically and emotionally. Emotionally protecting a child who just witnessed her parents being killed in a car crash? What could possibly go wrong!?

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    Once M3GAN starts disobeying Gemma’s commands (with sass!)—“Are you sure you want me to shut down?”—the scene for slasher history is set. Though there is a general lack of inventive kills that is a bit disappointing, the movie’s horror is more derived from an AI becoming uncontrollable rather than the actual physical danger she poses. If anything, M3GAN’s greatest shortcoming is that the human characters aren’t nearly as entertaining as she is—ironic if you think about it. Whenever she isn’t on screen, including during the movie’s setup, things don’t operate quite as well. But the second that M3GAN walks through the door of Gemma’s home dressed in her satin brown peacoat, the movie runs like a well-oiled robotic machine in a blonde lace front.

    M3GAN became an instant gay twitter phenomenon for two reasons: gays love powerful women (human or otherwise) and gays love camp. The second we saw a ridiculous-looking lifelike doll doing a tight 8-count before going to murder someone we were hooked. However, the key to camp that few people acknowledge is intention. For camp to work, a movie’s tone has to be somewhat sincere. And what is more sincere than a deadpan AI fulfilling its programming—even if its methods are a bit uncouth? I guess what I’m trying to say is *in my best Roxie voice* the name on everybody’s lips is gonna be… M3GAN!

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  • ‘The Perfection’ review — Cello from the other side

    ‘The Perfection’ review — Cello from the other side

    The Perfection follows two students of a renowned music academy whose first encounter leads to sinister results.

    30-second review: The Perfection‘s first half portends a sharp and tense psychological thriller with two committed performances by Allison Williams and Logan Browning as the former and current star students of a prestigious music academy respectively. But one poorly executed twist followed by another takes away any goodwill the movie builds in its genuinely well-constructed setup.

    While the rest of the movie could be an entertaining and campy descent into madness, its reliance on several plot and character reversal makes it more tiring than enjoyable. It’s unfortunate because there’s some real craft on display and the two leads give committed performances.

    Where to watch The Perfection: Now streaming on Netflix.

    Full review below ?

    The best psychological thrillers make you want more and then don’t give it to you — at least until they earn it and you’re begging for it. Look at Karyn Kusama’s masterful The Invitation, which spends almost its entire running time subtly changing your perception of its true nature before letting you have it.

    And The Perfection does that for a time — but then it continues. The first 45 minutes are a campy descent into chaos as a former child prodigy Charlotte Willmore (Allison Williams) reunites with her mentor Anton Bachoff (Steven Weber) in Shanghai to help him pick his next star pupil.

    Years earlier, Charlotte was that star pupil before being forced to drop out of the Bachoff Academy of Music — where she was studying cello — to care for her ailing mother. With her mother now passed, she’s looking to be back in the fold. In Shanghai, where three young girls are in the final round of the competition, Charlotte meets Bachoff’s current star Lizzie (Logan Browning).

    Lizzie has fame, fortune, and even a giant billboard where she’s endorsing vodka — because that’s what cellists do — and Charlotte isn’t quiet about her adoration for her. However, in a subversion of expectations, Lizzie is just as much a fan of Charlotte — she even flirts with her as they judge the competition.

    The Perfection
    Logan Browning and Allison Williams in The Perfection. Credit: Netflix.

    The pair, at the behest of Anton, play a duet together shot and cut with the same attraction and intensity the pair seem to share. As the duet crescendos — both Browning and Williams learned how to play the cello for the movie — scenes of the pair drinking and dancing are cut in before they sleep together in a drunken haze. The next morning, they’re all smiles. Although, Lizzie has a bad hangover that Charlotte suggests clearing it with ibuprofen and hair of the dog.

    Lizzie invites Charlotte on her off-the-beaten-path journey into the rural western part of the country — she accepts. However, after boarding the bus, Lizzie’s sickness turns from a bad hangover to something worse. Is it the mysterious stomach flu that has been going around? Was she poisoned? Was she cursed? Truthfully, the movie had me gripped.

    The scenes aboard the bus are filled with tension as Lizzie becomes violently ill and desperate for reprieve. Director Richard Shepard does a terrific job of masking the true intentions of the characters and makes the scenes as disorienting as Lizzie feels. Williams and, in particular, Browning are terrific and incredibly believable as two young women feeling alone and terrified in a foreign country without access to any help. And then all that tension is deflated in one decision.

    The movie literally rewinds itself and replays to fill in the gaps. The places where you were left guessing now leave no room for interpretation and the second half continues this trend. As the twists and turns get even more egregious the movie just becomes a chore to watch. It’s unfortunate because the final beat is actually chilling and portends what could have been. A lighter touch would have been welcome.

    As Sheila O’Malley pointed out in her review, The Perfection brings up an interesting conversation about spoilers — and also that this movie should have a strong trigger warning for sexual abuse and rape. For me, I think that you should be able to review and recommend — or not recommend — a movie without having to reveal any spoilers. However, when a movie, like The Perfection, relies too heavily on its twists and turns that you can’t properly critique it, then it’s probably not a good movie.

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    More movies, less problems

    Hey! I’m Karl. You can find me on Twitter and Letterboxd. I’m also a Tomatometer-approved critic.

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