Smash Cut

Tag: Pete Davidson

  • ‘Bodies Bodies Bodies’ is a bloody game of Among Us | SXSW review

    ‘Bodies Bodies Bodies’ is a bloody game of Among Us | SXSW review

    Accusations fly between a group of friends after a stormy game night turns deadly in Bodies Bodies Bodies. Together they must find the killer among them.

    Bodies Bodies Bodies is like a dark, bloody slasher version of Clue with a hint of Mean Girls and Lord of the Flies that takes place over a single night where accusations fly between a group of friends after a body is discovered on a stormy night — like a sick game of Among Us. Its perfectly constructed mystery is punctuated by its slasher-like horror filmmaking and a flurry of terrific performances — particularly a hilarious Rachel Sennott — that feel so lived-in yet representative of the privileged Gen Z TikTok elite as a whole. The delicate balancing of tones, storylines, and relationships culminates in a hilariously satisfying ending that will make you want to watch the movie over and over again.

    Have you ever wondered how a real-life game of Among Us would play out? Or what the cult classic comedy Clue would be like as an actual horror movie? Well, Bodies Bodies Bodies may have answered that question and then some. Not that director Halina Reijn nor the screenwriters* intentionally took those properties as direct inspiration. It is unique in both narrative and execution even if you see shades of other movies in it — Scream and Mean Girls also come to mind. What it does have in common is it’s a complete blast, especially for genre fans. Though, it still even has a few tricks up its sleeves for them.

    Of course, like any good slasher (or slasher send-up), Bodies Bodies Bodies takes place in a remote family mansion where Sophie (Amandla Stenberg) is bringing her new girlfriend Bee (Maria Bakalova) to a hurricane party at her childhood friend David’s (Pete Davidson) parents’ house to brave a hurricane that is forecasted to hit that night. Immediately, there is tension within the group. It’s clear that past baggage is going to plague the night. David and his girlfriend Emma (Chase Sui Wonders) seem at odds for a variety of reasons but particularly because Alice (Rachel Sennott) brought her hot older boyfriend Greg (Lee Pace) along, causing David to feel threatened. Then there’s Jordan (Myha’la Herrold) who doesn’t seem all that happy that Sophie brought Bee uninvited.

    And with incredible comic timing, the storm starts barrelling down.

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    Armed with drinks, glow sticks, enough cocaine to make a drug lord jealous, and a sprawling mansion to use as a playground, the friends hunker down for the longest night of their lives. In an attempt to break the tensions, the group decides to play the game Bodies Bodies Bodies where one player is secretly chosen as the killer and “kills” one of the other players by tapping them on the shoulder in the dark. Then, the remaining players must figure out who did it — like a game of Clue. All is well until the lights go out and the friends split up. Bad choice. A body is discovered and a real-life version of the game is now afoot.

    Throughout the night, more bodies are found, more people are killed, and suspects are cleared and uncleared. It’s like an entry in the Scream franchise that takes place in real-time over a single night.

    What I love about Bodies Bodies Bodies is how natural the relationships and interactions feel. Like you’re getting a glimpse into the deep tanglings of this friend group, which color the accusations. In one of the best and funniest scenes, the friends use Gen Z buzzwords to levy suspicion onto each other and remove it from themselves. “Stop gaslighting me,” one character says. “He’s a libra moon,” says another.

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    Eventually, the group begins to play oppression Olympics. “Accuse the black girl,” “I had PTSD from that,” “I was poor.” In reality, none of these kids are completely oppressed. When one claims she’s poorer than the others she’s immediately slapped with, “your parents are professors at a University!” to which she replies, “it’s public.” It’s the kind of tongue-in-cheek skewering of Gen Z wokeness that makes the movie a delight to watch outside of its horror elements.

    However, the commentary doesn’t feel out-of-place. It feels so natural that the characters would use those defenses if they were accused of murder and their reactions, as ridiculous and hilarious as they are, never feel ingenuine. The way that the movie plays out is perfectly satisfying. Reijn paces the movie with precision so that not a single moment feels wasted and the momentum seemingly never stops.

    Bodies Bodies Bodies feels like a perfect example of what the horror genre is going to look like after its renaissance in the early part of the 2010s. Like Get Out or Ready or Not, it uses the tried and true horror staples to build tension and suspense while using the world we live in to color it in complex shades that reflect back the horror of our society. But who am I kidding? More than anything, this is a bloody, hilarious, slasher of a good time. Everything else, icing on the cake. Or, I guess, a line of coke on the dresser.

    * Kristen Roupenian, Sarah Delappe, Chloe Okuno, Joshua Sharp, Aaron Jackson

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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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  • ‘Big Time Adolescence’ is Pete Davidson’s breakout — movie review

    ‘Big Time Adolescence’ is Pete Davidson’s breakout — movie review

    Big Time Adolescence follows the friendship between a stoner burnout and a high school student whose debaucherous

    Quick review: Big Time Adolescence is a surprisingly sweet character study about growing up and not growing up.

    Big Time Adolescence is the perfect vehicle for a comedy star like Pete Davidson to make the jump to film. It premiered at last year’s Sundance Film Festival to much buzz following his highly-publicized breakup with Ariana Grande. The film and his performance came as a surprise — Davidson could act. Now, more than a year later and a clearer space to evaluate it, that still stands. And it isn’t just the surprise that a Saturday Night Live player could handle something more than just a comedy sketch, Davidson delivers a lot of nuance within a character that we’ve come so much to associate with him. 

    Davidson plays Zeke, who is an effortlessly cool and debaucherous high school student when we’re introduced to him. His then-girlfriend Kate (Emily Arlook) and her little brother Mo (Griffin Gluck) — short for Monroe — are infatuated with his no-care attitude. Six years later, Kate is long gone applying for law schools while Mo, now a high schooler, and Zeke still hang out nearly every night. 

    It’s easy to see what a teen growing up in a decaying suburb would see in Zeke. He has a house (albeit a dirty frat house-like shack), a girlfriend (Sydney Sweeney), and spends his days playing video games, drinking, smoking, and still not having a care in the world. To Mo, he’s a hero. Director and screenwriter Jason Orley builds their relationship with jaunty conversations and interactions that show just how much care the pair have for each other. Davidson and Gluck find chemistry that feels organic, exactly how you’d expect a pair with their story to act.

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    Big Time Adolescence poster

    There’s a sweetness to Big Time Adolescence that’s surprising. Admittedly, when I came into the movie I was expecting raunchy sex jokes and gay panic humor. Instead, it’s a surprisingly measured character study. Mo’s fascination with Zeke, that is a borderline obsession (they’re with each other every free minute they have), weighs heavily on Mo’s father Reuben (Jon Cryer), who is wary of the influence Zeke has on Mo. However, the movie is careful not to stray into cliches with the relationship even when the plot does. Zeke doesn’t mean harm to Mo and Mo isn’t played as a nerdy kid trying to be cool for laughs. 

    When Mo is invited to a senior party, one Zeke was credited with inventing (his supposed claim to fame), Zeke suggests he uses the opportunity to sell pot to the more than willing students. Though hesitant at first, Mo quickly warms to the idea when he realizes it buys him clout with the popular kids and gets him invited to parties where he can talk to his crush Sophie (Oona Laurence). 

    But again, though it’s a storyline we’ve seen over and over before, Orley keeps the movie focused on his characters. In particular, Mo learning to be a teen and Zeke learning to be an adult. There’s so much nuance in their journies, especially with Davidson, whose performance finds an emotional complexity that has until now been wasted on meaningless projects. The stoner burnout manchild could easily become a caricature, but Davidson gives him texture — he feels lived in. Orley finds the insecurities and shows them to us in subtle ways. Gluck does equally good work by portraying Mo as a kid awkwardly finding his footing. 

    The final scene is where Big Time Adolescence feels important — frankly, it reminded me of the final Ramona monologue in Hustlers. The journey for the two boys is set and in their final conversation together they navigate what that means for their relationship. It’s so emotional for a movie I thought would be inundated with offensive humor just because of its star. Yet another reason to never discount someone based on their history. Big Time Adolescence isn’t perfect, largely because it is weighed down by its less-than-original plot. Still, the thematic depths it finds is great and the characters it creates even better.