DESTROYER

Nicole Kidman     Toby Kebbell     Bradford Whitford    Sebastian Stan    Scoot McNairy

Tatiana Maslany     James Jordan     Jade Pettyjohnn

     This is one of those films where you have to work hard just to keep up with the characters and the story, partly because Director Karyn Kusama chose to switch back and forth in time rather than tell the tale chronologically.  It’s a common practice I literally hate, and see no reason for it—except to make us work hard.  Perhaps filmmakers think it increases the mystery, because the viewer doesn’t have critical information until almost the end of the film. But that’s not a good reason.

     Destroyer had the potential to be a fine thriller, but fails because of the above and because by the time critical information is given, it serves only to draw out the story and drag on and on when you just want it to end.

     We’re thrown off base right away, when Detective Erin Bell (an almost unrecognizable Kidman) drags herself around a murder scene amidst the taunts of other detectives already there.  She spots significant clues, and goes to the police station to still more taunts.  She is the only one who could recognize some tell tale signs at the murder scene, but you won't know that this is the end of the movie, rather than the beginning of the story.  

     To avoid spoilers, I will refrain from going into the story at all.  Erin Bell is the focus and reason for the story and for the title itself.  She is a detective on the Los Angeles Police force, who has become persona non grata, and must endure taunts from all sides, including criminals and her own daughter.  We’re immediately curious about her history—which is a rich one—but must travel back and forth in time among a myriad of characters to learn about only a fraction of it.

Acting in this film is its strongest asset.  Award-winning Nicole Kidman (in three films just this year:  Destroyer, Boy Erased, and Aquaman plus television’s “Big Little Lies”) captures and sustains your attention throughout the film, which (in its disjointed way) is about who she is and part of how she came to be.  (I say “part”, because that’s all we get.)  Toby Kebbell and Bradley Whitford provide terrifying cameos that make you shiver, and Tatiana Maslany and Jade Pettyjohn play their roles of fleshing out the plot aptly.

     There is so much potential for soul in this story, that it’s a crying shame the ones responsible seemed to miss their own point.  The tale of a sharp but discredited detective with a back-story who continues to persevere contains the makings of a moving human story; but this film is not the one to tell it.  The title itself proves the filmmakers’ absence of empathy and insight into the main character.

About plans gone wrong in so many ways.

Grade:  C+                                    By Donna R. Copeland

GET OUT

Allison Williams     Daniel Kaluua     Bradford Whitford     Catherine Keener     Caleb Landry Jones

      Get Out is a freak-out not long after the film begins.  It starts cozy enough with two young people in love, Chris (Kaluuya) and Rose (Williams).  She’s about to introduce him to her family, which creates a hint of anxiety in him because he’s black and she’s white.  “No problem”, she says; she hasn’t told them, but they’re liberal parents (“My father would have voted for Obama the third time”) and will be accepting.  Her father is a neurosurgeon and her mother a psychiatrist. 

      They arrive at her parents’ home, a beautiful mansion with forested acreage—no other home in sight.  Dean (Whitford) and Missy (Keener) greet them warmly, though a bit oddly.  Chris gets just a twinge of unease, but this is heightened when the brother Jeremy (Jones) arrives and clearly challenges Chris with racial undertones. 

      As the weekend proceeds, numerous meetings and happenstances occur, such as Chris meeting “the help”, two black people, one a groundskeeper and the other a housekeeper; a large traditionally hosted party, with wealthy guests who see Chris and immediately mention a black person they know (example:  A golfer says, “I know Tiger!”); and, significantly, an older woman with a much younger, vacant-eyed black escort who, at times, resembles a performing monkey.  Horrified, Chris recognizes him as someone who went missing recently in his hometown.

      What follows is truly horrific, and will astonish you, repel you, and actually scare you (not something that happens to me much in horror films).  Chris is caught in a web he could not have possibly imagined from his earlier blissful days with Rose.  Who are these people and what are they about?

     For his debut directorial feature, Jordan Peele, can be proud.  He has written a real thriller that is exciting and thrilling, but importantly has socio-cultural elements that make us pause and think.  It’s a window through which we see how white people try to befriend black people, while demonstrating underlying prejudices in the process.  The hoot at the end is that Peele turns the tables by showing white people lusting after “black” (stereotypical) characteristics.

      I always love seeing Catherine Keener and Bradley Whitford playing their characters so true and entertaining, and they’ve done it once again here.  They have talent for giving a veneer of wealth, fine breeding and cordiality overlaying dark and mysterious aims.  Daniel Kaluuya carries the weight of the suspenseful story, and does it well, showing the transition from affability, good nature, and curiosity, to desperation.  Allison Williams shows her talent in portraying an upper class young woman who appears to have crossed the racial boundaries. 

      I did have a problem with this film.  Hypnosis is a legitimate, often extremely effective treatment but with mythologies surrounding it.  Get Out exploits these in the interest of enhancing horror, and while that is clearly effective, it perpetuates fears about hypnosis that are ungrounded.  I wish Jordan Peele had figured out another clever way to manipulate the characters in his film.

A thriller that addresses racial sensitivities.  Be prepared to see a genuine horror unfold.

Grade:  B+                                    By Donna R. Copeland