Three years after it was cool, the White House pulled off a "Rickroll."
During a recent White House "Office Hours" held by National Economic Council Deputy Director Brian Deese, a grumpy man from Franklin, Tenn., decided that the conversation just was not intellectually stimulating enough for him.
Upon tweeting that "This WH correspondence briefing isn't nearly as entertaining as yesterday's," Deese (or whichever intern was manning the account at that moment) shot back with quite the repartee.
The responding tweet was sympathetic in nature, offering a sweet apology and concurring that "fiscal policy is important, but can be boring." The extended olive branch of choice? A link that might be found "more fun" — a video of Astley singing the song he is most known for.
Rickrolling, a phenomenon introduced in 2008, involves stealth insertion of Rick Astley's video for "Never Gonna Give You Up" into an otherwise unrelated situation. The most famous of all rickrolls took place on Thanksgiving Day 2008, when the man himself emerged from the inside of a Macy's Parade float to serenade the crowd and TV watchers nation-wide.
Horror comedies tend to be a good entry point for non-hardcore fans of the genre, as they provide for a good amount of levity amongst the carnage shown on screen. Examples like the original Scream, Shaun of the Dead, and Get Out keep the spirit of horror alive while still giving the audience plenty of laughs.
Writer/director Osgood Perkins, who wowed some genre fans with Longlegs in 2024, is back with a much different type of film in The Monkey. Based on a Stephen King short story, the film features a villain who is not a person, but rather an organ grinder monkey toy that inexplicably causes the death of someone nearby when activated.
The toy changes hands a few times in the film, but always seems to come back into the lives of twin brothers Hal and Bill (Christian Convery as a child, Theo James as an adult). No matter what they do, they cannot rid themselves of the monkey, and few in their orbit are safe from its unexplained wrath.
The high points of the short, 95-minute film are unquestionably its many kills, which are heightened to a degree that laughter is pretty much the only response if you’re willing to go along with it. The deaths seem to increase in absurdity as the film goes along, and the inventiveness of each one makes it feel like Perkins drew inspiration from the Final Destination series.
The problem for the film comes in Perkins’ storytelling outside of the violence. There’s little that’s compelling about the lives of Hal and Bill other than the tragedies they witness along the way. Their times with their mother (Tatiana Maslany), aunt and uncle (Sarah Levy and Perkins himself), and others fail to have any meaningful impact, and their own twisted relationship is too odd to be fully involving, as well.
Because of the disparity between the violent and non-violent parts of the film, the film never maintains any kind of momentum. To be fair, Perkins spends a lot of time with his main characters, but because their stories fail to inspire, it feels like the film is just twiddling its thumbs until it can get to the next over-the-top kill. The mystery of the monkey is okay, but could have been enhanced.
Despite some high-profile roles (the Divergent series, The White Lotus), James is somewhat of a blank slate as an actor, and he feels miscast here.. The dual roles can be tricky to pull off, and he never makes either twin brother pop. Maslany is given the showiest role and it’s fun to see her ham it up to a degree. The oddest casting goes to Elijah Wood, who shows up in a cameo that leaves many questions about his character going unanswered.
It’s unclear why Perkins didn’t commit fully to the comedy part of The Monkey, as the scenes that go all-in in that respect are the best ones in the film. But anytime he veers away from them, the movie gets less interesting, and ultimately the balance goes too far in the wrong direction.
