Movie Review

Ultraviolence abounds in bloody but stylish Boy Kills World

Bill Skarsgård in Boy Kills World.

Photo courtesy of Roadside Attractions

For whatever reason, movies with ultraviolence – that is, grisly, very bloody violence – have seemed to proliferate in the 21st century. To be sure, they existed in the 20th century as well, but the number of films featuring it feels like it has gone up exponentially in recent years, especially since the John Wick films have become popular and advances in CGI have allowed filmmakers to become even more creative.

The new film Boy Kills World makes no bones about what viewers will get, as it’s right there in the title. The title character (Bill Skarsgård) is mute, stemming from childhood trauma when he saw his sister get killed by Hilda Van Der Koy (Famke Janssen) in an annual event called The Culling. The boy went into exile and has been training for many years with a shaman/mentor (Yayan Ruhmian) to exact revenge on Hilda.

The bulk of film sees him in his return to the city of his youth, where he slowly makes his way up the Van Der Koy ruling ladder, from Hilda’s brother-in-law Glen (Sharlto Copley) to brother Gideon (Brett Gelman) to sister Melanie (Michelle Dockery). At each step, the now-grown boy is met with tons of resistance, although he gets help from a prisoner, Basho (Andrew Koji), whom he frees along the way.

Directed by Moritz Mohr and written by Tyler Burton Smith and Arend Remmers, the film has a light/irreverent tone right from the start that helps to not take the abundance of violence too seriously. Because he’s mute, the boy has given himself an inner monologue voice, one he takes from a Street Fighter-style video game that the audience hears as a constant voiceover. This idea alone is responsible for 90 percent of the film’s humor, as hearing the voice saying his thoughts instead of him actually saying them leads to many unfiltered words coming out of him.

Even though the film’s fight scenes feature an orgy of blood, the stylized nature of the violence keeps it from feeling too “real.” The camera is almost constantly moving, swirling around and through the action, making the film highly entertaining throughout. The variety of shots that Mohr and his team employ, as well as the above average CGI, is more than enough to please cinephiles who also happen to enjoy a guilt-free killing spree.

As it often is in action films, the story doesn’t quite measure up. As the title suggests, all you need to know is that it’s about one person against virtually everyone else in the film, and the hows and whys of how he got there are mostly unnecessary. Some late-film exposition makes up for that lack to a degree, but no one should expect to get overly involved in the storytelling.

Skarsgård has slowly but surely been catching up to the reputation of his older brother, Alexander, and this starring role may move him into full-on stardom despite the fact that never says a word. He more than proves himself as an action star, and his facial reactions make up for not having any dialogue. All of the actors playing Van Der Koys come off well, as does Jessica Rothe as a lead soldier in the Van Der Koys' private militia.

Boy Kills World is a great addition to a film landscape that often feels like it’s dominated by franchises. It has style to spare, using its ultraviolence in a way that satisfies the bloodlust of hardcore action fans without becoming so off-putting that more squeamish people can’t also enjoy it.

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Boy Kills World is now playing in theaters.

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Movie Review

Spielberg-inspired movie The End of Oak Street is a dino-snore

Photo by Daniel McFadden

Ewan McGregor and Anne Hathaway in The End of Oak Street.

Steven Spielberg is the iconic director of the last 50 years, so it’s no surprise that many other filmmakers have borrowed from his classic films. But most of the time those come in the form of references or homages, not straight up theft, which is what it feels like watching The End of Oak Street play out in front of your eyes.

Set in the early 1980s in an idyllic suburban neighborhood of an unnamed city, Denise (Anne Hathaway) and Greg (Ewan McGregor) are parents to two teenagers, Audrey (Maisy Stella) and Brian (Christian Convery). They’re also possibly heading toward divorce, as Audrey is secretly writing a novel with a thinly-veiled plot about their life, and Brian is cagey about having to earn extra money with a pizza delivery job.

That all gets put on the backburner when a mysterious event takes their entire neighborhood back to the time of dinosaurs. Armed with little more than a shotgun and sledgehammer, Audrey and Brian do their best to keep the family safe in their house. But the longer the ordeal goes on, circumstances force them out onto the streets and into the increasing danger that’s all around them.

Written and directed by David Robert Mitchell, the film tries immensely hard to be like the Spielberg movies its filmmaker clearly adores, but fails at almost every turn. It never earns the broken family in ‘80s suburbia vibes that were prevalent in E.T., going all in right away in the opening scene with a neighborhood block party that feels forced. Other elements like a bully who has it out for Brian, the family dog that disappears, and an angry neighbor come across as the tropes they are and not as organic parts of the plot.

When it finally gets to its dinosaur sequences, they pale in comparison to those found in Jurassic Park. The strange manner in which the dinosaurs appear is a big part of that, but the action involving them forgoes ominous moments that could build tension for those that play up gore in an unexpected way for a PG-13 movie. Many of the attacks have so little emotional meaning that they come off as comical, which is entertaining but in a hollow way.

As if those weren’t enough, Mitchell — perhaps at the behest of producer J.J. Abrams (who made his own Spielbergian film, Super 8) — tries to honor Spielberg in other ways. Just like in Jaws, he employs the use of a split diopter lens, which keeps characters in both the foreground and background in focus. But instead of using it judiciously, it’s brought out in three separate scenes, including a laughable one with the four family members where it turns into overkill.

Hathaway, coming off of a role in The Odyssey that could earn her an Oscar nomination, is the best part of this film. But even her evident skills are dragged down by the ridiculousness of the story, which requires hysterics that even she can’t sell. McGregor can normally be counted on for a good performance, but he gives several line readings with strange cadences that make his already-underwritten character come off worse. Stella and Convery are okay, but their roles are unmemorable overall.

Mitchell and his team can never settle on exactly what type of film they were trying to make, and so even though The End of Oak Street has a few moments that work, they’re surrounded by many others that don’t. In trying to emulate Spielberg — there’s even a blatant Back to the Future (produced by Spielberg) rip-off towards the end — all Mitchell has done is show how difficult it is to be the master.

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The End of Oak Street opens in theaters on August 14.