a quiet place day one & the exorcism

A QUIET PLACE: DAY ONE

Academy Award winner Lupita Nyong'o stars in this prequel and third overall entry in the Quiet Place franchise; about an alien invasion where the attackers are drawn not to lights or blood but SOUND. The simple enough premise, always told from a street level perspective opens up lots of opportunities for creative uses of sound in the film. Something franchise creator/director/writer/star John Krasinski did fairly well in the first two. John K stepped aside for this one, instead opting for last May's truly abysmal IF.

Enter brand new writer/director Michael Sarnoski who takes us back to, well day one of said alien invasion. What follows is an often thrilling yet meditative and thoughtful summer blockbuster. Lupita, who has had a very interesting post-Oscar career, brings so much depth and emotional layers to her character reminding us all why she blew up over a decade ago. Exceptionally strong supporting work from Nico and Schnitzel as her emotional support cat Frodo. I had less of a good time with Joseph Quinn's performance as a terrified man who joins our heroes along the way. I appreciate the sensitivity he brought to the role but it was a little one note especially next to Lupita who again is a STAR.

At a tight 90 or so minutes the movie never overstays it's welcome and proves there's still a bit of juice left in the series if you hire interesting talent both in front and behind the camera. ⭐⭐⭐/4

THE EXORCISM

Russell Crowe stars in this horror about a washed up actor in recovery taking a role as a priest in a typical exorcist movie when very scary things begin to happen to him. Has he fallen off the wagon and is imagining this or is there something much more sinister at play? Listen this filmed in 2019 and did reshoots as recently as last year, it's not going for the gold. But Crowe can't help himself, bringing his usual gravitas to the role, not a wink or tongue in cheek. He sells the hell (😏) out of this rather surface level story. Along with a truly insane supporting cast (David Hyde Pierce has a prominent role as a real priest!), this was very watchable and went down smooth. Stick with it to the end for some very fun camp moments. ⭐⭐.5/4