No kids allowed on the beach. What, no?
We never leave each other.
The last decade
or so is found M. Night Shyamalan,
in a position where commercial
expectations have increasingly clashed
against his foundational peculiarities.
During a stretch of Hollywood history,
when audiences have generally been
brainwashed to ignore clumsy storytelling,
so long as they leave the theater whispering
excitedly about a post credits revelation
Shaman's name has become shorthand for
a little more than expecting the twist.
But the six cents and signs filmmaker has
always been more than his gimmicks suggest,
and we've forgotten that overtime.
Now comes old,
a beachside mystery in which Shyamalan
pokes fun at our obsession with
formula over function in his films.
If you buy ticket to old,
you likely know what you're expecting
a twisty thriller in which our victims
bodies are aging out mysteriously quick,
and importantly, irreversible rates.
The truth is,
old premises even more front facing then
it's trailers would suggest from the
moment it starts there something uneasy,
and almost performative about its
luxury resort setting is that our
awareness of the trickster director
or merely us recognizing that.
We might casually slip into different
identities around beaches and Mai tais.
Turns out it's a bit of both.
That's the focus of this week's screen test.
I'm
I'm right here?
In old, the allegorical potential
of a quickly collapsing family,
literally running out of time
to confront its secrets,
stretches as far as you allow it to,
and it's refreshing that the metaphor
is out in the open for all the sea.
After Shumlin's last effort,
glass probed thematic depths that
it seemed only he could appreciate.
But at the same time,
we're watching someone having
a laugh about his reputation,
weaponizing his humility in a way that
makes old as funny as it is tense.
The move is strength,
lies in how it pulses as a living,
breathing double entendre that is,
it works as a glimpse into the mind
of a filmmaker who's made peace
with his critics as a thesis on the
precious limits of time afforded to us.
And as an often thrillingly staged
piece of entertainment in which the
best moments placed the audience.
And as much of a trance as its
characters find themselves,
even the dizzyingly playful
cinematography spins.
Around and around in circles as if
it two were searching for answers
in these wide open sandy shores.
Alright here we go, guys.
I'm sure Shyamalan expects us to think
were on his tail when we first noticed
people acting strangely and see things
left in the usual places in squint at,
the mysterious glint of
light high above the beach.
But he catches us off guard
with a sincere candor,
embraced fires ensemble led by a strong guy,
Al Garcia Bernal and Vicky Crepes.
You can feel the 4th wall shattering,
not by how they look into the camera,
but because of how they sincerely
attempt to explain their way out of
a situation that can't be explained.
One character describes
it all as a parlor trick,
a term that we ourselves may have used
to describe a Shyamalan movie before,
and the characters first logical
attempts at escape might remind
us of our own thought processes
when we're watching any movie.
She's panicked and desperate.
Talk to each other.
Yeah,
you and I should just take together now.
I don't think Shyamalan is offering
the groundbreaking thesis on the
Act of movie watching so much as
assuring us that he's aware of
how we tend to watch his films,
even the ones whose empathy and
humanity we've tended to overlook
when old is at its most confident,
that error is twofold.
Worrying about escape means that this
family has less time to own up to the
cracks which have formed within it.
But pausing to make goodbye each
other will only bring certain
doom closer into view,
old manages to thread that sincerity.
While still retaining its
cheeky self awareness,
whether someone succeeds at house conclusion
takes his ideas to certain extremes.
Will like any of his other movies
be debated for years to come,
but it doesn't diminish what comes before
amounting to an uproariously fun time,
and wildly unexpected.
One at the movies at a point when the
movie is daring to go big and shocking,
and quite a bit strange,
is too rare treat.
For KENS 5 screen test I'm David Lynch.
You can read my full review of M Night
Shyamalan's old as well as other recent
releases on kens5.com/screen test.
Oh no. We're here for a reason.