Bodies Bodies Bodies (2022) Dir: Halina Reijn
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What do get when you put the worst people you've ever met at a house party in a whodunit murder mystery? You get this Halina Reijn directed A24 horror comedy from 2022. I knew of this film's existence for a while, but only recently decided to watch it after seeing it on Netflix.
Visually, I could tell that Reijn was toying with various methods of lighting a film that takes place mostly at night and in a house with no power, but the film ended up looking only a little interesting, thanks to one character having glowsticks. I don't mind the modern take of using phone torches, but how nobody's batteries died is beyond me.
As I illuded to in my very first sentence, I thought the film was full of annoying, unlikeable characters. They were all horrible people who I don't think anyone would actually want to be friends with in real life, except for two people, who were more bearable.
The story gave me mixed emotions. On the one hand, I thought that the mystery element was good; it had me guessing till almost the end, and the actors did a good job of feeling believable, or not, depending on the scenes they were in. The problem was that I didn't care who lived and died, because they all the characters sucked as people. It's hard to route for people who are all as horrible as this friendship group.
Amandla Sternberg gave a strong performance for the vast majority of the film, but, like most of those who featured, she suffered in part because her character was so irritating. However, I can't really blame her for what was clearly a writing decision.
Maria Bakalova provided the film with its only genuinely likable character, and while her acting maybe got a little lost in the shuffle, surrounded by much more expressive characters, I still thought her performance was really quite solid.
I thought that the pair of Myha'la Jael Herrold and Rachel Sonnett gave the film some of its best acting, particularly Sonnett, who seems to be establishing herself as a hot prospect for the future of Hollywood. It's also worth mentioning those who also appeared; Chase Sui Wonders, Pete Davidson, Lee Pace and Connor O'Malley - they all gave decent enough performances.
Overall, this was an odd one for me - I can't quite decide if I really liked it or not. I think aspects of it were really enjoyable, but there was also plenty that I didn't like. As such, I guess I can only regard it as a fairly average film, which is a shame, because I feel like I wanted to like it more than I ultimately do.
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