Looks That Kill

TL;DR: If you've loved The Fault in Our Stars and the sorts, you can't miss this; if you (like myself) hated it, you should still give this one a chance - you might be pleasantly surprised.

Whenever I finish a movie, the first thing I do is to check online for reviews; I like to see other people's opinion about it, wheter they agree with mine or not. It makes for an enriching experience.

So imagine my surprise when, coming here after watching this movie, I found out that not only there's not a single review about it, but also so few people have seen (the vote count as I'm writing is only at 177)! I mean, really? This is by no means a B movie (which usually have ten times as many ratings), and it's already been three days since it was released. For such a delightfully charming one, it's too much of an injustice, so here's my attempt to repair that a tiny bit.

Watching the trailer you might be tricked into thinking this is a silly YA rom-com, and sure enought I begins that way. But it soon goes from silly to charming, from charming to heartbreaking... don't get me wrong, at its heart this is still very much a YA rom-com, with all of it's clichés and pitfalls, nothing groundbreaking. But the way it blend those with some more dense elements (one of them being almost too somber) feels so right that you can't help but be captured by it; I've mentioned The Fault in Our Stars at the beginning, but in this sense it's much more akin to Me and Earl and the Dying Girl.

A lot of it goes to the impeccable production and cast. Both protagonists (Flynn and Telles) are so natural that they manage to somehow hoover above you're average in-love teen couple. The supporting characters are also on spot, including some hilarious ones having little to no lines at all. But what impressed me the most was the special care given to the cinematography, which leverages the movie concept to create some really eye-caching close-ups. All of this combined with a lot of funny references to '90s nerd culture. Considering that this is the first feature film of director Kellen Moore, it's even more impressive.

Of all of those tragic-teen-romance movies that have become a genre in and of itself, this is the only one that I've actually enjoyed. Give it a try - even if you don't like it as much, I think you'll agree that it deserves a LOT more attention than it's getting.

Honestly had low expectations but really enjoyed this film Funny , sad and sweet Really good performances by the cast

Story - 8/10 pros: interesting concept, witty dialogue, and fun characters for the most part. cons: it's an unusual concept but falls into some YA genre related cliches briefly.

Cast - 8/10 pros: Flynn and Telles share a clear chemistry on set. It's easy to fall in love with them as a couple. Telles in particular exudes charisma and charm, while providing some strong subtly during the more dramatic moments of her journey. Scolari and Mumolo provide nice comic relief as bickering parents dealing with a son that continually accidentally kills people in their small town. cons: some of the side characters feel a little under developed.

Direction - 7.5/10 pros: Moore creates an unusual world with a lot of originality. He garners very strong performances from his two leads and orchestrates a couple very dynamic sequences, namely toward the end of the film. cons: feels like at times there is some hesitation from the first time director to commit to a joke, but then at other times maybe he doesn't show enough restraint.

Pace - 6/10 pros: the story proceeds at a very fast easy viewing pace, you never check your watch to see how much time is left. cons: maybe it moves too fast at certain times. Seems like some characters or moments got glossed over or rushed through. not sure if that is a script issue or the filmmakers didn't always accomplish what they wanted but taking points off here.

Atmosphere - 8/10 pros: the world is pretty fun. the sets and decor have a great sense of whimsicality to them but at the same time feel genuine to the world they are in. The costumes accent the sets while sharing in that "Blegh" blahnes humor of the world. The camera work and framing seems to always have a purpose and interesting look to them while adding to the joke or emotion of the moment. The musical score slides by in the background creating a fun feel while also stepping up to hammer down an emotion in the more dramatic moments of the story. cons: a couple locations didn't seem to serve much purpose in the story

Overall Score 7 out of 10, very enjoyable watch and would recommend but not a classic.

When you get passed the ridiculous premise and glaring plot holes, the film is a good little black comedy/Romcom. The two leads are interesting and funny enough in their roles. Some good supporting roles from some elderly characters which ground the story with some nice comedic results. Now as far is the story outside the boy and girl's dilemmas, the themes and messages getting pretty muddled. It clumsily tries to tackle some serious subjects and gets lost. The movie is similar to the film Spontaneous with its dark/weird/funny/cuteness theme. But that film was more successful in its ideas. But still, Looks That Kill still makes for an entertaining ride.

With that being said I really liked the concept of this movie. I've only seen the first season of 13 reasons why so I haven't see a lot of Flynn in anything to know a lot about his acting. The movie started off quite dark and I was thinking it would be more drama then comedy however it quickly switched gears to be a comedy. I thought it might be some super dark comedy but instead it was just some average teen romance movie with a weird quirk in it. Flynn and his co star do an alright job but the movie doesn't really give them a lot to do. They kind of just walk around a lot.

My main problem with this movie is plausibility. Max (Flynn's character) kills anybody that sees his face. But he has lived his whole life without being arrested, and someone doctors or scientists aren't trying to run tests on him? As well as the fact that the whole seeing his face thing is never explained. Realistically for a lot of the movie only his nose and forehead are covered. What counts as seeing his face? Could he wear one bandage around His noise and have it count? It's just never really explained, which I wouldn't mind if the movie didn't put so much emphasis on the fact he has such a hard time making friends cause nobody wants to be around him.

Overall, it's an alright cheesy movie. Right up my friend Kiz's alley but it didn't blow me away. The last 30 minutes are also pretty slow.