Bodies Bodies Bodies

When A24 released the first trailer for one of their newest films, Bodies Bodies Bodies, I wasn't sure what to make of it. It felt almost like Scream, but with a modern spin, and while I can say it's not that, this is an enjoyable film if you know what you're in for. It won't be for everyone though, as this film is loaded with subject matter that will turn certain viewers off. All I will say is that it's worth watching, even if you're not enjoying yourself and I'll explain why. You don't have to rush out and see Bodies Bodies Bodies, but here's why it's worth a watch.

During a hurricane, a group of young adults party in their friend's mansion, while doing drugs and drinking a lot of alcohol. Not in their right mind, they decide to play a game that requires the skill of trying to find the killer. Things go very wrong though when one of them actually turns up dead. Trying to figure out who the killer is, this group lets out many bottled-up emotions and continuously backstab each other. This makes for some entertaining scenes of heavy dialogue, but it also works against the film in my opinion. The banter/arguing between characters is nearly half of what this film is, but I get that it was meant to be tongue and cheek. It just didn't quite do it for me all the time. In fact, if it wasn't for the ending, I'm not even sure I'd be talking highly about this film at all.

About halfway through the film, I wasn't even sure who to root for, even though I knew which characters the film wanted me to care about the most. The mystery always kept me on the edge of my seat, having no idea who the killer was, but I also wasn't sure I even cared that much. With that said, the way this film wraps up is one of my favourite few minutes of the year. Yes, I loved the ending that much. The issue is though, I don't think the rest of the film was enjoyable enough to say that I loved it overall. I will gladly watch this film over and over again with people who haven't seen it though. This is the type of film that has a reveal that comes out of nowhere and I couldn't get enough of it.

Overall, Bodies Bodies Bodies has some fun dialogue and Halina Reijn's directing work (which I have yet to see, until now) was also very commendable. It's just a fun horror/comedy that's not supposed to be taken as anything more. If it was that from start to finish, I'd barely give this film a pass because I just mildly enjoy myself. Again though, it's all about that ending for me. When the film finished, I thought back through the film and it worked a lot better for me. Some people may not like it as much as I did, but I wanted to stand up and cheer for the writers on this one, Sarah DeLappe crafted one hell of a twist. Bodies Bodies Bodies is now playing in select theatres, and while I do recommend it, this can easily be watched at home.

Anyone reviewing this as vapid and shallow and claims it has a predictable ending is missing the entire point of the film.

The characters are of course absurdist representations of not only current youth but also humanity as a whole.

This is not meant to be a horror film that reinvents the wheel. It's meant to be a discussion of how we as a culture have warped our relationship with information, specifically technologically. It's meant to represent how we gather and receive unsound information, react impulsively, and create destruction while doing so, whether to ourselves or others. Understandably, the movie isn't TOO heavy handed in its approach as to not come across as preachy, but I think the message is clear and the film conveys it in a way that's fun and entertaining. I mean, come on, it's A24. If you're showing up expecting a by the books slasher, you've come to the wrong place. I think that's more of an expectation setting problem than it should be a knock at the film.

There are a lot things that I really like about Bodies Bodies Bodies. How it makes fun of Gen Z. Which is why all of the characters are intentionally obnoxious, as well as the great twist. My issues with it being that though the film is short, I started to loose interest. And the humor, which I'll admit I was laughing in any many scenes, there were points where I couldn't tell whether or not if it was trying to be funny. Overall, Bodies Bodies Bodies is a mixed bag.

I came about watching this movie in a roundabout way. It was written and directed by Halina Reijn who also did the more recent "Babygirl" with Nicole Kidman. That one is a bit of a strange character study but I found it worthwhile. So I found "Bodies Bodies Bodies" on BluRay at my public library. Which surprised me.

I did not come away with a high opinion of this movie. First off, it starts with a very close-up shot of two 20-something young ladies locked in a minute's worth of French kiss lip-lock. If you assume that the opening scene of a movie sets the stage for what else is to come, it did not appeal to this 70-something grandfather.

It turns out the two of them were driving to a rather remote home (filmed in upstate New York) where a group of mostly 20-something guys and gals had a weekend party planned while the owner, the father of one of them, was gone.

What happens after all the participants are there doesn't make much sense and isn't entertaining. They decide to play a game in the dark, it is called "bodies bodies bodies" and it is a bit confusing. But it does set the stage for a dead friend being found, then another, then another. Mostly because assumptions, wrong assumptions, were being made.

In addition, the dialog is very poor and most characters curse constantly which may just be a feature of today's 20-somethings, but it got old quickly and took away greatly from what might have been interesting elements of the story.

My BluRay player has a very useful feature, a +15 second button, so I could get through the long, tedious sections more quickly without losing content.

No, not a good movie at all, from my perspective.

Not every story needs a hero and it can be refreshing when the characters are a little more "real" and grounded. But it's more difficult to write characters that are jerks that you still want to follow. Bodies Bodies Bodies is aware that the entire group of people they've centred the movie around are terrible people. It's not a blunder or something the creative team overlooked, but I'm not sure why they made that choice. Is the entire point that young people suck? That's fine... but other than the fact they're rich and are snorting and smoking everything in sight, they don't go about it in an amusing way. The movie is trying to crack jokes but it fails at that as well. You don't need heroic or even likeable characters but it forces the story to do even more heavy lifting to hold your attention.

Bodies is a movie where it isn't easy to separate the actors from their characters. I've already talked about how this movie is intentionally populated by vapid and annoying characters. This choice also makes it harder to distinguish between a badly written character or a mishandled performance. If I had to pick a member of the cast that was the most impressive, I'd go with Amandla Stenberg playing the emotionally vulnerable Sophie. She's grown up a lot since her appearance in The Hunger Games and with her character drying out and trying to stay sober, she did a good job being erratic and unpredictable. I liked Maria Bakalova so much in Borat Subsequent, she's just fine here. It's not a comedic role but she didn't have the same spark she showed previously. If there was someone who got on my nerves, Pete Davidson's character David was extra snarky and annoying but I couldn't really distinguish if that was just the character or something he was putting on top of it.

The only defence I can really muster for Bodies is that the central mystery was interesting enough to sustain me through all of the dead air. With all the characters unable to properly process due to the illicit substances and the hurricane raging outside, it could have been anyone and that's properly played up. The reveal is unique but it's also fitting as it kind of fizzles out like most of the tension. I'll give them credit for being creative but I just kind of shrugged as we hit the closing credits.

I've seen worse than Bodies Bodies Bodies but I don't get why there was such huge hype from the critics. Bodies isn't scary and there's only so much tension and excitement to be gleaned from the premise. The acting was fine but it was also hampered by the characters being so self-absorbed and hard to like. While the twist is kind-of new, it didn't mean much and I was still left disappointed that I sunk an hour and a half into this. I'm giving it a 5/10 and I'm probably being generous. We're getting much better thrillers and horror movies more frequently now, you're better off checking out one of those.