He Went That Way

It is 1964. Jim (Zachary Quinto) is driving across America with a trained monkey. He picks up hitchhiker Bobby (Jacob Elordi).

There is something wrong with Jim. There are red flags flying all over the place and he's just strange. There is something really wrong with him. The monkey may be the most normal folk in that vehicle. From that beginning, I couldn't shake the feeling that it's all very fake. The fact that it took inspiration from a real incident matters very little. By the closing texts, I'm feeling completely lost in the strange characters in weird tones and questionable everything.

Movies based on true stories always have my preference, certainly if it's about true crime and serial killers. I had never heard about this story before though, so it was a surprise. They probably embellished the whole story a bit so it felt more fiction than non-fiction. I really doubt that it went like this. That said it was pleasant to watch, mostly because of the good acting from Jacob Elordi and Zachary Quinto. The chimpanzee looked a bit fake but overall it was okay. Not a lot of action considering it's about a serial killer, and a rather slow pace, but still good enough due to the good acting.

I truly wish this would have been a movie inspired by the true story, rather than what they gave us. The trailer looked so fantastic and the cast is ofc stellar, so I was very excited to watch it, but the movie although building suspense and tension, did not really do much with said tension. This could have been a 10min beautiful Short, instead it was pretty much the same thematic thing happening again and again with very little change. Also, why the hell was this movie so full of homoerotic subtext that then didn't go anywhere? If the movie had actually done something with that, it might have been interesting. But it didn't. By the end I was very much left with the feeling of "That's...it?" Very unsatisfactory, which I think is due to it being based on a real story. Would have preferred this as either a documentary or a more liberal, inspired-by but not beholden-to kinda story. Fantastic visuals though and solid acting, especially from Zachery Quinto. Elordi was also good. I also liked the suspense that was build in it by smaller scenes, just wish it had gone somewhere better.

I could tell within the first 30 minute that this was written and directed by children who have no experience in real life. I would guess that their parent paid for their film school education, and they have watched a lot of movies, which they assume would give them the ability to make a movie of their own. But there is nothing original or interesting here. Sorry, boys, you failed. Your characters are false, your story is derivative, and the movie doesn't even have any style. It's such a shame that you wasted the efforts of decent actors like Zachary Quinto and Jacob Elordi. Time to give up filmmaking and find a real job. I hear Applebee's is hiring.

This film was hard work. I get that it's a true story and you have to be somewhat loyal to the reality of what actually happened, but man were these two tedious people to follow for 90 minutes. One is a wimp and the other is a psychopath. A psychopath can be a fun character if written correctly, but this one was just boring. He had nothing interesting to say and when he was killing someone it was just grim.

There were times when the movie showed some promise. I liked the addition of the monkey (sorry, chimpanzee) to the story and the added dimension that brought to the proceedings. Too often though scenes felt very forced and like they were just there to give the film some kind of purpose.

Basically I didn't care. The film never found a way to get me invested. This one wasn't for me. 5/10.