TakeTwoReviews

The first Nobody film was great. I wanted more and here we are. Unlikely badass hitman Hutch (Bob Odenkirk) is back. He's been busy. Too busy and his home life is suffering. He needs a vacation. Off the family go, including grandpa (Christopher Lloyd), to the sort of ostentatious tasteless American holiday retreat, that although a tongue in cheek parody here, feels like it probably still exists. Hutch has been here before, in his youth. A happy memory, one he wants to share... but Hutch has a temper. One that makes him good at his job, but not great on holiday and before too long, he's rattled the local rednecks, including Sheriff Abel (Colin Hanks, son of). The story of course isn't overly important, but there's enough of one to service the onslaught of lashings of comedic violent mayhem. Good ol boys he can handle, but the resort is just a front for a crime pyramid, at the top of which sits the sadistic Lendina (Sharon Stone). The first film was fun. Overly violent yes, but it felt grounded. This tries to inject some grit and it jars. It's still ridiculously over the top. Odenkirk is still brilliant. None of it really makes much sense, but it's still fun. Just not as much fun. I guess you can have too much of a good thing.

A pre credits sequence indicates from the off that this is going to be nasty, but an instant humanity is injected into this horror as we meet Andy (Billy Barratt) and his step-sister, Piper (Sora Wong). They find themselves in foster care, having just lost their father in traumatic circumstances. They go to live with Laura (Sally Hawkins), who's a bit energetic. She has another apparent foster child, Oliver (Jonah Wren Phillips). He's mute and clearly has trauma in his past too, but inflicted by whom and to what end. Laura takes to Piper, but not to Andy. There's definitely something not right Something she's hiding. Something dark and deeply troubling. Oliver draws the focus in the background. Small and shaven headed, with a dead eyed stare, his presence is visually arresting. But it's Laura that's the worry. She's manipulative and driven. She has... had, a daughter, Cathy and her own grief is about to impact Andy and Piper in horrific ways. It's a graphic and psychologically tormenting tour de force. Laura has been meddling in something in her home in the forest and the trauma that Andy and Piper have to this point endured is nothing compared to what's coming. The last thing I saw Sally Hawkins in was Paddington 2, she's very different here. Her motherly exterior the perfect mask for a classic thriller villain. For all its eerie tension building, it does reveal its intentions quite quickly, but it doesn't weaken it. Full of foreboding menace, the score is minimal and the gore visceral. We're put in Andy's frustrated shoes as Laura rips his world apart, all the while thinking she's in control. She is not. Hawkins is great. Phillips is even better. Hats off to directors Danny and Michael Philippou though, they ride the suspense rollercoaster deftly with this. Their previous outing Talk to Me was great, but this is something else. More tormenting and much scarier.

It's a Lanthimos film, expect it to push some buttons. Teddy (Jesse Plemons) and Don (Aiden Delbis) are country boys. Georgia, USA to be precise. Clean living (sort of), bee keeping, hard working... planning. Teddy looks after his cousin, teaches him about the world, how we're all worker bees, serving the queen. The queen, he believes is Michelle (Emma Stone). She's a high powered CEO of a biomedical company, sending out the sort of nonsensical mixed messages to employees, so rampant in modern corporate culture. She's as confused as the rest of us, she just has more money. Teddy though, has been on the internet and believes she's an alien. Abducting her, shaving her head and covering her in cream, he (and to a much lesser extent Don) demand a sit down on her mothership, with her alien overlords to broker a deal. The fact that Michelle doesn't instantly scoff at this conspiratorial nonsense does feel unusual, but again, it's a Lanthimos film. Take the satire away and we'd have a much more disturbing premise. This is dark though, deeply. Teddy needs help, his view on society is a bleak mess, triggered by childhood loses and abuse. This is gripping because of how plausible that is. Michelle, although the victim, is far from innocent, she's a corporate leech, justifying heinous decisions. Everyone is bonkers. Well aside Don, he's neurodivergent and the most sensible and humane character by a long way. Plemons and Stone are magnificent. They often are, but honestly, here, they're both stunning throughout. The final act though. Oh. My. God! Wonderful. Again, Lanthimos, pushing buttons and a reminder I really must get myself some new knitwear.