=★= 𝕬𝖇𝖗𝖆𝖍𝖆𝖒 =★=’s review published on Letterboxd:
This review may contain spoilers.
“There’s almost no narrative. That’s the secret. - Oz Perkins
I got to see Longlegs today at the AMC in Burbank with a Q&A with director/writer Oz Perkins immediately afterward.
Longlegs has great digital zooms and wide shots. Whether we are in Lee's house or the prison cell where Cage's serial killer/satan worshipper is taken, the visual composition cages the characters into the spaces they inhabit. The performances from MAIKA MONROE as Lee Harker and NICOLAS CAGE as Longlegs function for the purposes of the film. I remember Maika being quite bad in Independence Day and I guess she’s improved quite a bit. And yet, Longlegs is burdened by a derivative script, which while pleasantly tapping into police thriller territory, lacks emotional stakes, believability and scale. The flashbacks, while seeming intentional, lack sufficient clarity regarding how we should feel. When for a moment, it appears like we will spend some time focusing on Lee's background as an FBI agent via her relationship with her boss's daughter, we instead get an awkward beat where everyone in the audience laughs, and then that's it. Nothing until the finale when Lee must shoot her own mother. But before that critical scene, the writing constantly throws new information at us whether it's exposition about what the murderer has been doing, his patterns and m.o.s. But it washed over me rather than sinking in. But oh no! “The triangle isn’t complete.”
The world we are introduced to, in turn, is so small that I had no trouble finding Lee's mother to be a dodgy character. I mean, how many other suspects are there?
“Lee are you still saying your prayers?”
Not to mention, we never have any grasp of where the town is or why Oregon's FBI department seems so understaffed and under skilled. The way her friend died in the first scene they are in together was insane... Is there also no local police force? Why is our antagonist choosing to wait for a ride at the middle of a highway? The area seems more barren than the Wind River Reservation. Perhaps I am nitpicking, but I was distracted.
And when it is revealed that the mother was at the end of a bad deal/blackmail, I wasn't surprised. What I was surprised by was that this film is marketed so heavily as the next one-hit wonder horror flick of the year.
“You dirtsy flirtsy old angel bitch.”
As another Perkins said, "Mother. Oh Blood! Mother!"
I am for sure going to be paranoid and make sure my doors are locked for a few nights. That and try not to think about Cage hailing satan and banging his head into a table multiple times until he's dead.
=★= 𝕬𝖇𝖗𝖆𝖍𝖆𝖒 =★= liked these reviews
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