Crisp Criticism - "Blockers", "Love, Simon", "Every Day", "A Quiet Place"

by 

Julien Faddoul

Blockers *

Three parents try to stop their daughters from having sex on prom night.

Sensitive parental comedy that’s sweet enough I guess, but is continually undermined by its lowbrow humour and, like all modern comedies, a desperate need to be as sarcastic as possible.

d – Kay Cannon

w – Brian Kehoe, Jim Kehoe

ph – Russ T. Alsobrook

pd – Brandon Tonner-Connolly

m – Mateo Messina

ed – Stacey Schroeder

cos – Sarah Mae Burton

p – Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg, Jon Hurwitz, James Weaver, Hayden Schlossberg, Chris Fenton

Cast: Leslie Mann, Ike Barinholtz, John Cena, Kathryn Newton, Geraldine Viswanathan, Gideon Adlon, Graham Phillips, Miles Robbins, Jimmy Bellinger, Jake Picking, Sarayu Rao

Love, Simon *

A teenage boy in the closet becomes close with a classmate online in the same situation without either knowing who the other is.

Trumpeted for being the first major Hollywood romantic comedy centring on a gay teen, an accomplishment that is certainly palpable when watching the film. Not adhering to a dismally generic plot, with the most boring of central characters, would have been an even greater accomplishment.

d – Greg Berlanti

w – Elizabeth Berger, Isaac Aptaker   (Based on the Novel by Becky Albertalli)

ph – John Guleserian

pd – Aaron Osborne

m – Rob Simonsen

ed – Harry Jierjian

cos – Eric Daman

p – Marty Bowen, Wyck Godfrey, Isaac Klausner, Pouya Shahbazian

Cast: Nick Robinson, Josh Duhamel, Jennifer Garner, Bryson Pitts, Nye Reynolds, Katherine Langford, Alexandra Shipp, Jorge Lendeborg Jr, Keiynan Lonsdale, Miles Heizer

Every Day *

A 16-year old girl falls in love with a mysterious spirit named “A” that inhabits a different body every day. Feeling an unmatched connection, she and “A” work each day to find each other, not knowing what the next day will bring.

An interesting (and rather avant-garde) premise for a film that frustratingly makes no effort to embrace the ramifications of such a relationship, and thus the potential for exploring the metaphors of non-traditional human connections goes unrealised. What one is left with is a lot of teenage pouting.

d – Michael Sucsy

w – Jesse Andrews   (Based on the Novel by David Levithan)

ph – Rogier Stoffers

pd – Matthew Davies

m – Elliott Wheeler

ed – Kathryn Himoff

cos – Georgina Yarhi

p – Anthony Bregman, Peter Cron, Christian Grass, Paul Trijbits

Cast: Angourie Rice, Justice Smith, Debby Ryan, Maria Bello, Lucas Jade Zumann, Jacob Batalon, Colin Ford, Owen Teague, Amanda Arcuri, Ian Alexander, Jake Sim

A Quiet Place ***

A family is forced to live in silence while hiding from creatures that hunt by sound.

Highly effective thriller with plenty of logical flaws that one could nitpick. The craft on display renders them irrelevant, with the drama fusing a dynamic mix of Hitchcockian apprehension and Chekhov’s guns. The allegory here is one of parental insecurity when confronted with the harshness of the modern world. Also, the cast is excellent.

d – John Krasinski

w – Bryan Woods, Scott Beck, John Krasinski

ph – Charlotte Bruus Christensen

pd – Jeffrey Beecroft

m – Marco Beltrami

ed – Christopher Tellefsen

cos – Kasia Walicka-Maimone

p – Michael Bay, Bradley Fuller, Andrew Form

Cast: Emily Blunt, John Krasinski, Noah Jupe, Millicent Simmonds