Knock Knock

Started by wilder, May 22, 2015, 09:26:01 PM

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

wilder



A pair of femme fatales wreak havoc on the life of a happily married man.

Directed by Eli Roth
Written by Eli Roth, Guillermo Amoedo, and Nicolás López
Starring Keanu Reeves, Lorenza Izzo, and Ana de Armas
Release Date - October 9, 2015



Tictacbk


wilder


wilder

In theaters and VOD October 9th


modage

I continue to root for Eli Roth and he continues to let me down slightly each time. I think I drank the Kool-Aid early back in the early 00s when AICN was hyping Cabin Fever and have tried to give him the benefit of the doubt ever since. His latest, Knock Knock is fairly reserved for him - I kept expecting the violence to go into over-the-top places and it never really does - and starts with a pretty great 40 minutes. Everything leading up until the will he/won't he (of course he will) is solid. But once the turn occurs the 'games' become repetitive and there isn't much in the way of escalating tension. Like the recent John Wick, Reeves gives this his all (is he the new Ethan Hawke?) and mostly deserves better. There are 2 scenes towards the end where Roth seems to have encouraged him to go "full Nic Cage" that are bad/good but otherwise he's very good/good. The girls are good -- Ana De Armas may be the most beautiful actress I've never heard of, of all time -- but the film is just okay.

Weirdly I hope Roth keeps making films and making them more often, if he keeps pumping out a film a year (or two, in the case of the long-delayed Green Inferno) I feel like he'll strike on something great eventually. And if he doesn't, at least his career will have enough volume to be interesting.

Side note: It's fascinating to look at Roth's career as a microcosm of what's happening to indie film, they're still making them, they're just being pushed further out into the margins of culture. In 2003, Cabin Fever (1.5m budget) opened on over 2,000 screens. 12 years later, Knock Knock barely opens in 22 theatres along with a VOD run. It's a highly commercial concept, starring a movie star, with no real extreme violence and yet... nothing.
Christopher Nolan's directive was clear to everyone in the cast and crew: Use CGI only as a last resort.

polkablues

Both of his Hostel movies have their own merits, and I give him credit for helping The Last Exorcism get made, but that's all I'll grant him. He's a technically talented filmmaker whose (lack of) taste and restraint consistently lead him off path. I also feel like his approach to filmmaking is endemic of a lot of the Tarantino generation, which is to make movies just because he thinks movies are cool, not because he actually has something to say.
My house, my rules, my coffee