Silent Night

Started by WorldForgot, December 05, 2021, 01:48:55 AM

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WorldForgot



A couple invite their closest friends to join their family for Christmas dinner at their idyllic home in the English countryside. As the group comes together, it feels like old times -- but behind all of the laughter and merriment, something isn't quite right.

starring Keira Knightley, Matthew Goode, Roman Griffin Davis, Annabelle Wallis, Rufus Jones, Lucy Punch, Kirby Howell Baptiste, Lily Rose Depp and Ṣọpẹ Dìrísù.

Like if Festen ('98) + She Dies Tomorrow ('20) had a bleakly festive british seedling. Maybe even, it plays like a short story you stumble upon in an unassuming volume of prose. It won't work for everyone, and it's a tough premise to pull off, but I think Camille Griffin and her cast and crew do so without coming off crass or reactionary. Saccharine, perhaps, but that comes with the conceit's turf.

Some of the marketing materials, ie posters/taglines, are quite misleading as to its tone, though, lol. This movie is gonna piss some people off, if they're expecting a certain sort of dark comedy. This one has its emphasis on the dark and not the laughs. Imagine asking your child (in Camille's case, Roman Griffin Davis) to carry these notions, the weight of grim mortality, and rolling on it with the aim of not being morbid. Wild stuff, to me.

Axolotl

There was one ending I was hoping they wouldn't go with and they did exactly that.

Moment to moment this was engaging and very competent. But it got ruined for me when it went exactly, predictably, from a plot perspective, the laziest possible route.

To be clear I don't think the movie is reactionary but I found the satire a bit toothless. I appreciate the tonal tightrope this movie walked but it didn't work for me. I'd have liked it way more had an actual reactionary director made this movie earnestly.

Spoiler: ShowHide
Frank Darabont did this ending way better

WorldForgot

Re; the ending, I had the same feeling that it should have learned from
Spoiler: ShowHide
The Mist/Darabont
.

In a way I feel that Vaughn's company needed that predictability to sell the investors on its concept helmmed by a first-timer. But idk if the compromise was in there perhaps even before then.

Spoiler: ShowHide
Would you have preferred it without the eyes opening? I know I would have.


She Dies Tomorrow iz still the optimal version of this, but Silent Night is way more primed to be shared and appreciated by optimists that may have started feeling more morbid or nihilistic after the last two years.

Axolotl

Quote from: WorldForgot on December 05, 2021, 11:47:56 AM
Spoiler: ShowHide
Would you have preferred it without the eyes opening? I know I would have.

Yeah that would have been better but for me it still wouldn't have been a substantial enough ending to do justice to what transpired before.

Anyway the comedic touches are what I'll take away most from this (
Spoiler: ShowHide
like the twins instantly downing their pills after seeing Art all bloodied
) and it's definitely an impressive enough debut that I'll look out for Griffin's next.

And yes I need to watch She Dies Tomorrow.

WorldForgot

Hell yeah, haha. While I was watching it I more than once thought "wow, these kids actually speak like kids!" which I think is rare even in R rated cinema.

polkablues

I think the movie worked very well for the movie it chose to be, but I agree with Axo that there was a better and more interesting version of this story that could have existed in the hands of a filmmaker who wasn't as laser-focused on the interpersonal drama of the situation. As it is, the movie winks in the direction of satire but never stops to introduce itself.

And while yes, the ending was predictable, and perhaps not executed as artfully as it could have been, I think it was the right and necessary ending for the version of the story that Griffin was telling.
My house, my rules, my coffee

polkablues

Also, I highly doubt this was the intent of the filmmaker, but it would be so easy to interpret the story as an anti-vax parable, and I'm very curious to see if anyone out there latches onto that.
My house, my rules, my coffee

WorldForgot

I totally thought it was directly dealing with that lol
Only reason I mentioned that it didn't feel "reactionary" to me, because its characters work out their relationship to the pill in real time.

Axolotl

Quote from: WorldForgot on December 06, 2021, 12:28:34 PM
I totally thought it was directly dealing with that lol
Only reason I mentioned that it didn't feel "reactionary" to me, because its characters work out their relationship to the pill in real time.

Haha same, I was about to specify that in my post. I had to check when this was written and even then some of the dialogue is phrased uncannily like anti vaxx talking points and how they think vaccinated people think.

polkablues

Lol, this was the last question in her Filmmaker Magazine interview:

QuoteFilmmaker: Finally, there have been many films whose storylines take on new resonances and meanings in the wake of COVID-19. Yours does as well. As you acknowledge in the press notes, the film questions how much we can trust the government when it comes to health policy, and a major plot point concerns not a life-saving vaccine but a deadly suicide pill. At what stage in the process did you become aware of the possible new ways the film would be read in light of COVID-19 and anti-vaxxers? What sort of conversations did you have around this plot point, and did anything change in your screenplay from its original version?

Griffin: I haven't made an anti-vax film, let me put that straight out there. Of course the film isn't questioning the authenticity of science that undebatable. But yes I have made a film that challenges trust in government.

We didn't know the film might be misinterpreted. We never tested the film. We never had an audience reaction to refer to in post. The vaccine wasn't out in the world. My only reference to COVID during the edit was Trump and Boris making a total hash of everything.

My house, my rules, my coffee

WorldForgot

Fair enough! To be clear - I read it as an anti ant-vaxx calamity, but obviously only cuz of the last two years and the timing of its release.

polkablues

That's the funny thing, like it would be kind of insane NOT to read the film that way after the past two years. The fact that the world itself has completely recontextualized the movie between conception and release is kind of hilarious.
My house, my rules, my coffee

Axolotl

Quote from: polkablues on December 06, 2021, 12:43:50 PM

QuoteMy only reference to COVID during the edit was Trump and Boris making a total hash of everything.


Yep, the "exit.uk.gov" screens made this pretty much clear.

My final thought after watching was that she's un/intentionally made a spec fic movie about a world where everyone is as insane as the antivaxxers think those who get the vaccine are.

WorldForgot

Well put, haha. You're making me wish this had a larger release so I could join more people in watching it.