Musical Mondays Week 104 The Guest

[Cinco DeNio 5290]

If a devastatingly handsome guy, with piercing blue eyes, shows up at your door around Halloween and says he knew your soldier son, RUN!!!!!  We watched

(I got this off Pinterest so I assume it's fan art. I loved it anyway.)

[Cinco DeNio 5290]

Alternative poster (Graham said he picked this movie because it's set around Halloween.)

[Cinco DeNio 5290]

Usually I have a hard time finding alternative posters.  This one had several.  Here are the other three I like.  (The first two are fan art and not official.)

 

 

 

[Cinco DeNio 5290]

I liked the movie a lot when Graham and I watched it.  Watching it again on my own brought up two issues.

1) Anna showed complete disinterest on first meeting him yet she asked "Where are you staying?" Why does she care if she doesn't give a crap who he is?  I would have expected either parent (especially the mom) to ask that.

2) That damn "fog" machine at the end.  First it's clear enough for "David" to track Anna's footprints and find her boots then it's thick enough for him to hide in?  THEN it's clear enough to hide almost his entire body even though he's sitting up!

[Cameron H. 23786]

To be honest, I enjoy those posters more than I enjoyed the movie.  

[AlmostAGhost 2718]

I don't mean to sound rude or that I don't appreciate the pick, because I'm happy to watch and discuss anything with you guys, but how was this related to Musical Monday? 

[grudlian. 4725]

I liked the lead actor enough and the action enough to enjoy this. But there are a ton of problems with it. People act inconsistently or illogically, interesting ideas are brought up and get no follow through.

I thought it was very strange how quickly the family was just willing to him stay there. Especially after the father explicitly said we didn't know him and could have PTSD. Then that night was drunkenly telling him his whole work situation.

I'm also not totally sure his motivation. He's a mentally conditioned weapon to protect himself and the organization but his backstory is very muddled.

[tomspanks 9039]

1 hour ago, AlmostAGhost said:

I don't mean to sound rude or that I don't appreciate the pick, because I'm happy to watch and discuss anything with you guys, but how was this related to Musical Monday? 

I had the same thought.  This movie was new to me, never read anything about it, so as I'm watching this, I kept waiting for people to sing and dance.  

[GrahamS. 803]

Sorry for the unpopular pick! I should have made it clearer when I picked it (although I did allude to this fact) that it was a more tangentially musical Monday related because the soundtrack played a role in the film in the form of a mixtape (Us would have been my alternate choice because it uses I Got 5 on it in a similar way. Drive would also be another non-musical musical example in this vein). It was also my attempt to include the Halloween horror/thriller vibe because I love horror movies. 
 

Sorry it wasn’t everyone’s cup of tea (I hadn’t seen it for awhile and realized this might be the case when I was watching it with Cinco). Maybe I’ll make a better pick next time! Though in my defense, Paul, Jason (I think) and Amy Nicholson love it (she gave it an A). 

[Cameron H. 23786]

This movie was released in 2014, but was it supposed to be set in 2014? Did I miss something? There were so many weird anachronisms? Burned CDs and boom boxes? Really?

[GrahamS. 803]

Also, to clarify, when I initially joined the group, I was told that any type of film COULD be picked, not just traditional musicals/music-related movies (I remember because I asked if there were any ground rules and was told no). Not trying to be confrontational in any way, shape or form, but if people would prefer more traditional films, that would be good to know.

[GrahamS. 803]

2 minutes ago, Cameron H. said:

This movie was released in 2014, but was it supposed to be set in 2014? Did I miss something? There were so many weird anachronisms? Burned CDs and bomb boxes? Really?

I still burned CDS in 2014, but I’m an old-school 46. I don’t know what bomb boxes are??? They are out in the sticks, so it’s possible that widespread music streaming was not a thing and I doubt Dan Stephens’ character gives a fuck about iTunes since he’s carrying a burner.

[Cameron H. 23786]

4 minutes ago, GrahamS. said:

Also, to clarify, when I initially joined the group, I was told that any type of film COULD be picked, not just traditional musicals/music-related movies (I remember because I asked if there were any ground rules and was told no). Not trying to be confrontational in any way, shape or form, but if people would prefer more traditional films, that would be good to know.

Honestly, I don’t mind. We’ve done non-Musicals before (Baby Driver, The Long Dumb Road). 

[Cameron H. 23786]

2 minutes ago, GrahamS. said:

I still burned CDS in 2014, but I’m an old-school 46. I don’t know what bomb boxes are??? They are out in the sticks, so it’s possible that widespread music streaming was not a thing and I doubt Dan Stephens’ character gives a fuck about iTunes since he’s carrying a burner.

* Boom boxes

[GrahamS. 803]

I have a boom box as well. It has a CD player instead of a tape deck and a slot you can plug an iPod/iPhone into, but it’s basically the same thing.

i guess that’s why I enjoy this movie!

[Cameron H. 23786]

7 hours ago, Cinco DeNio said:

If a devastatingly handsome guy, with piercing blue eyes, shows up at your door around Halloween and says he knew your soldier son, RUN!!!!!  We watched

 

No joke, I'm not letting ANYONE into my house unannounced. There's no way in Hell. I guess I wish Dan Stevens had been a little more charming. I know he's preying on their emotions, but even still, I would be even more suspicious of someone if the said they had been friends with my son and I had never heard of them. Yet, within ten minutes, she's basically asking him to move in.

I guess I never really got what the movie was going for. It starts off with some very dated 70's/80's Slasher movie style fonts with music that would be appropriate for that genre, but it never really goes there. I couldn't tell if the movie was playing it straight or being factitious, and that lack of intention made it kind of neither/nor for me. 

[AlmostAGhost 2718]

59 minutes ago, GrahamS. said:

Also, to clarify, when I initially joined the group, I was told that any type of film COULD be picked, not just traditional musicals/music-related movies (I remember because I asked if there were any ground rules and was told no). Not trying to be confrontational in any way, shape or form, but if people would prefer more traditional films, that would be good to know.

I don't mind at all, just was curious! The non-musicals we've done are usually about music in some way or like, Baby Driver, which is basically a non-stop music video sort of thing. If I recall, we did Long Dumb Road solely because Jason stars in it and it had just come out and we wanted to support him. They're at least tangential, and this one I just didn't see it, that's why I asked. But I like less-traditional picks too, so no worries.

[Cameron H. 23786]

I don't understand why those kids didn't just drink the cosmos. I would have. 

[GrahamS. 803]

They didn’t seem to be bright enough to do that, given that one of the bullies CONTINUES to pick on the son after having the shit kicked out of him.

[GrahamS. 803]

36 minutes ago, Cameron H. said:

No joke, I'm not letting ANYONE into my house unannounced. There's no way in Hell. I guess I wish Dan Stevens had been a little more charming. I know he's preying on their emotions, but even still, I would be even more suspicious of someone if the said they had been friends with my son and I had never heard of them. Yet, within ten minutes, she's basically asking him to move in.

I guess I never really got what the movie was going for. It starts off with some very dated 70's/80's Slasher movie style fonts with music that would be appropriate for that genre, but it never really goes there. I couldn't tell if the movie was playing it straight or being factitious, and that lack of intention made it kind of neither/nor for me. 

I get your points. My take on this movie —which is the follow-up from the guys who made You’re Next—is that it’s subverting where you think it’s going from the jump (similar to you’re Next, but I actually like this film more). 

The key to the film to me is how Dan Stevens plays this character. I probably revealed too much last week saying he was psycho. When I saw it on the theater, part of the fun is you’re never QUITE sure where he’s coming from. Does he intend to harm the family? Or is he there because he legitimately wants to pay his respects but still has a screw loose?

The fun of the film is that there’s no way to know for sure. Personally, I think he legitimately wants to help this family, not victimize them, but he is insane. In his head, breaking bullies’ arms, killing the dad’s boss, teaching the son to stick up for himself by giving him psychotic motivational lectures is all things that his “friend” would have wanted. In his mind, he is genuinely being a good guy to them. He offers to leave at the beginning when he sees he’s upset the mom and I think he genuinely means it. Her taking him in is a combination of her neediness (and even the husband’s although he won’t admit it initially) and his twisted moral compass. He’s happy to stay there while he does shady shit to earn money to pay for a plastic surgeon to escape Lance Reddick. It’s a twisted two-way street. When the daughter reveals that she’s onto him, he could simply kill the whole family, but he doesn’t want to do that. He even tells her to give him time and he’ll leave and I think that is his plan. It’s only when Lance shows up that things spiral out of control.

Even at the end, when everyone’s been slaughtered, I believe him when he says he forgives the son. In Dan’s fucked-up worldview, the son has done the right thing by literally stabbing the bully (which is Dan) in the back. since this earns Dan’s respect, he will let them slide and just go on to kill anyone else who gets in his way.

[GrahamS. 803]

I actually own this movie on DVD because I got it from my neighborhood video store for $5 (unfortunately it was their “going out of business” sale but I got around 30 movies). It has a commentary track and an interview with Dan Stevens about it on it. I’ll watch it and write if anything interesting is brought up.

[Cameron H. 23786]

1 minute ago, GrahamS. said:

I get your points. My take on this movie —which is the follow-up from the guys who made You’re Next—is that it’s subverting where you think it’s going from the jump (similar to you’re Next, but I actually like this film more). 

The key to the film to me is how Dan Stevens plays this character. I probably revealed too much last week saying he was psycho. When I saw it on the theater, part of the fun is you’re never QUITE sure where he’s coming from. Does he intend to harm the family? Or is he there because he legitimately wants to pay his respects but still has a screw loose?

The fun of the film is that there’s no way to know for sure. Personally, I think he legitimately wants to help this family, not victimize them, but he is insane. In his head, breaking bullies’ arms, killing the dad’s boss, teaching the son to stick up for himself by giving him psychotic motivational lectures is all things that his “friend” would have wanted. In his mind, he is genuinely being a good guy to them. He offers to leave at the beginning when he sees he’s upset the mom and I think he genuinely means it. Her taking him in is a combination of her neediness (and even the husband’s although he won’t admit it initially) and his twisted moral compass. He’s happy to stay there while he does shady shit to earn money to pay for a plastic surgeon to escape Lance Reddick. It’s a twisted two-way street. When the daughter reveals that she’s onto him, he could simply kill the whole family, but he doesn’t want to do that. He even tells her to give him time and he’ll leave and I think that is his plan. It’s only when Lance shows up that things spiral out of control.

Even at the end, when everyone’s been slaughtered, I believe him when he says he forgives the son. In Dan’s fucked-up worldview, the son has done the right thing by literally stabbing the bully (which is Dan) in the back. since this earns Dan’s respect, he will let them slide and just go on to kill anyone else who gets in his way.

Unfortunately, I've never seen You're Next so I can't use it as a comparison. Personally, I felt Stevens was pretty terrible. His line deliveries made me chuckle and he never really pulled off "threatening" or "bas ass" to me. With that and scenes like when the sister interrupts him in the bathroom, I couldn't tell if it was supposed to be hammy and over the top or not. 

And if that's the case, I'm all for it, but for me, it just didn't stick. The whole movie I was asking myself if Dan Stevens is a terrible actor or if he was mimicking the kind of actors traditionally in these types of movies. I mean, dude, I cracked up at the thumbs up at the end, but I literally couldn't tell if it was intentionally lame or if it was just dumb. It just really needed to land harder for me one way or the other. 

I think Scream, for example, is pretty good at doing this -- although maybe that's a bit of cheat since it is deliberately self-referential. Scream plays with tropes and genre conceits, but you're never questioning the filmmaker's intention. It's meant to be a funny, metatextual send up of slasher movies, while also being a legitimately well-crafted entry to the genre. There's no ambiguity there. I just couldn't tell how straight they were being with The Guest.    

[GrahamS. 803]

If you’ve never seen it, it’s worth watching an episode or two of Legion. You still might think he’s a terrible actor, but it’s a completely different performance.

[Cameron H. 23786]

5 minutes ago, GrahamS. said:

If you’ve never seen it, it’s worth watching an episode or two of Legion. You still might think he’s a terrible actor, but it’s a completely different performance.

Oh, I’m not saying he’s a terrible actor. Just terrible in this

I’m a Downton Abbey head for life!

[gigi-tastic 2322]

I just started watching it... Caleb and Cousin Matthew  fucked right?