Image Credit: Paramount Pictures
Welcome to the latest edition of Weekend Watch, where I recommend (or occasionally warn against) movies or TV shows I’ve been checking out. This week, Lupita Nyong’o must keep quiet to survive and Chef Carmy is back in the kitchen. Follow James on Twitter: @jamwhite and Threads/Instagram: @jammerwhite
When co-writer/director John Krasinski (along with concept creators and original scriptwriters Bryan Woods and Scott Beck) first brought us the chilling A Quiet Place in 2018, he unleashed a world fallen silent, also playing the head of a family desperately (and mostly wordlessly) trying to survive a situation where blind alien creatures with incredible hearing have picked off much of humanity and caused the collapse of society. It was a compelling idea that made for an entertaining horror movie and spawned a sequel. Now, because it’s the way of these things, here comes the prequel.
A Quiet Place: Day One is, as the title suggests, set during the arrival of the creatures, who plummet to Earth (specifically, in this case, New York) and immediately start causing chaos. In a dust-shrouded aftermath that recalls the horrific imagery of 9/11, the survivors figure out that sound is the key to staying off the extra-terrestrials’ radar and look to escape Manhattan by boat, since the creatures can’t swim.
Our focus here is Lupita Nyong’o’s Samira, a nervy, withdrawn cancer patient who was in the city with a group from her hospice. Along with loyal feline cohort Frodo, she’s soon scrambling alongside Eric (Joseph Quinn), a Brit who came to NYC to study law and finds himself in the creatures’ crosshairs. While his mission is more straightforward survival, Samira’s becomes more complicated and tied to her past.
Bringing in Michael Sarnoski –– whose previous film, Pig, was a superbly emotional drama starring Nicolas Cage –– was a good call, as he brings an indie auteur sensibility to the film, which means that for all the big-scale scenes of destruction and terror, there is focus on the smaller, more intimate moments and a commendable attention to building character and staying on that track.
Yet there are also diminishing returns beginning to creep in here –– for all the invention on display, there are only so many ways to repeat the trick of silence-sudden-noise-alien-attack before it becomes numbing rather than scary. And Day One doesn’t escape that. Plus, it suffers from one or two instances that stretch credibility. While the feline performer behind Frodo is a superstar in the making, the notion that a cat would stay completely quiet is laughable, let alone some of what happens to the kitty.
And Sarnoski’s script (written from a story he crafted with Krasinski), when it ventures out of the low-key character moments, does fall into a few apocalyptic cliché holes. Do we really need the 45th incarnation of someone scrabbling desperately for our protagonist’s help before they are dragged away by one of the beasties.
I saw and enjoyed A Quiet Place Part II, which was an effective sequel to the first film. Day One is far from a bad film, but I would rank it in third place in terms of the franchise as a whole.
A Quiet Place: Day One is in UK and US cinemas now.
Image Credit: FX Networks/Hulu
With the enormous –– and earned –– success of the first two seasons, The Bear showrunners Christopher Storer, Joanna Calo and their team are surely entitled to a little indulgence. But how much indulgence is too much, and if you put ‘look at me’ artistry above storytelling, do you run the risk of disappointment?
On the evidence of Season 3, which just landed on our screens, I’d regretfully report that while there are wonderful moments to be found (and a couple of standout episodes), the new run, to me, at least, was a big whiff.
Naturally, it leads me to wonder if I’m being a philistine, like a diner marching into a Michelin star restaurant and demanding a Big Mac. But while I have certainly seen praise for the artistry of the first episode (which follows on from Season 2’s big Carmy (Jeremy Allen White) meltdown while trapped in the walk-in freezer on a particularly fraught night at his fledgling eatery), it didn’t work for me. I appreciate the attempt to dive in to Carmy’s pressurised mindset through endless flashbacks to his past, but it came across as a repetitive exercise in mood and atmosphere. And in indeed, so it largely proves with the rest of the season, which feels like it’s putting a pint of story into ten-pint pots.
Upsides? As with last year’s flashback episode, a look at how Tina (Liza Colón-Zayas) came to work at the place when it was still a gutsy and greasy sandwich joint, is a magnificently balanced display of human emotion, thoughtfully directed by fellow series star Ayo Edebiri and featuring a typically excellent performance from Jon Bernthal as Carmy’s late brother Michael. One focused on Abby Elliott’s Natalie as she gives birth but only has her complicated mother Donna (Jamie Lee Curtis) for support is also an acting masterclass.
Yet for all the clear quality and careful work on display (plus a cast who elevate the material), it’s a show of two halves; one is the deeply felt story of a group of lost souls drawn together by one man’s driving ambition, and the sacrifices that come with that. The other is an overcooked celebration of all things culinary, with long sequences featuring a blend of real-life figures from that world (Thomas Keller, Christina Tosi) and celeb cameos (Olivia Coleman, Will Poulter) that are entertaining in their own right, but rarely feel like they help to tell Carmy’s story in a meaningful fashion.
A cliff-hanger ending doesn’t truly feel earned, but it’s just another symptom of a show that has perhaps bought a little too much into the praise at the expense of what truly made it work.
All episodes of The Bear Season 3 are on Hulu in the US and Disney+ in the UK. I’ve seen the whole season. Both streaming services also carry the first two seasons.