the washington post.
friday, february 21, 2020eZ30
Movies
refers to his new stepmom as a
“psychopath.”
What could go wrong?
This middle section of “The
Lodge” delivers the greatest plea-
sure, as the relationship between
Grace and the children graduallydeteriorates, leaving us to wonder
about who is more to blame. As
damaged as Grace may be, Aidan
and Mia are no picnic, and their
acting out at times is less sugges-
tive of real children than stock
characters in a horror flick.The Lodge
Horror flick is slow-burning — but lacks any real payoff
BY MICHAEL O’SULLIVANThe fact that the horror film
“The Lodge” comes from Veroni-
ka Franz and Severin Fiala, the
Austrian duo who made the styl-
ishly unsettling “Goodnight
Mommy” in 2014, is enough to
recommend it. True to form, the
aunt-and-nephew filmmakers,
who share directing duties — and
the writing, here, with Sergio
Casci — imbue even the ordinary
with a sense of delicious dread.
Not that there is much ordi-
nary about the setup in Franz and
Fiala’s first English-language re-
lease. Richard (Richard Armit-
age) is a journalist pushing 50,
who has announced to his wife
and the mother of their two kids
(Alicia Silverstone) his intention
to divorce her in favor of a 30-
year-old named Grace (Riley Ke-
ough). So far, so ordinary, in the
world in which we live. Except
that before the movie has taken
two steps, we see Mom put a gun
in her mouth and blow her brains
out, followed by the revelation
that Grace once belonged to a
Christian suicide cult on which
Richard had reported, and where,as a teenager, she was the sole
survivor.
That explains the first few im-
ages in the film, which include a
loaded revolver and a painting of
the Virgin Mary. But it doesn’t
explain everything, in a film that
then jumps six months forward to
the main story — one that, despite
a satisfyingly slow-burn pace that
keeps you guessing about what
exactly is going on, contains a few
holes. It also ends in a fairly
conventional way — a bit of a
disappointment considering
Franz’s and Fiala’s unconvention-
al storytelling aesthetic, which
unspools its chills, sparingly, in a
way that may frustrate some fans
of mainstream horror.
That story takes place at Rich-
ard’s secluded mountain cabin.
There, over a snowbound Christ-
mas break, Richard decides to
leave his son Aidan (Jaeden Lie-
berher) and daughter Mia (Lia
McHugh) alone to get to know
Grace, who, although she’s about
to marry Richard, is still hiding
things from him. Sounds like a
pleasant enough holiday, espe-
cially as the kids blame Grace for
their mother’s suicide, and AidanThere’s some nice ambiguity at
play here — just not enough of it.
Franz and Fiala seem as inter-
ested in the fallout of religious
zealotry as they are in standard
genre thrills, and they ply this
theme well, if at times with a
heavy hand. That makes for a
mostly smart tale, even when
some moments feel under-
thought. During a power outage
at the cabin, for instance, Aidan
appears to have designed and
printed something out, mysteri-
ously, on a computer. And there
are recurrent shots of creepy doll-
house dioramas that feel like gra-
tuitous nods to “Hereditary.”
Nominated for a handful of
awards at niche festivals, includ-
ing the Fantasia Festival, and one
of the few movies to stand out in
Sundance’s Midnight section this
year, “The Lodge” i sn’t a perfect
treat. But for those who like their
movies dark and disturbing, it
does the trick.
[email protected]Bertrand Calmeau/neon
From left, Riley Keough, Jaeden Lieberher and Lia McHugh star in
“The Lodge,” a horror film about a family’s snowbound Christmas
break spent at a secluded mountain cabin.R. at area theaters. Contains
disturbing violence, some bloody
images, strong language and brief
nudity. 108 minutes.stands out for its earnest effort to
entertain without commenting
on itself or the modern world.
As the movie opens, the Yukon
Gold Rush of the 1890s is in full
swing. The film’s central charac-
ter, Buck the dog — performed in
motion-capture by Te rry Notary
and digitally rendered later —
runs rampant through a small
California town, causing all man-
ner of ruckus at t he expense of his
wealthy owner (Bradley Whit-
ford). Before long, Buck is draftedinto service as a sled dog in the
snowy north, joining a team pull-
ing husband-and-wife mail carri-
ers (Omar Sy and Cara Gee), who
amiably debate Buck’s merits, just
before he rescues them from peril.
As in the novel, Buck is bound
to embrace his animal instincts
and find his true purpose in na-
ture. He doesn’t look like a real
dog, exactly, but Notary lends him
an impressive array of vivid emo-
tions. When he’s f eeling forlorn or
enraged, so are we.The Call of the Wild
Much like a dog, this drama is sloppy with a big, gentle heart
BY MARK LIEBERMANIt’s e asy to view “The Call of the
Wild” c ynically: There goes Holly-
wood again, sanding the edges off
a beloved novel — this time about
the human-canine bond — to cre-
ate disposable entertainment.
Harrison Ford, who stars and pro-
vides the film’s d roning narration,
probably earned a bigger pay-
check than many moviegoers will
see in a lifetime. This cost more
than $125 million to make, and
the effects look that sloppy?
There’s merit to these com-
plaints. The latest screen adapta-
tion of Jack London’s 1903 adven-
ture saga transforms the novel’s
menacing gold prospector into a
cartoon, played by a sniveling Dan
Stevens. Ford’s v oice-over, as fellow
prospector John Thornton, is
sleep-inducing. And the CGI dogs
look... very computer-generated,
especially when the animals ap-
pear side by side with people.
But there is no trace of such
cynicism in the movie itself. In an
age of children’s entertainment
that’s snarky, self-referential and
even meta, “The Call of the Wild,”
adapted by director Chris Sanders
and screenwriter Michael Green,The mail carriers eventually
get dispatched to another assign-
ment, and Buck falls in with Ste-
vens’s Hal, who arrives suddenly,
as if from another, even sillier
movie. Hal briefly whisks Buck
away — at the expense of his sled
dog team’s comfort — on a selfish
quest to find gold. That is, until
John intervenes.
If it seems like Ford’s character
should have been introduced
much earlier in this review, well,
that’s pretty much how the movie
handles him, too. The actor and
his robust white beard don’t ap-
pear on-screen until deep into the
movie, when “Wild” abruptly re-
veals John’s backstory: He’s living
alone and searching for happi-
ness after the death of his young
son, by fever, has shattered his
marriage. A few chance encoun-
ters with Buck leave John with a
soft spot for the animal, and to-
gether they embark on an adven-
ture that brings them closer.
Sleepy narration aside, Ford’s
presence enlivens the movie
when he finally shows up. More
than four decades after charming
the world in “Star Wars,” t he per-
former has lost a fair amount of
buoyancy, but few stars can boasta more infectious smile or a
brighter twinkle of the eye. Ford
expresses John’s grief with
enough tenderness that children
watching might learn something
about how to handle their own
emotions.
They’ll need those tools for the
movie’s jarring climax, which,
while fairly true to the book, will
be nonetheless grim for the
youngest viewers. “The Call of the
Wild” marks the first foray into
live-action features for Sanders, a
veteran of animation who pro-
duced the similarly earnest “How
to Train Your Dragon” s eries, and
directed the first of those films.
The final product here leaves
plenty to lament, from uncon-
vincing approximations of wintry
landscapes to a bumpy narrative
that struggles to balance danger
and sentimentality.
Then again, there is something
about that chemistry between
man and dog. Even for cynics, it
goes a long way.
[email protected]twentieth Century Fox
Harrison Ford, left, stars in (and narrates) “The Call of the Wild,”
a traveler’s tale about a man and his beloved dog.PG. at area theaters. Contains
some violence, peril, mature
thematic elements and mildly
coarse language. 105 minutes.UPLOADED BY "What's News" vk.com/wsnws TELEGRAM: t.me/whatsnws