Weapons

Director: Zach Cregger
Starring: Josh Brolin, Julia Garner, Alden Ehrenreich, Austin Abrams, Cary Christopher, Toby Huss, Benedict Wong, Amy Madigan, Whitmer Thomas, Callie Schuttera, June Diane Raphael, Luke Speakman, Sara Paxton, Justin Long, Clayton Farris, Scarlett Sher
Running Time: 128 min.
Rating: R

**The Following Review Contains Plot Spoilers**

★★★ ½ (out of ★★★★) 

Some of the best films begin with a simple, single sentence idea that's notable for being unlike anything we've heard before. Writer/director Zach Cregger's Weapons is built on such a premise, showing early signs of a potential masterpiece as it attempts to fulfill the promise of its wholly original concept. But how it starts is entirely different from what follows, especially when the crux of that story hinges on one seemingly unanswerable question. 

To Cregger's credit, he doesn't cop out on giving us an answer, regardless of whether it's the one we want. And because of this, we're willing to buy into the payoff accompanying those astronomical expectations. While its wisest to approach this as a straightforward horror vehicle along the lines of Cregger's own Barbarian or Oz Perkins' Longlegs, a captivating jigsaw puzzle structure, great performances and an equal abundance of scares and laughs enable it to easily eclipse both. There's an an ambition and assuredness to how it comes together, resulting in a divisive reveal that also happens to be a total blast.

Two years ago in the town of Maybrook, Pennsylvania, seventeen students from elementary school teacher Justine Gandy's (Julia Garner) third grade class ran out of their homes at 2:17 a.m. and disappeared. Later that morning, Justine arrived to discover only one child, Alex Lilly (Cary Christopher), in her classroom as authorities get involved and parents frantically search for their kids. With an irate public demanding an investigation into Justine, a muted Alex quietly processes the tragedy, all while the days leading to and following the event are shown through separate, occasionally intersecting chapters.  

Each of these sections follow a character impacted or perhaps even potentially involved. There's Justine, her ex-boyfriend and police officer Paul (Alden Ehrenreich), construction contractor and parent Archer (Josh Brolin), school principal Marcus (Benedict Wong), homeless drug addict James (Austin Abrams), the shell shocked Alex and an eccentric older woman named Gladys (Amy Madigan). Each of their segments provide additional pieces of information about what happened to these children, bringing us increasingly closer to the truth.

In the film's hypnotic opening minutes, we watch those kids run down the street arms outstretched as George Harrison's haunting "Beware of Darkness" plays over the soundtrack and an unidentified girl's folksy voiceover describes the vanishing. This casts a pallor of atmospheric dread that extends beyond the parameters of "elevated horror" into another realm we're not sure the rest of the film can deliver on, despite our willingness to take the ride. And though much of its first half plays as a psychological thriller, it's impossible not to view the event itself, along with the ensuing search for answers, as a clear allegory for school shootings and child abductions.   

Much of the first act surrounds the direct aftermath of the disappearance, with the town's enraged parents baring down on Justine since it can't merely be a coincidence that only her students went missing. But it's also an argument more borne from helpless anger than logic since she's an easy scapecoat unaided by her own checkered past. That she's the town's defacto suspect on circumstance alone isn't a detail that's lost on school principal Marcus or Toby Huss' Police Captain Ed.

An understanding Marcus sympathizes with Justine's plight while recognizing the problems her continued employment causes, especially when she insists on talking with a traumatized Alex. Ed just lacks any credible evidence of her involvement, as everything took place outside school hours, with the kids caught on camera willingly running from their homes. And that detail will prove particularly important.  

Garner's career defining work in Ozark aside, few could argue the actress's performance here represents her best onscreen performance yet as Justine's attempts to maintain the facade of an orderly, composed grade school teacher is frayed at the seams by insurmountable pressure and judgment. Whether she's harassed by parents, having her car vandalized, hitting the bottle or reigniting an affair with married ex Paul, she's understandably overwhelmed and close to reaching the end of her rope. 

While those who really know Justine seriously doubt she has something to do with this, her own instincts about Alex couldn't be more correct. If from the start it's implied these two "surviving" characters hold the key, no parent demands answers more than the brutish Archer, who Brolin plays with the quiet intensity of a determined father who'll stop at nothing to find his son. Giving little credence to what cops or other parents think, Archer adopts a logical method in scanning neighborhood security footage for crucial clues. And aside from his illicit affair with Justine, Ehrenreich's Paul battles an issue of his own that doesn't appear connected to the central mystery. At least until it is.    

The fun of Cregger's story comes not just from speculating which character he'll pivot to next, but why, and how that dovetails with what comes before or follows after. And it gradually start coming together during a combative gas station moment between Justine and Archer that goes completely sideways, confirming our suspicions of a supernatural component lying at the heart of this dark, twisted fairy tale. 

Dots connect in the film's big reveal, entertainingly unraveling every clue we've been given, most of which involve Alex and his creepy "aunt" Gladys, played by an unrecognizable Amy Madigan in a bright orange wig and garish clown makeup. Wacky, campy and sinister all at once, her ability to embody this outwardly disarming kook with a sadistic plan defines the concluding thirty minutes. Like everything else in the film, there are numerous interpretations of her presence, whether that's as a malevolent instigator of change and disruption in children's lives or even the physical manifestation of society's fearful disdain of the elderly. Either way, she's pure nightmare fuel, especially in a terrifying moment that sees her spontaneously pop up in the woods.  

As it all comes to fruition, you can definitely make a case for plot holes (such as no one noticing those missing name tags), but good luck turning away from the craziness for even a minute. And the actual execution remains undeniably thrilling in the face of a bar set high enough for any chosen ending to cause disappointment or controversy. But therein lies the dilemma of whether to judge this for what it is, isn't, or maybe a little of both. Transcending limitations of the genre, Weapons takes a fresh approach, inviting repeated viewings that should determine the extent of its staying power. For now though, let's file it under "mind blowing" and appreciate that Cregger's just getting started, with his best still likely to come.