Totally Killer

Director: Nahnatchka Khan
Starring: Kiernan Shipka, Olivia Holt, Julie Bowen, Randall Park, Charlie Gillespie, Lochlyn Munro, Troy Leigh-Anne Johnson, Kimberly Huie, Liana Liberato, Kelcey Mawema, Stephi Chin-Salvo, Anna Diaz, Ella Choi, Patti Kim, Jeremy Monn-Djasgnar, Tommy Europe, Nathaniel Appiah, Conrad Coates, Nicholas Lloyd, Jonathan Potts
Running Time: 106 min.
Rating: R

★★★ ½ (out of ★★★★)

There's a scene in Blumhouse's time travel slasher comedy Totally Killer where the protagonist shows a character her iPhone in 1987 and we see the reaction. She's perplexed for a second before studying the strange device and realizing that, yes, she'll be able to work with that. It's brief, but indicative of all the little things the movie gets right with a premise you can actually describe as Back to the Future meets Scream without the risk of false advertising. This exchange is one of many you didn't know you needed, with director Nahnatchka Khan delivering a throwback homage that delightfully shows little hesitation acknowledging its influences. And in extracting all the right lessons from some familiar titles, it actually fares better as sci-fi than teen horror, ultimately excelling at both by making inspired choices.

Hilariously skewering the past by going to unexpectedly sharp places with the humor, it's loads of fun, balancing a variety of memorable characters over two timelines. With strong visual cues and an undistracting period specific soundtrack, we're willing to follow the story wherever it goes, inviting obvious comparisons to the Happy Death Day franchise. Others might also be reminded of 2015's The Final Girls, where the heroine is sucked into a retro slasher to reunite with her deceased mom. But while this is similarly stacked with meta references, all roads still lead back to Zemeckis' '85 classic, though in ways you'd wouldn't necessarily assume.

Thirty-five years ago, Jamie's (Kiernan Shipka) mother Pam's (Julie Bowen) three friends Tiffany (Liana Liberato), Marisa (Stephi Chin-Salvo) and Heather (Anna Diaz) were brutally murdered on Halloween by the masked Sweet Sixteen Killer, who was never apprehended and has now returned to finish the job. Tragedy strikes again in 2023 when Pam becomes the eventual fourth victim and daughter Jamie is accidentally sent into the past via her best friend Amelia's (Kelcey Mawema) time machine, determined to stop the killings before they start. 

Stuck in 1987 and aided by the teen versions of her mom (Olivia Holt) and Amelia's science obsessed mother Lauren (Troy Leigh-Anne Johnson), Jamie enters a far different world than she's used to while encountering a variety of suspects she's quite familiar with. Committed to uncovering the masked murderer before being trapped in the past, she scrambles to prevent her mom's deadly fate, with any rash move potentially causing a ripple effect that alters everyone's lives. 

Writers David Matalon, Sasha Perl-Raver and Jen D'Angelo do an excellent job establishing this small town of Vernon and the mythology surrounding these infamous killings, fleshing out all the current characters' lingering relationships to an event a generation prior. And that's just in the first 25 minutes. Woodsboro comparisons are apt, but this is actually more Hill Valley in terms of familiarizing viewers with people we'll see again in the past when Jamie encounters her younger parents and their contemporaries.

Considering the amount of characters involved and how they'll eventually be incorporated into the past timeline, it's impressive how deftly the script pulls that off, communicating a relatably thematic point about townies who peaked in high school but never moved on. It's also conveyed visually by Khan,  depicting a 2023 Vernon that's far from its vibrant, bustling, neon-infused heyday of yesteryear.

Taking a cue from the Halloween sequels, Jamie's justifiably overprotective mom may have been preparing for the killer's return for over three decades, but that isn't enough, no matter how good a fight she puts up. And while the slasher sequences are par for the course, the killer's screen time is kept sparse enough to really make those appearances count. Facially resembling a mashup between Max Headroom and Beavis from Beavis and Butt-head, the murderer has one of those undeniably iconic movie masks that's not only reflective of the period, but one you'd believe remained in the public's consciousness for decades following the original slaughter. 

Even the time traveling sequence itself succeeds, organically leading into the culture shock Jamie experiences in 1987. It's surprising what's focused on, as the jokes and sight gags make it clear she's not viewing the past through rose-colored nostalgia glasses, but an eye-rolling sense of hopeless resignation and pity. With her exasperated facial expressions and detached, deadpan demeanor, the versatile Shipka is perfect in this role, registering Jamie's disbelief at all the smoking, how girls her age are treated, and the ease with which she's able to just walk into school unchecked and enroll. 

Much of that humor continues throughout, with Jamie even using Marty McFly as her reference point for the town's clueless, incompetent sheriff (Randall Park). With Lauren essentially functioning as the story's Doc Brown, their attempts to stop the crimes carry a handful of unintended consequences that could jeopardize the future. In a clever touch, the film also frequently cuts back to 2023, emphasizing that Jamie's gone missing with a crazed killer on the loose. Aside from some small missteps like the overabundance of sex jokes and a true crime podcast trope, the screenplay's a lot better than it's gotten credit for.

Jamie coming to equally disappointing and uplifting realizations about her parents further solidifies how every character is a product of their time, especially Pam and her Molly Ringwald dressalike mean girl squad,"The Mollys." Just as Jamie needs to process  her mom wasn't who she thought, Pam will learn to begrudgingly respect the new badass exchange student from "Canada." And as good as Shipka is, Olivia Holt proves essential in completing one of the better recent up-and-coming actress pairings. Also helping is that Holt's an uncanny physical match for the younger version of a superbly cast Julie Bowen.

Horror whodunnits are difficult since casual and hardcore viewers tend to think they know all the plays and are more than happy to tell you as much. Taking that into account, this reveal is superior to many in logically checking certain boxes to serve the larger story. It'll all culminate in a tension-filled, uniquely set showdown that injects some gravitational excitement into an already perilous situation. 

Totally Killer reminds us how Back to the Future earned a 'PG' rating upon its release despite containing many scenes that wouldn't meet today's more stringent MPAA standards, or apparently those of a Gen Z teen who travels back to the era. But by tackling the same weird cultural displacement that movie's character did in the 50's, this just might be the closet we'll get to another sequel, minus all the baggage such an attempt would carry.

The Interview

Directors: Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg
Starring: James Franco, Seth Rogen, Lizzy Caplan, Randall Park, Diana Bang, Timothy Simons, Eminem, Rob Lowe, Ben Schwartz
Running Time: 112 min.
Rating: R

★★★ (out of ★★★★)

All the controversy surrounding the release, or semi non-release of The Interview was simultaneously the best and worst thing that could have happened to this movie. Had it not incited an international incident, chances are it would just come and go, opening to mixed reviews and winning its weekend at the box office, before being set aside until the next James Franco/Seth Rogen comedy vehicle comes along. But now the Sony hack has made it an "event movie," with its release has shifting the conversation entirely and turning its stars into worldwide superstars for at least a few weeks, making the film's actual quality an irrelevant afterthought. It should be the kind of publicity you can't buy but Sony buckled by failing to conventionally release it in a timely manner to capitalize before abruptly changing course. In other words, the studio blew it.

Despite rescuing the film from playing alongside Song of the South and The Day The Clown Cried in an unseen triple feature, it's tentative release is still an ironic debacle worthy of the actual film this fiasco is centered around, which is funnier and smarter than it's getting credit for. If nothing else it's got the media satire thing down pat and features a bizarre, over-the-top performances from America's most popular "love him or hate him" actor. It's hard to watch The Interview without thinking of everything that happened precisely because it's just the kind of event this movie is spoofing.

Franco plays sleazy, dimwitted TV journalist Dave Skylark, whose "Skylark Tonight" talk show scrapes the bottom of the pop culture barrel, covering topics like Rob Lowe's baldness and Eminem's homosexuality (with both cameoing as versions of themselves). Producing it is his best friend and business associate, Aaron Rapaport (Rogen), who's viewed as a big joke in the industry due to his association with a program that makes TMZ look like Charlie Rose and gives a whole new, lesser meaning to the term "soft news." They hope that's about to change when they discover North Korean leader Kim Jong-un (Randall Park) is a fan and wants to arrange a sit-down interview with Dave, albeit under his terms, with all questions formulated by his top official Sook (Diana Bang). Seeing a potential ratings bonanza and the rare shot at journalistic respectability, they jump at the chance. But when CIA Agent Lacey (Lizzy Caplan) hears about the interview she recognizes it as a rare opportunity to assassinate Kim and plans to use Dave and Aaron to do it. Things go awry when she underestimates Dave's incompetence and stupidity and he forms an unlikely bond with the seemingly fun-loving North Korean leader.

The big question going into this was just how necessary it was to focus the plot around a real-life world leader, even going so far as to use his real name and physical likeness. While it's definitely a decision the studio paid for in many ways, it's also easy to understand why co-directors Rogen and Evan Goldberg pushed it through despite the drawbacks. They knew it would be controversial and if you're making an R-rated comedy you want it to have teeth and not pull any punches. Whether we'd have the same movie if they used a fictitious character is debatable, but the the decision does arguably give the story an edge and curiosity factor it probably wouldn't otherwise have on its own.

Make no mistake that this is all about assassinating Kim, so anyone going in solely for that reason won't be disappointed. His role is far from a cameo and they definitely don't wuss out in lampooning the real person, which would have truly been a letdown. But forget about North Korea since Sony's lucky GLAAD didn't go after the movie for the amount of gay jokes Rogen and Goldberg throw in, which are enough to make you think you're back in the fourth grade playground. It seemed they couldn't go five minutes without one, which got tiresome after a while, as did many of the sex jokes, which were hit-or-miss. Where this really scores is with the physical comedy and satire.

We may as well just admit that any scene involving the planning, smuggling, or attempted administering of the poison to Kim is laugh-out-loud hilarious. Luckily, these sight gags takes up a large portion of the film and there's a training sequence early on where Caplan's character attempts to prepare Franco's TV host for the mission, realizing there's probably no way this moron will be able to carry it out. She's mostly right. Once they get to North Korea it only gets better when Dave Skylark bonds with the free wheeling, emotional Kim, even as Aaron tries to convince him he's being taken for a ride. But Aaron's also being taken for one, by Kim's right hand woman Sook, with whom he becomes infatuated.

There's more than a few ways the character of Dave Skylark could have been played, as evidenced by the fact that real-life journalists were considered for the part at early stages in the project's development. While having an actual straight-laced newsman reacting to the absurdity around him would have been an interesting meta direction to go, the casting of Franco works better for the tone they're going for. While it's arguable whether that tone results in the best possible movie, Franco fully commits to playing Dave as basically the dumbest guy on the planet. The actor's not the least bit believable as any kind of journalist and doesn't even seem to care, which strangely makes the whole situation funnier. It's almost as if his entire performance consists of him mocking himself playing the role. Some would say that's become the story of his career, in that our feelings on whatever he's doing at the moment are completely wrapped up in our opinion of him as a personality. Obviously it works well for something like this, which is intrinsically tied to our relationship with the media, in both fictional and now non-fictional ways.

The reliable Rogen proves again his stock in trade is the likable schlub and while he isn't necessarily any more believable as a producer than Franco as a host, that's again exactly the point. There's no sense belaboring the point that these guys have such bro chemistry on screen by now that they may as well be married, a joke definitely in the spirit of this script. But it's Randall Park as Kim giving what's by far the film's best performance, especially shining in all his scenes opposite Franco and expertly skirting the line between believability and silliness when the story shifts and he must transform at the drop of a dime. His real life counterpart can at least take solace in the fact that they got a really great comic actor to play him.

If anyone deserves to emerge a winner out of all this, it's Park, and to a degree, Bang, who breathes life into movie every time she shares the screen with Rogen. Caplan's role as the CIA agent is mostly functional but she gets to have some golden exchanges early on when preparing the guys for their mission. The actual "interview" of the movie's title delivers, as does a hilarious fight sequence that takes place during it. It probably should have ended shortly thereafter since what follows isn't quite as memorable, but it's tough to complain when this is one of the few recent Rogen/Franco comedies with the restraint to contain itself at under two hours. 

Whenever massive hype is suddenly thrust upon what would otherwise be considered an ordinary release, disappointment usually awaits. There's definitely no guidebook for a situation like this but I can say it exceeded my admittedly low expectations, keeping me entertained throughout and doing more things right than wrong. It won't change the world, even if it's release seemed to alter the course of the movie industry, if just temporarily. Forced to choose between the real life incident and the one depicted in this movie, real life gets the edge. But not by much. Far worse comedies have gotten more attention for less.