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★★☆☆☆
3 January 2017
A movie review of THE BAD BATCH. |
“You have to figure it out for yourself,” Bobby (Giovanni Ribisi)
How does a cannibal movie featuring Keanu Reeves, Jim Carrey and Jason Momoa end up so banal? A double disappointment, as this is the sophomore feature from the director of the sublime A GIRL WALKS HOME ALONE AT NIGHT. Meant to be a horror love story, THE BAD BATCH is not in the same league as filmmaker Ana Lily Amirpour’s vampire and human romance. Like the also-starring Keanu Reeves cannibal fashion thriller, THE NEON DEMON, this is a vacuous experience, where style trumps substance and similarly the style does not particularly wow. Bar the leading lady, the movie is a catalogue of odd bods, from Giovanni Ribisi (it is hard to tell whether he is unhinged or merely weird) to Keanu Reeves (a philosophical drug kingpin).
How does a cannibal movie featuring Keanu Reeves, Jim Carrey and Jason Momoa end up so banal? A double disappointment, as this is the sophomore feature from the director of the sublime A GIRL WALKS HOME ALONE AT NIGHT. Meant to be a horror love story, THE BAD BATCH is not in the same league as filmmaker Ana Lily Amirpour’s vampire and human romance. Like the also-starring Keanu Reeves cannibal fashion thriller, THE NEON DEMON, this is a vacuous experience, where style trumps substance and similarly the style does not particularly wow. Bar the leading lady, the movie is a catalogue of odd bods, from Giovanni Ribisi (it is hard to tell whether he is unhinged or merely weird) to Keanu Reeves (a philosophical drug kingpin).
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Is THE BAD BATCH the future? A sign warns: “Beyond this fence is no longer the territory of Texas.” U.S. law does not govern the area. It looks like the apocalypse. Could it be a ginormous open prison created a year from now? Premiering prior to the election of Donald Trump, now it actually makes the film more topical. The aesthetic is MAD MAX. The locale is a surreal ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK. THE BAD BATCH also has an 80s vibe - Walkman, Rubik’s Cube, large boom box DJ booth. One wonders what crimes these people have committed? Is it merely being anti-social?
A voice on the Texan desert prison system tannoy warns of interacting with “bad batch inmates”. A young woman is dropped off. Automatically we are worried for her. No prison attire, it is as if she has been scooped up off the streets and dumped here; a place worse than the wilds of THE REVENANT or THE PROPOSITION. This desert is clearly not prime real estate. So desperation is going to scour away at morality. LORD OF THE FLIES’ lack of authority denudes decency.
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Two people chase new inmate Arien (Suki Waterhouse – PRIDE AND PREJUDICE AND ZOMBIES) on a golf cart. She is caught and has her arm amputated, for food, to the song ‘All She Wants’. Pop music veers the tone away from despair. Occasional macabre humour emits from the absurd – a scolding hot frying pan cauterises the wound. Arien is held by cannibals living among a jet plane graveyard – called “The Bridge” - is this some sort of political commentary? Also, these are jettisoned jets. Geddit?! *I’ll get my coat* Sinister body builders largely populate The Bridge. Non-buff types scavenge the hazardous waste dump. This place is not a holiday resort.
Miami Man (Jason Momoa) is the alpha among a village of alphas. Not just a human carnivore, he is shown to have an artistic side. He paints to the soundtrack of Culture Club. Just because you are a cannibal does that automatically make you a philistine?
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After a bold escape, The Hermit (Jim Carrey) finds Arien’s dying body and takes her to a beacon of humanity – called “Comfort”. Time jumps a few months. Revenge and chasing ensue, but far from as entertaining as that might sound. Arien’s one arm reminds of Charlize Theron in MAD MAX: FURY ROAD – though these movies are leagues apart in terms of quality. Other characterisation tools do not supplement minimal dialogue.
Everyone looks like they need a bath, stat, but Jim Carrey, even among the abandoned, looks intriguingly rough. A wandering untouchable, barely in the runtime, but making an impact – and showing how he still has a physical comedy adeptness.
For those in the first world, one might have optimistically thought society was progressing forward. Brexit and Donald Trump have pushed us backwards – tapping into disturbing tribalism. Jean-Jacques Annaud’s excellent QUEST FOR FIRE (1981), about the birth of the hegemony of Homo sapiens, is distressingly relevant and comparable to THE BAD BATCH. The films show human mores are scarily fragile.
There is hope at the climax, but it rings false, and the love story is empty.
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