Tag: Maya Hawke

Categories
TV & Streaming Reviews

Stranger Things 4

Netflix, 2022

Following the climactic events of Starcourt Mall, the gang of Hawkins natives who battled the forces of the Upside Down have scattered across the country (and in some cases, the world), content with the knowledge that the threat has been neutralised. When a new threat emerges and a series of mysterious murders rock the town, the remaining Hawkins’ kids band together to uncover the source. Meanwhile in California, Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) struggles to adapt to her new life away from Mike (Finn Wolfhard) as Joyce (Winona Ryder) uncovers a series of strange messages that could point to the location of a miraculously alive Hopper (David Harbour).

Rating: 9 out of 10.

Starring: Winona Ryder, David Harbour, Millie Bobby Brown, Finn Wolfhard, Sadie Sink, Noah Schnapp, Gaten Matarazzo, Caleb McLaughlin & Jamie Campbell Bower

Watch it now on Netflix

Netflix, 2022

Who would have thought that the Duffer Brothers humble little 80’s sci-fi homage would have turned into what Stranger Things is today: a totemic pillar of Netflix’s slate and a juggernaut of a show rivalling hits of recent years like Game of Thrones and Breaking Bad in its wild popularity. Season 4 is the best yet, bursting at the seams in its jumbo-sized penultimate adventure; the most mature the show has been and, despite its wealth of characters and plot lines, the most narratively focused since young Will Byers (Noah Schnapp) first took that unfortunate trip to the Upside Down.

Like Season 3 before it, many years have passed since we last saw the kids from Hawkins, and the opening few episodes quickly establish that beyond their physical appearance, the show has matured with them to tackle larger issues. The threat of the Upside Down has never felt as monumental as it does here. Key culprit to that is Vecna (Jamie Campbell Bower), who essentially functions as the franchise’s Voldemort and leader of all the Demogorgons and other Upside Down nasties that have plagued our heroes since the very beginning.

Netflix, 2022

Apart from retroactively focusing the diverse cast of, mostly, one note villains in previous instalments, Vecna acts as a nice bridging point between two of the longest running mysteries the show has told: the Upside Down and the mysteries of the facility run by Dr Brenner – ‘Papa’ (Matthew Modine). Answers to both fly thick and fast (no spoilers here), leaving plenty of room to expand in the upcoming final season. It’s smart storytelling that goes beyond the simple pleasures of Vecna’s obvious similarities to one 80’s horror icon Freddy Krueger (including a cameo from Freddy himself, Robert Englund). Stalking his victims in a dream-like fugue state, Vecna torments the children he kills, following them through eerie visions of past traumas and a mysterious dilapidated house. These sequences are unabashedly pulled straight out of a Nightmare on Elm Street film and are all the better for it, with some of the most intense violence the series has ventured into and an excellently eerie soundtrack to the horror.

Whilst Vecna acts as a bridge between the Hawkins and California storylines, the mystery of Hopper feels strangely detached. Revealed in the Season 3 post-credits scene to be a prisoner in a Russian prison, David Harbour is at his finest in the character this time around, with an introspective, soul-bearing performance that really digs into the heart of the character and the trauma that he has overcome. These quieter moments help flesh out the emotional stakes while all the other excitement is going on in the States, but you can’t help but feel removed from the action during these scenes. The adult characters are confined to Russia for nearly the entire season, and whilst its always entertaining, it never feels essential; pulling us away from the far more investing goings-on with everyone else.

Netflix, 2022

Make no mistake, Hawkins is where the real meat of this season is. The mystery of Vecna is inexplicably tied to the town and, as usual, it falls on the motley crew of Steve (Joe Keery), Nancy (Natalia Dyer), Max (Sadie Sink), Robin (Maya Hawke), Dustin (Gaten Mattarazzo) and Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin) to get to the bottom of it. This time they’re joined by newcomer Eddie Munsen (Joseph Quinn), a heavy metal, D&D playing nerd with a heart of gold who gets caught up in the murder of a fellow student.

Therein lies perhaps the Duffer Brothers greatest strength: in casting and presenting these new characters in such a way that they instantly become beloved fan favourites. Eddie quickly joins the ranks of Dacre Montgomery’s Billy and Sean Astin’s affable Bob through an endearing relationship with Dustin and Mike. He’s essentially a father figure to them, shepherding the gang through the ups and downs of high school with tough love and an unhinged glee. Quinn’s performance is a lot to begin with, but as the season progresses his rough exterior slowly softens to reveal a damaged teen desperate for some agency over his own life. His arc simmers in the background, rather than being a focal showpiece, until a rousing moment of pure badass heavy-metal awesomeness brings it home with emotional heft and a sense of pure, elating fun.

Netflix, 2022

Then there’s Eleven. Largely on her own for the series and forced to relive the traumas of her time spent in the care of Papa, Bobby Brown doesn’t necessarily bring much new to the character here (the script doesn’t exactly allow for it) but is so supremely confident in the role at this point that you know you are in good hands with her regardless of where the narrative goes. It’s nice to see the series round out the contributions of Matthew Modine and Paul Reiser, in a kind of “Magneto and Professor X working together again” situation that adds to the gigantic scope the series is going for; this could very well be the end of Hawkins, and everyone needs to unite to save it.

When these disparate strands come together and the full scope of Stranger Things 4 emerges is when the show truly reveals itself at the top of its game. The conflict has never felt more personal to the inhabitants of Hawkins; they’ve taken big, impactful losses that will surely linger on the show going forward, and it all unites to create a season that feels essential, as if everything that came before was building up to this moment. Sure there’s the usual overabundance of characters that the show can’t possibly give enough time to and the Duffers play with our emotions a little too much (kill Steve and we riot), but as a whole, Season 4 of Stranger Things is the most entertaining, emotional and most importantly rewarding so far. This is event television done right: big, bold and willing to swing for the fences.

9 / 10

Categories
Movie Reviews

Fear Street Part One: 1994

Chernin Entertainment, 2021

The first instalment in Netflix’s new trilogy of horror films Fear Street – based on the lesser-known series of books by R.L. Stine – tells you exactly who the target audience is in the title. Fans of Scream rejoice, you’re going back to the nineties. However what should be a fun romp through the era of grunge and video shops turns into one gnarly rollercoaster as 1994 constantly presents exciting premises or genuinely tense moments, only to have them brought down by one supremely depressing lead performance and a central relationship that is less interesting than the one between Leatherface and his beloved chainsaw.

Director Leigh Janiak goes all in on the period, evoking many beloved 90’s horror classics (and some even older films) in setting up the campily named Shadyside and Sunnyvale, two rival towns on opposite ends of the socio-economic spectrum. Our underdog heroes, naturally, hail from Shadyside, led by heartbroken, permanently pessimistic Deena (Kiana Madeira), a take-no-shit type of final girl who proudly professes her disdain for ex-girlfriend Sam (Olivia Scott Welch) who has defected to Sunnyvale as a result of her parent’s divorce. When the pair run into each other at a vigil for a recently murdered fellow student (Maya Hawke in a brilliant opening scene homage to Drew Barrymore’s Scream role) chaos ensues, culminating in Sam’s accidental desecration of the burial site of the town’s legendary local witch Sarah Fiers.

Chernin Entertainment, 2021

Now hunted by a who’s who of Shadyside’s famous history of murderers (there’s a reason they call the place Killer Capital USA), Sam, Deena, her brother Josh (Benjamin Flores Jr.) and their friends Kate (Julia Rehwald) and Simon (Fred Hechinger) race to find a fix for the curse placed on Sam. The roster from which Janiak selects her killer is easily the most enticing part of Fear Street as a whole collection of films. While it lacks the whodunnit nature of Scream, the Skull Mask killer does act as a convincing surrogate for Ghost Face, albeit far more willing to get creative, whilst the lumbering, Jason-esque Camp Nightwing killer terrifies with his unstoppable power and fearsome axe.

Outside of them are some truly inspired and creative killers mentioned in the flashbacks through Shadyville’s history whom we don’t get to see at their gory best in this film – from a baseball-bat wielding brat to a deranged slasher milkman – that flesh out the town’s sinister past and provide hints at some, hopefully, gloriously macabre set-pieces going forward.

Chernin Entertainment, 2021

Judging this film on the potential of future instalments however would be to gloss over the biggest issues, which unfortunately come in the form of the film’s heroes. Rehwald, Hechinger and Flores Jr. all rock solid in their assigned roles, each portraying a classic 90’s horror stereotype from the antisocial serial killer nerd to the dorky wannabe jock of the group; providing welcome humour that is almost always instantly extinguished by Deena and Sam.

Madeira plays Deena as the stereotypical angsty, depressed teen who hates the world around her and seems to get off by ruining everyone else’s good times. It instantly makes her a hard character to latch onto as a protagonist and even once she softens in her journey to save Sam, that snarky attitude comes back in her interactions with everyone else, who we all like a great deal more than Sam. Why Sam is so special is beyond me as the character is more devoid of life than the silent, masked axe-wielding maniac stalking her, monotonically droning on about her problems and never taking any real action to change her situation until everyone commits to risking their lives to save hers.

Chernin Entertainment, 2021

The film’s big showdown, which should be a hoot given the potential to run wild in the setting of an empty supermarket, turns into an endless groan-fest as we constantly cut away from the tense killer chase scenes to whatever the hell Sam is doing. The single best kill of the film takes place in this finale but you wouldn’t be blamed for forgetting it given how little the film seems to care about the impact of it, instantly cutting back to another episode of Deena and Sam’s boring problems.

To say the final act gets crazy in its campiness would be something of an understatement, with some plot points that are a far too convenient and silly to be believable, but once you’ve accepted a Witch resurrecting murderers, it’s kind of hard to bring up a gripe like this so late in the game. The cliffhanger Janiak leaves you on isn’t as compelling as she thinks given the utter banality of the characters it focuses on (see if you can guess) but it does offer hope that a new setting and time period will allow for some more enjoyable characters to flourish… before being gutted.

Chernin Entertainment, 2021

The nineties setting, for all its worth, is essentially scrapped after an opening 20 minutes that relies heavily on what I’m calling the Suicide Squad effect; bombarding you with everything from Radiohead’s “Creep” to Nine Inch Nails’ “Closer” in a near endless stream of soundtrack. It’s a familiar trapping of films these days to quickly establish a time period without having to write much into the story outside of some clothing or vintage touches like the ancient boxes that used to pass as computers.

After this initial spate of songs you’d be hard pressed to spot something that would be out of place in a film set in present day (especially given the return of baggy ripped jeans) and it becomes clear that Janiak is more interested in borrowing from the stories of 90’s horror than the style or general aesthetic. Not necessarily a bad thing when your biggest inspiration is one of the greatest horror films of all time in Scream.

The opening salvo of Fear Street is a sloppy introduction to the town of Shadyville and its haunted past, with a wasted nineties setting and unlikeable leads detracting from what could have been a fun, campy little slasher film. Decent pacing, solid world building and some interesting little twists and turns will likely keep viewers engaged but 1994 offers the genre very little in the way of genuine surprises. Fear Street might might not be off to a perfect start but I’m ready to head to Camp Nightwing.

Chernin Entertainment, 2021

Fear Street Part One: 1994 stars Kiana Madeira, Olivia Scott Welch, Benjamin Flores Jr., Julia Rehwald, Fred Hechinger, David W. Thompson, Ashley Zukerman & Maya Hawke – Streaming on Netflix now.

Rating: 5 out of 10.

5/10

Categories
TV & Streaming Reviews

Stranger Things – Season 3

Netflix, 2019

Television’s pop culture icon Stranger Things has just launched its third chapter into the world – to understandably high expectations – following the brilliant sci-fi adventures of season one and season two. We’ve followed our favourite characters through all the drama that’s come their way, and so we were all eagerly awaiting what the next instalment would bring to the table. Stranger Things Season Three succeeds in giving us all that we’ve come to love and expect from the series: brilliant interactions between its many characters, flashy 80’s nostalgia, horrifying demons and unapologetic nerdiness. Despite this however, the latest season doesn’t quite meet the impossibly high mark set by its predecessors, due mainly to some broad narrative decisions and a complicated plot that results in quite possibly the strangest season yet.

Note: While we don’t delve too deep into the finer plot details, we will be discussing key characters and high-level developments. If you’re looking to go into the season completely unaware, make sure you watch it first before reading on.

First things first, season three is intense. With a much darker and horror-focused run of episodes than ever before, this season doesn’t hold back when it comes to violence and gore. While the series has a history of some pretty hostile encounters (such as the finale of season one or the Demodogs of Hawkins’ Lab in season two), expect to see much more blood, beatings and death throughout this one. Horror has always been a key aspect of Stranger Things – the previous seasons were filled with slow-burn, high tension scares – but this time around the horror is far more in-your-face. In keeping with the 80’s charm of films like Nightmare on Elm Street and The Terminator, you’ll find the scares delivered through some nasty looking monsters and relentless chase scenes that aim to keep you on the edge of your seat. This is a refreshing direction for the series as a whole to take, proving that the show is evolving and maturing along with its characters and time period. Our leads are no longer kids playing board games in the basement and we’ve watched as they’ve all grown despite the dangers of the Upside-Down, so it only makes sense that the villains have grown bigger and more sinister as a result.

Netflix, 2019

Speaking of growth, Stranger Things‘ fantastic young cast have come a long way since we last saw them. Mike (Finn Wolfhard), Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo), Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin), Will (Noah Schnapp), Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) and Max (Sadie Sink) are all firmly in their teens now, and this brings with it a number of changes to the group’s dynamic. Mike and Eleven are continuing where they left off at the close of season two, with their relationship and its effect on those around them being a constant theme throughout the season. Both young actors turn in another set of great performances this time around, with Millie Bobby Brown again delivering another stand-out performance as the complex Eleven. Like Dustin and Steve (Joe Keery) last season, we get a great new pairing between Max and Eleven as the two girls form a strong duo in what was originally an all-boys club.

With even Dustin managing to (apparently) find love while away on summer camp, this all leaves Will feeling isolated and separated from the core group – even more than usual. Schnapp’s character has less of a central role here compared to prior seasons, however he still does great work in showing the audience just how far the group has come while simultaneously longing to gain back the time he’s lost to the Upside-Down. Season three goes hard on the aspect of growing up and moving on, so it makes sense that each of the kids begin forging their own paths – ultimately weakening the tight-knit brotherhood we’ve come to know and love in the process.

Our other Hawkins favourites have also been busy during the break, with some faring better than others. Joyce (Winona Ryder) continues to mourn her loss from the most recent Hawkins’ disaster, managing to keep her mind occupied by looking into some strange occurrences around town during the summer. Ryder is an absolute gem here as always, and is able to deliver some powerful scenes which really highlight her growth over the course of the show. While she does play the curious, conspiracy-theorising single mother well, her character spends a large portion of the season following some highly questionable breadcrumbs and jumping to conclusions that seem far-fetched, even by her standards. While this has been done to keep the plot moving and give her something to do, it’s hard not to notice that Joyce has very little stakes in the game this time around. Without any real motive or genuine urgency, her story arc can almost feel a bit watered-down at times.

Police Chief Hopper (David Harbour) is again along for Joyce’s ride, if only as an excuse to spend more time with his not-so-secret crush. Harbour reprises his role as the iron fist of Hawkins, playing him harder and more aggravated than usual this season, and he spends most of his time taking the law into his own hands and knocking some heads together. Even though he plays something of a brute for majority of the show, Hop does get a chance to show some raw emotion in the scenes he shares with Joyce and his adoptive daughter Eleven. It’s a good thing that both Harbour and Ryder continue to have such great chemistry, as their charm is what carries us through some of the more far-reaching sections of the plot.

Netflix, 2019

While his mother is off with Hopper, Jonathan (Charlie Heaton) begins interning at the town’s local newspaper – the Hawkins Post – alongside his now-official girlfriend Nancy Wheeler (Natalia Dyer). Dyer’s character struggles to make a good impression in the male dominated workplace, and this drives an interesting arc for her and Jonathan as they aim to break a big story that will put her critics in their place. It’s all well and good until their plot-line is completely tossed aside when something bigger comes along, and is never spoken of again.

Similarly, Nancy’s mother Karen (Cara Buono) is given much more to do at the start of the season than ever before, looking set to lift her character into a more prominent role alongside the other leading names. However her storyline is also left by the wayside before too long, and her very minimal appearances later in the season have her revert to the oblivious housewife she played in season one. While these characters are still fantastic and a joy to watch throughout, their individual story arcs highlight the general plot issues with this season. While the show has previously managed to organically link the narrative threads of its characters neatly in time for the finale, season three appears happy to cut ties with loose ends in order to hit certain story beats for the central and, quite frankly, farfetched plot-line.

Without spoiling too much, Stranger Things Season Three plays heavily on the 80’s hysteria of the threat of Russian invasion. The show attempts to shake things up by moving away from the usual US government conspiracies, however in doing so it loses much of its plausibility and logic. Whilst a fictional sci-fi adventure riddled with psychic powers, alternate dimensions and nightmarish monsters doesn’t exactly scream believability, Stranger Things has always been grounded when it came to actually delivering these stories. However the Russian angle is never really explained at all, and what the audience is expected to believe has been done by the foreigners in the space of a year is pretty outrageous.

Thankfully the majority of scenes on this side of the plot are carried by the brilliant ongoing pairing of Dustin and Steve, along with a couple of new companions. Steve has recently started working in an ice-cream store in Hawkins’ new Starcourt Mall, alongside former classmate Robin (Maya Hawke). Hawke is a great new addition to the cast, and she plays another strong, smart and layered character that has great chemistry with Keery and Matarazzo. Rounding out this group in season three is the left-field addition of Erica (Priah Ferguson), Lucas’ wildly outspoken younger sister who briefly appeared in previous seasons to spit fire on her brother and his friends. The young Ferguson is great in her role as the no-nonsense character who knows exactly what she wants, and the group of four are more than enough to keep each episode afloat – even when they’re dealing with what may just be the most bumbling and useless military unit we’ve ever seen.

Netflix, 2019

Rounding out the cast of season three is Dacre Montgomery, who returns as Max’s step-brother Billy Hargrove, easily receiving the most development of any of the show’s characters this year. Having relatively minimal screen-time, yet an important role in season two, he becomes centre to many of this season’s events and a person of interest for most of the cast. Montgomery does excellent work in bringing the conflicted Billy to life once again – especially when he’s conveying the fluctuating emotions and actions that his role demands. We’re shown quite a bit more of the troubled character’s motives through some haunting interactions with Eleven, as well as through his relationship with step-sister Max, which has been greatly expanded following season two.

It’s also around Billy that we see much of the show’s phenomenal special effects work and monster designs, with the growing budget and resources being put to good use here. The creatures on show look like modern day adaptations of the ugliest monstrosities from 1982’s The Thing, and the grand finale is just as flashy and explosive as we’ve all come to expect. In ending the season with such a bang – as well as with some reflective and touching closing moments – season three does come some way in redeeming its fairly average central plot, and it helps to remind us that Stranger Things is first and foremost about its brilliant characters, their complex relationships and the bonds that tie them all together.

The third instalment of Stranger Things is ultimately another wild ride with our favourite Hawkins characters, weaving a compelling sci-fi tale while revelling in 80’s nostalgia and monster movie madness. While areas of the plot certainly require some grand leaps of imagination and logic, the darker tone and ongoing relationships between the talented cast have made the Duffer Brother’s latest outing a success. It’s almost certain that we’ll see a fourth chapter in the Stranger Things story, and at this point all we can do is wait and see where the next one will take us. With an ensemble of characters larger than ever before and a willingness to take the series to dark new places, Stranger Things Season Three has proven that it’s not afraid to challenge our expectations – and that it’s still the toughest kid on the block.

Netflix, 2019

Stranger Things Season Three stars Winona Ryder, David Harbour, Millie Bobby Brown, Finn Wolfhard, Noah Schnapp, Gaten Matarazzo, Caleb McLaughlin, Dacre Montgomery, Joe Keery, Natalia Dyer and Charlie Heaton – streaming now on Netflix.