Women Talking Review

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Women Talking opens in limited theaters on Dec. 2 before going into wide release on Dec. 23.

To say that a film feels like a Twitter thread is rarely a good thing — see also: the middling Harvey Weinstein exposé movie She Said — but Sarah Polley’s Women Talking makes a meal out of the concept. Based loosely on Miriam Toews’ eponymous novel, it takes aim at patriarchal structures, and the ensuing philosophical gridlocks emerging from a society where sexual assault is all too common, and women have finally begun to speak out. The story unfolds in an isolated Christian commune, where a series of attacks have forced its oppressed female population to gather, vote, and debate on how best to proceed — whether to forgive their rapists as their faith dictates, to stay and fight to create a better culture, or to up and leave entirely — but the film’s non-stop dialogue avoids straying too far towards the didactic. This is owed, in large part, to Polley probing at what lies beneath every facet of this ongoing conversation, which can manifest in the public sphere in reductive ways, whether through new media or more traditional streams. Women Talking tries to pick up the broken pieces of those debates and put them back together. While its theatrical staging does occasionally give way to an inorganic ebb and flow (alongside some awkward shifts in tone when the film attempts levity), it’s hard not to be taken in by its incredible ensemble, who deliver stellar performances across the board.

Its opening text reads, “What follows is an act of female imagination,” though its most imaginative qualities are all in its staging and dramaturgy. The story itself is rooted in the painful reality of a Menonite community in Bolivia, the Manitoba Colony, whose real-life case Toews adapted for her novel set in Ukraine (Toews herself grew up in a Menonite town in Manitoba, Canada, which she left when she was 18). Polley further transposes the film to the United States, where the timeline isn’t fully clear at first — the simple costumes and rural production design make this commune feel stuck in time, and out of time; both trapped in the past, yet timeless and prescient — but a few references begin to slowly clue us in on the “when” of it all. The text’s westward cultural translation speaks to the story’s theatrical nature; it feels distinctly like a blackbox stage play, unfolding mostly in a barn in secret, via spoken dialogue first and foremost. It’s the kind of under-the-radar tale that would benefit from being localized, given how it lives in the delicate space between broad generalities, with regards to gender, and specificities of time, place, and language — or lack thereof, where the latter is concerned. As one of the film’s illiterate victims describes, she was taught little about her own body, and what could be done to it.

However, despite its theatricality, Women Talking discovers its most affecting moments when it briefly cuts away from the barn, to flashes of memory. These interludes illustrate what the women inside are actually discussing, resulting in distinctly cinematic depictions of the emotions underscoring their words (whether the brutality wrought upon them, or their more abstract hopes and dreams for their children in the future). After the colony’s women vote in secret — with “X”s marked alongside illustrations, since they can neither read nor write — they arrive at a deadlock between fleeing and fighting. And so, under the guidance of a minor character played by Frances McDormand, the women from two specific families are chosen to hash things out, and come to a collective decision.

The kindly elders of each family, Agata (Judith Ivey) and Greta (Sheila McCarthy), conceal their burdens with accepting smiles, but they harbor wry wisdom too. Agata has two daughters: Ona (Rooney Mara), who’s pregnant from her assault and who thoughtfully considers each option, and Salome (Claire Foy), whose youngest daughter was raped, and who harbors an unquenchable fury; she’s determined to stay and fight, though what that truly means is something the women still need to decide on. Rounding out the leading trio is Greta’s daughter, Mariche (Jessie Buckley), whose abusive marriage has convinced her that leaving is the best (and only) option. Mariche and Salome are at constant loggerheads, and their understandable hair-triggers result in frequent explosions amid the debate.

The lulls between their skirmishes, however, see the dramatic baton passed to a rich array of supporting characters. Not only Agata and Greta, but Greta’s niece Mejal (Michelle McLeod) — who quietly considers the conversation from a corner, as she dulls her resurgent traumas by smoking — and the film’s two teenagers, Salome’s niece Neitje (Liv McNeil) and Mariche’s daughter, Autje (Kate Hallett). Rather than following Salome and Mariche’s adversarial lead, they’re best friends who quickly grow tired of the process. However, their performances are so finely tuned that the two teens never blend together, despite having to share almost the entirety of their limited screen time; as the debate intensifies, McNeil grows more quietly disaffected, while Hallett begins to slowly crack and crumble.

Rounding off the main cast is Ben Whishaw as the sensitive schoolteacher August, who’s in love with Ona, and whose function is to take the minutes of the meeting. He’s also asked for his input on occasion; his mother was once excommunicated from the commune for challenging their beliefs, so the way he was raised makes him willing to assist the women in ways the colony’s other men may not.

It’s a rare ensemble movie where every single performance makes it worth watching.

The movie’s desaturated palette stands out right from its opening frames, and while Polley and cinematographer Luc Montpellier don’t play with light and color much beyond this, it sets the stage for the unfurling of a particularly bleak story. The unusually wide 2.76:1 aspect ratio certainly adds to the stage-like quality, but it also helps frame multiple women and multiple perspectives unfolding alongside each other simultaneously, as opinions and tempers fly, and the debate about leaving versus staying deepens to the point that several characters end up 180’ing entirely. Ona is frequently the catalyst for these changes; where Mariche and Salome rage at one another (and at practically everyone else), Ona’s pregnancy keeps her keenly aware of the future and its fragility, so she asks pragmatic questions about where exactly each path might lead the women, should they either stay or leave.

The subject of forgiveness is also broached, both as a religious concept as well as one with a collective social function. But these intellectual musings, while no doubt engaging, are eventually set aside in favor of its emotional strengths. The film, though it features few male characters beyond August — and a trans man in the community (August Winter), who was also raped and impregnated — harbors a constant awareness of the ways in which men and boys play into this dynamic, especially when the topic of leaving is considered more seriously. Which of their sons would the women bring with them? What’s the cutoff age? And are the women even equipped to teach their sons, and help them unlearn cruelty? Of the numerous cutaways to disjointed flashbacks, the images concerned with these questions are perhaps the film’s most moving. The women ask August his thoughts on his young male students; he answers in words, elucidating ideas about kindness and curiosity, but Polley matches his statements to both images of innocent, boyhood frolic, and of the haunting loneliness and emotional isolation imposed upon the boys. Even as children who don’t play a major role in the story, the boys’ diverging paths —should they stay or leave — are laid out clearly through poetic, abstract implications. Composer Hildur Guðnadóttir ties a neat bow on this sequence with some of her most moving film music to date. One moment in particular stands out, where held strings accompany a fleeting closeup of a tween boy staring right down the lens, causing time itself to stand still as his future hangs in the balance.

While not quite as polished as Todd Field’s Tár, Women Talking pairs surprisingly well with it, as an extrapolation of power dynamics (“Don’t we all want some sort of power?” Mejal asks at one point, to which Ona responds: “I think so, but I’m not sure”). But rather than exploring the way power hurts the powerless, the film instead lingers alongside that hurt, long after it has taken hold, as the women figure out ways to escape its dulling grasp. But where the movie ultimately succeeds is not just in its cinematic presentation of ongoing debates on power and gender, or even the rhythms with which each blistering performance is crafted (kudos to editors Christopher Donaldson and Roslyn Kalloo). Rather, its key success lies in its ability to follow the ripple effects of these conversations along distinctly emotional trajectories, tracing each implication as it arrives at some new hurdle to be painstakingly jumped, even at the point of exhaustion. It’s about what could, or should, come after the yelling, the screaming, and the desperate venting — which is to say, the difficult task of healing and rebuilding.

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Marvel's Midnight Suns Review

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One of my favorite things about watching superheroes duke it out is when someone gets smacked so hard they fly backwards and crash through solid walls, explode tanker trucks, or slam into their friends. It’s an awesome demonstration of just how strong these godlike characters are supposed to be, and it’s always a disappointment when a superhero game doesn’t quite capture that feeling. With Marvel’s Midnight Suns, however, Firaxis has built a deep and innovative turn-based tactical combat system around the joy of having Iron Man, Dr. Strange, Blade, and more knock enemies around like toys they're trying to break – and that hasn’t gotten old in the roughly 75 hours of its surprisingly expansive RPG campaign. A lot of that time isn’t spent in battles, though, and while it’s certainly appealing to get up close and personal with this cast of more than a dozen popular and lesser-known Marvel heroes, it does tend to go a bit overboard with convincing Earth’s mightiest heroes to all be your BFFs.

The full-on supernatural theme of Midnight Suns immediately sets it apart from the Marvel games we’ve gotten in recent years. This story is very loosely based on the Marvel Comics series Midnight Sons, and centers on the corrupt witch Lilith returning from the dead to claim the Darkhold (the evil spell book featured in Dr. Strange and the Multiverse of Madness) on behalf of an even more evil god. That apocalyptic mystical threat isn’t terribly novel in of itself, but the family relationships around it make it more interesting: Lilith is the mother of our character, a Commander Shepard-style blank slate known as The Hunter, and her sister is Caretaker, a powerful witch who serves as the Midnight Sun’s Professor X-like mentor. There’s a lot of history between them to delve into – literally, in that Lilith and Caretaker are hundreds of years old and date back to the Salem Witch Trials – and the story uses Lilith’s ability to twist the minds of heroes and villains alike to great effect in creating strife and division among our heroes. With such a long campaign – at least 60 hours, but I’m at more like 75 or 80 now – just about everybody in the cast gets some time to shine, from the world-famous Spider-Man to the more obscure magical heroes like the Runaways’ Nico Minaru and Colossus’ sister Illyana “Magik” Rasputin, who both take central roles in the fight against Lilith.

Right off the bat, Midnight Suns’ style of combat is radically and refreshingly different from Firaxis’ genre-defining XCOM games. For one thing, each member of your three-person team you take on a typical mission has their own customizable deck of eight cards representing everything from Spider-Man’s THWIP!!! web-stunning attack to Dr. Strange’s Winds of Watoomb tornado, forcing you to think on your feet in order to make the best possible use of the hand you’re dealt. As a big fan of card games like Slay the Spire and Monster Train (and recently Marvel Snap) I’m absolutely on board with this idea – the unpredictability of it keeps me from falling into the rut of repeating the same routine every battle once I find something effective. Having just a few cards in your hand isn’t as limiting as you might think, since you can discard and redraw any at least a few every turn to replace those that aren’t useful in your situation (and you can increase the number of redraws per turn with consumable items or card upgrades). It’s rare that I’ve found myself unable to act, and it’s not unusual that you’ll draw exactly the card you want.

Losing one character doesn't pull you into the downward spiral of failure that can happen in XCOM.

Another excellent aspect of this system is that all your characters draw from the same pool of (usually) three “card plays” and one movement action per turn. That means that one person getting knocked out doesn’t instantly reduce your available actions by a third – you lose access to that hero’s cards, but those who are left standing can still use all of the turn’s allotted moves. So you’re at a disadvantage until you can revive them, but it’s not so great that you’re pulled into the downward spiral of failure that can happen in XCOM and other squad-based games – but it certainly doesn’t mean Midnight Suns is easy.

Superheroes don’t take cover in a fight and they don’t miss their shots, so instead of getting entrenched and using suppressive fire to win shootouts, these mostly small-scale missions are exciting slugfests where staying alive is all about quickly taking enemies out – or at least weakening them before they get to move. Directing their attacks away from your weakest hero with taunts and buffing your allies with armor and resistances is key to mitigating the damage, and a lot of the guesswork is taken out of it by icons above enemies' heads indicating who they plan to attack on their turn.

The rhythm of combat involves picking off weak fodder enemies using basic attack and skill cards (those with the “quick” trait refund your card play if you knock out a target, extending your turn) to build up Heroism points, which can then be spent on powerful Heroic cards like a hail of missiles from Iron Man’s shoulders that damages every enemy on the screen or Wolverine's armor-piercing claws, or satisfying environmental attacks like dropping a street lamp on a group of enemies or vaulting off a table to come crashing down on a target from above. It’s fantastic when it all comes together to let you clear out one of these close-quarters arena maps before the inevitable wave of enemy reinforcements charges in from off-screen to keep the action going.

Firaxis’ animators have done an excellent job.

Firaxis’ animators have done an excellent job of making these turn-based fights feel energetic. That so much of it is built around smacking enemies with extreme force works extremely well with high-powered heroes like Iron Man and Captain Marvel, and using Spider-Man’s webs to fling objects into bad guys’ faces from across the map is very on-brand. With all of that knockback in play positioning is extremely important – you have to think about how to approach a target and how to set up more damaging hits. On that note, I love how every hero has a distinctive flavor to the way they move and attack, whether it’s flying, levitating, teleporting, or swinging, and the powerful team-up attacks put on a good show as two heroes take turns beating the living hell out of a target. When you scale up to the over-the-top late-game abilities the animations are a whole lot of fun to watch, and it's all set to a rousing Avengers-esque score.

Mixing heroes like Magik and Ghost Rider into your squad gives you the ability to open portals in the floor (into Limbo and/or Hell) and kick enemies into it for an instant knockout, which is one of the few major places in Midnight Suns where a roll of the dice determines if an attach is successful or not. Considering this requires you to spend a move and may not do any damage at all, it’s a gamble – but it can pay off big if you can remove a beefy enemy from the map in one move.

While the maps you do battle on are consistently small and flat with only a handful of objects on them for you to slam enemies with or into, there are a fair number of backdrops to keep visual diversity up and a good variety of objectives beyond simply defeating all the enemies. There are hazards that make you keep your squad moving to avoid danger zones, shield-bearing enemies that have to be broken through to reach a target, Hydra VIPs that must be captured, bombs that must be disabled, and so on. You can also keep things interesting on straightforward battles by opting into side objectives where you need to, for example, use a specific character to deal 250 damage within two turns. Between those factors and occasional boss encounters with Venom, Sabertooth, Crossbones, and more – each with their own unique mechanics – missions rarely felt like I was stuck in a loop.

It can be a pain to find the exact right place to cast an area-of-effect attack.

Of course, Midnight Suns’ combat does have some annoying quirks to get used to: because positioning is so important it's a bit frustrating that you can’t really control where your characters will land after an attack (though it does preview the location for you before you play a card), and because there’s no grid it can be a pain to find the exact right place to cast an area-of-effect attack to hit multiple targets or to get an environmental attack to line up just right. The main thing that still throws me off, though, is that it’s easy to accidentally move a character when you’re trying to make them shove an enemy, and once you do that you've burnt that shove move for this turn.

While I’ve come to love it, I admit that Midnight Suns' battles did take a little while to grow on me. The opening hours are a lot to take in, and at the same time you’re trying to wrap your head around this dramatically different new combat system you’re barraged with what feels like way too many currencies for upgrades (each of the three card types has its own) and relationships and other stats to manage, and of course each character’s individual deck of cards – including Hunter’s, which are a mixture of light and dark cards that give you a good range of options for how you’d like them to play, focusing on support abilities that heal or grant armor or going all-in on damage dealing. I also made the mistake of taking on a lot of early side missions, which turns out to be unwise because a lot of things that haven’t been unlocked at that stage. For example, if you don't unlock the ability to do extra damage by knocking an enemy into one of your own teammates you're just making things harder than they need to be. When Venom randomly showed up in an already difficult situation (boss characters can drop into normal missions unexpectedly, similar to XCOM 2’s Chosen) it took me around two hours of stubbornly retrying it to figure out how to survive that mission.

But by the time I’d made my way through the first act of the surprisingly long story, things had really clicked into place, and I found myself greatly enjoying the challenge of maximizing the potential of the hands I’m dealt. Having a wider selection of cards to work with and the ability to upgrade and augment them with bonuses, like increasing their power when you spend a redraw on them or inflicting bleeding on a target, expanded my options significantly and made each character feel more tailored to my preferred style.

I did end up having to tone the difficulty down during that second act. I’d ambitiously cranked it up three levels as they’d unlocked based on my scores in some early missions, but when the generic Hydra soldiers were replaced by a bigger variety of tougher demonic enemies (such as the creepy guys who can clone themselves and others) I started hitting walls where my current understanding of how to optimize a deck just wasn’t up to the task. So I went back down to just one notch above the default for the rest of my run, and that put me in a good place – but I’m looking forward to a future playthrough (maybe when the planned DLC characters Deadpool, Storm, Venom, and Morbius arrive) where I can plan out my decks with a better understanding of how upgrades work and which cards I can sacrifice for extra resources to level up and enhance the ones I like.

Turning up the difficulty increases your rewards for beating missions quickly and without anyone getting knocked out, and it’s a really smart system. Doing well doesn’t make you much stronger (if you’re doing that well you don’t need a lot of help there anyway), it just makes you look cooler doing it by increasing the amount of Gloss currency you have to spend on unlocking new costumes and leisure wear for Hunter and the rest of the gang, among other things. With at least a few costume options for everyone, each with multiple color palettes, to earn it’s a good incentive to push yourself to improve on the battlefield.

The Abbey is certainly a major change of pace from battles, though that’s not always a good thing.

Before you can pay Gloss to enable them, though, you have to find those cosmetic items, and most of them come from exploring the grounds around the Midnight Suns’ home base, a castle-like building known as the Abbey. I generally enjoyed the parallel story that unfolds here, wherein the ghost of Agatha Harkness sends you looking for clues to missing memories of Hunter and Lilith’s previous conflict, and retracing the events that lead to her own death. It’s certainly a major change of pace from battles, though that’s not always a good thing because it can feel like a big time-sink: there’s a lot of aimless wandering alone across the moderately sized, maze-like map, which is almost entirely devoid of NPCs of any kind, as you search for pieces of puzzles. During that time I encountered a few frustrating bugs where items weren’t interactable at first or a solution didn’t work until I tried it multiple times. Also, while there’s a set of four different powers you get here that aren’t available at all in combat, they aren’t used very creatively and mostly serve to unlock areas that’ve been gated off. It becomes very straightforward that you need to use the Open spell to open locked doors, the Purify spell to clear obstructions made of vines, and Reveal whenever you see the eye symbol.

The third major part of Midnight Suns is the aggressive befriending of everyone on the team, and it’s here that things can become a bit awkward. We do get to explore every hero’s backstory and what led them to join the Suns, along with interpersonal conflicts between the visiting Avengers and the resident magic users, and a lot of that is done well and brings depth to the characters. The writing is usually strong and often funny – Tony Stark and Dr. Strange have some of the best banter as they work to solve problems with their technological and magical approaches, Nico’s rebelliousness puts her constantly at odds with Caretaker, and Blade is dark and intense but also nursing a secret crush. There’s a lot to like about each of them, even the vacuous young Ghost Rider, Robbie Reyes, and the voice acting holds it all up fairly well. These iterations of known characters feel distinct; the only one I’d accuse of doing an impersonation of their Marvel Cinematic Universe counterpart is Tony Stark.

Having recently replayed the Mass Effect trilogy I couldn’t help but notice a fair amount of similarity to how you chat up your teammates and earn points for being a goodie-two-shoes or an abrasive jerk at every opportunity (or taking the more neutral option), with each character having their own preference for how they’d like you to act. Nico, for example, is generally fishing for a dark answer when she’s venting about Caretaker, while Steve Rogers is exactly what you’d expect. Like nearly everything else, that system feeds into combat by unlocking items that give Hunter passive bonuses, so there’s a good reason to be consistent with your choices even if you’re not into roleplaying.

As for Hunter, they aren't a bad character, but they’re kind of set up for failure by being placed next to legendary comic book heroes like Iron Man, Captain America, and Spider-Man, among others that we already know and love – they never really stood a chance of being as memorable. My Hunter – a male who almost exclusively chooses the “light” dialogue options (my standard choice for a first playthrough of a game like this) – tends to alternate between a self-serious crusader against his mother’s evil and kind of a goofy dork who always wears sunglasses at night, and that was kind of endearing. I don't expect a dramatic change in how events play out when I eventually revisit it with a different approach, though.

It takes on the tone of self-insertion fan fiction.

What made me cringe here and there, though, was the fact that so much of Midnight Suns is spent getting all of these heroes to really like Hunter. It takes on the tone of self-insertion fan fiction, where you write a story in which you get to meet all your favorite characters and they’re constantly telling you how cool you are and how much they love being friends with you. To be fair, we see a lot of this same relationship-building in other similar party-based RPGs of the BioWare style, but in this case the fact that our character is the only one who isn’t drawn from the existing Marvel Comics universe and largely already know each other gives it a bit of a different flavor when everyone is quickly fawning over you. Of course, there’s gameplay value in participating in all of the various book clubs and surprise parties and soaks in the Abbey’s grotto pool: leveling up friendships unlocks powerful passive abilities for each character when in combat and eventually unlocks their Midnight Suns costumes and most powerful card, so it’s worthwhile.

Speaking of payoffs, though, it’s odd that in a game where we spend so much time buttering up a group of mostly attractive people by showering them with compliments and thoughtful gifts suited to their interests, and unlocking their swimsuit options, all of these friendships are completely platonic. (I believe canonically makes our character the only person Tony Stark hasn’t tried to bang.) There are quite a few conversations, especially with Magik, where it seemed poised to take a romantic turn but nothing came of it, and that can be anticlimactic coming from games like Mass Effect, Dragon Age, and The Witcher. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if Marvel vetoed the idea of romance options with its established characters, but as it is a more appropriate superhero name for Hunter might’ve been Captain Friendzone.

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Willow Season 1 Review: Episodes 1-7

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This is a spoiler free review of episodes 1-7 of Willow.

In an age where "content" is king and established franchises rule Hollywood, it often feels as if everything is getting rebooted. In many cases, it can leave fans wishing their precious artistic fave was left alone. But in some cases, it can lead to underappreciated gems getting to find a new audience as they're reimagined for the modern age. Or, in the case of the new Disney+ series Willow, it can build on a beloved story that many thought would never be continued. The first seven episodes of Jon Kasdan's sequel to the 1988 Ron Howard dark fantasy amount to one of 2022's most magical shows.

Decades after the events of Willow, when the titular Nelwyn hero and his allies Sorsha (Joanne Whalley) and Madmartigan (Val Kilmer) defeated the evil Queen Bavmorda, peace reigns in the kingdom of Tir Asleen. Or at least it does within the walls of the magical barrier that was erected to keep evil out and the prophesied child known as Elora Danan in. Sorsha is queen and her rebellious daughter Kit (Ruby Cruz) is set to be married off to a noble, Graydon (Tony Revolori). But when Kit's twin Airk (Dempsey Bryk) goes missing, it sets off a series of events that bring together a ragtag group of young heroes including Kit's best friend and knight, Jade (Erin Kellyman); a local criminal and adventurer, Boorman (Amar Chadha-Patel); and Airk's current squeeze, a young kitchen girl named Dove (Ellie Bamber). Together they must journey beyond the barrier with the help of the sorcerer Willow (returning star Warwick Davis).

Beautifully, vibrantly shot by four talented cinematographers -- James Friend, Joel Devlin, Stijn Van der Veken, and Will Baldy -- Willow watches like a warm hug. Though similar shows trade simply in nostalgia, the built-in audience for Willow is much more niche than your average re-quel, and the source material more limited. That means it has to constantly innovate and expand on the little that we who love it do know of the universe we're losing ourselves in. Luckily, Jon Kasdan is a lifelong fan of the franchise and comes from a family legacy of creating accessible and exciting adventure yarns. His love for the world drenches every scene and, along with the stellar creative team, Kasdan has created a truly unique and lovely fantasy series.

Willow's biggest surprise will likely be its comedy. While the original movie was funny -- mostly thanks to Val Kilmer's Madmartigan -- what has long stuck with young viewers is the combination of terror and fantasy. Both of those elements come into play here, of course, but the writing is legitimately warm and often hilarious. Davis gives a performance that channels a truly heartwarming kind of humor that delivers some of the show's most hearty laughs. His new party of adventurers are equally charming. Disney stalwart Kellyman, who's had impressive but underwritten turns in Star Wars and the MCU, finally gets a role that showcases the breadth of emotion and range she can bring to a performance. Here, she's the party's Knight, a brave and brilliant soldier with a loyalty to Kit that will take her to the ends of the earth. Cruz seemingly has a lot of fun as the spoiled warrior princess whose brother's kidnapping breaks her out of her palace-trapped reverie and into the real world.

While adventuring is at the fore, this is a story about legacy and how we live it. That's true not just in the fact that Willow is itself a sequel, but in the journey that each of the heroes take. At the heart of many of those stories is Madmartigan and the impact he had on them. It's this connection that introduces two of the show's standout performances, one from a never-better Christian Slater, and the other from Chadha-Patel as Mad's spiritual successor, Boorman. He's a whirlwind of charm, quips, and well-timed violence that feels closest to what Kilmer brought to Willow all those years ago. It's rare for an ensemble show like this to have such a balanced cast of key players, but Willow really does introduce us to an entire swath of characters where almost all of them feel like worthy additions to the story and world that we've been invited back into.

Leaning into the classic serialized storytelling that has always shaped Lucasfilm, this is a wacky and wonderful adventure-of-the-week series set in a gorgeously drawn fantasy world that's driven forward by an overarching mystery and a party of heroes that you'll care about.

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Violent Night Review

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Violent Night hits theaters on Dec. 2, 2022.

It's the month before Christmas that brings Violent Night, a rowdy skull crusher that dons fierce action might. Director Tommy Wirkola honors Die Hard and Home Alone with care, with hopes that a barbarian Santa would — just kidding, rhymes stop here. There's no reason to distract from my enthusiasm for a smashup of Hallmark holiday traditions and gore-slathered fight sequences from the filmmaker behind both Dead Snows and Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters. Violent Night sells its gingerbread-scented hostage scenario with the tongue-in-cheekiness of winter wonderland innocence, then jacked old Saint Nick goes warrior-berserk with a sledgehammer.

David Harbour is seemingly having a blast as Santa Claus, currently suffering a crisis of faith due to civilization's increasingly naughty habits. Another year flying around the world, gifting bratty kids electronics that'll be outdated in weeks — Santa's Christmas spirit is fading. His next stop? The Lightstone residential compound where matriarch Gertrude (Beverly D'Angelo) once again hosts her son Jason (Alex Hassell), daughter Alva (Edi Patterson), accompanying family, and all the hired catering help. Santa cracks into homemade cookies and vibrates in a luxury massage chair, living the good life until he hears gunshots. Enter John Leguizamo as a Christmas-hating criminal ("Mr. Scrooge," he calls himself) in search of Gertrude's vaulted millions, blasting his handgun and threatening even Jason's wee daughter Trudy (Leah Brady) — which Santa doesn't approve of.

Violent Night darkens your average syndicated Christmastime drama with coal residue by introducing the Lightstones as dysfunctional elites who've lost the jolly with their holly. Alva is a catty alcoholic, her husband Morgan (Cam Gigandet) is a D-list action star wannabe in search of producers, and Gertrude's introduction includes metaphorically roasting a senator's chestnuts without remorse. Violent Night takes Michael Dougherty’s Krampus approach of teaching wholesome holiday lessons with heavy doses of danger, except Violent Night swaps horrific creatures for mangled henchpersons standing within Santa's reach. No jack-in-the-box monsters, only whirring snowplow blades, icicle spikes, and sharpened ice skates as Santa's makeshift arsenal.

Harbour's transformation into a grizzled, tattooed Santa shows an actor loving every second on screen.

Pat Casey and Josh Miller's screenplay is aggressively on the nose, calling out influences and storytelling beats like Rudolph pointing to his blinking red schnoz. Scenes don't just cheekily recreate Home Alone — characters will say how much a sequence resembles Home Alone aloud. Violent Night lives to entertain by turning famous Christmas carol lines into badass Santa catchphrases during battle or by bastardizing Trudy’s yuletide innocence. The script can read as initially corny since momentum takes a few beats to start snowballing, but then the decapitations begin, and Wirkola's brutal sensibilities usher in primetime seasons beatings.

Harbour's transformation into a grizzled, tattooed Santa shows an actor loving every second on screen. Santa's not invincible, nor are choreographed fight sequences fantastically outmatched. Harbour stands Redwood-thick in his red leather outfit, using everything from electrified star toppers to glittery garland for an upper hand against Scrooge's hired psychopaths (each with cute seasonal codenames like Frosty and Jingle). It's the John McClaneisms like calmly lying exhausted next to dead bodies or hearty laughter as soldiers explode after he stuffs a grenade in their "stocking." Beverly D'Angelo, Cam Gigandet, and the rest are playing cemented stereotypes, while Harbour reinvents Santa Claus as a brawny action hero with only twinkly nose magic, an endless toy sack, and a readable scroll with "naughty" enemy names. The reset is all Harbour translating precious holiday imagery into rough-and-tumble mercenary punishment.

With a zippier opening, Violent Night would’ve reached a rung higher. When Harbour's off camera, there's less to be enthusiastic about. Leguizamo can easily pull off the bah-humbug bulletstorm persona, but not all his supporting baddies carry the same presence. Harbour's the not-so-secret weapon of Violent Night, which becomes apparent when Wirkola stages a game-changing combat sequence set to another radio-friendly Christmas hit that elevates intensity and sets a new standard moving forward. That's when Violent Night locks into overdrive, when gory tidings erupt and the naughtiest are shown no mercy, the same way 1989's Deadly Games morphs from a “playful” Christmas thriller into suspenseful December warfare.

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