Aside from the two thrillers I saw in theaters this weekend, I also managed to squeeze in two other movies from my streaming services. Let’s review!
The other day I was scrolling through Hulu for the first time in a long while, so I gasped with excitement when I saw Villains listed! I remember when the film came out in the fall, but sadly it was too indie for any theater around me to get it. I added it to “My Stuff” and then sat down on Sunday morning to watch it!
This movie was weird. Way stranger than I was expecting anyways. I knew it was about a couple of petty thieves, Jules and Mickey, who get caught in the middle of robbing a house. While the owners of the home seems very 80s and wide eyed innocent, I soon found out that they themselves were a little messed up in the head. The wife, Gloria, had some strange mother complex who desperately wanted a child. Instead she had a uber-creepy porcelain doll that she treated like an actual infant. For all of her quirks, her husband, George, was just as manacle. He went so far as to kidnap a little girl for his wife, and she’s still chained in the basement! I will say that so far it’s been pretty comical trying to watch Mickey and Jules escape this accidental Hell they got themselves into. Also, I’m a Bill Skarsgard fan, so win-win for me!
Next up was Netflix’s adaptation of the novel, All the Bright Places. My sister and I read this book several years ago, and it’s so good. And SO SAD. I might have cried more reading this book than I did reading The Fault in Our Stars. Anyways, I was very excited to see it get adapted, but I was a little let down when I heard about the casting initially. Not that I have anything against Elle Fanning or Justice Smith, but they just aren’t at all who I had pictured. My sister agrees. So we definitely went into this a little hesitantly. If they couldn’t get the casting right, could the film be any better?
It could! In just under two hours, they managed to capture all the major milestones in the novel. I understand there is no way to translate every last detail, but they got the parts that mattered. And I will say, I was pleasantly surprised by Justice Smith’s performance! Even though he wasn’t who i had pictured, he captured Finch’s essence perfectly. I also have to give kudos to both the book and the film for capturing a romance fitted around mental health. If you’re going in thinking this is another To All the Boys, you will be disappointed, and you will cry. I promise. I really enjoyed this adaptation, but I highly recommend reading the book beforehand.