To the Bone

To the Bone (2017)

Starring Lily Collins, Keanu Reeves, Carrie Preston, Lili Taylor, Alex Sharp, Leslie Bibb, and Liana Liberato

Directed by Marti Noxon

Written by Marti Noxon

***This film is currently streaming via Netflix***

Summary (in 500 words or less):  Artist Ellen (Lily Collins) enters an experimental treatment facility for eating disorders run by a doctor (Keanu Reeves) whose unique methodology proves difficult with which for Ellen to oblige.

Click here for my Letterboxd review

The RyMickey Rating:  B-

Movie Review - The Neon Demon

The Neon Demon (2016)

Starring Elle Fanning, Karl Glusman, Jena Malone, Bella Heathcote, Abbey Lee, Desmond Harrington, Alessandro Nivola, Christina Hendricks, and Keanu Reeves

Directed by Nicolas Winding Refn

***This film is currently streaming via Amazon Prime***

The fashion industry is a brutal one -- but one can only hope it's not as bad as what's depicted in The Neon Demon which details a profession that eats you up and spits you out...quite literally.  Young Jesse (Elle Fanning) has just moved alone to California in the hopes of making it big as a model.  Told to lie about her age in order to get more jobs, the innocent and naive fifteen year-old girl is nearly immediately fawned upon by some big-name photographers and designers which doesn't sit well with a few struggling industry models (Bella Heathcote, Abbey Lee).  Adrift in the cutthroat world, Jesse befriends Dean (Karl Glusman) -- a nice guy who genuinely cares about her success and well-being -- and Ruby (Jena Malone) -- a make-up artist who's intentions may not be as pure as they seem.  As Jesse rises up in the ranks rather quickly, it's only natural that there will be some who want to take her down and they'll stop at nothing to succeed.

Totally original, but also completely full of WTF moments that had me questioning why I was watching, The Neon Demon is a visually stunning film with director Nicolas Winding Refn upping the stylish quotient from his previous endeavors.  That said, once you move beyond the look of things, there's not a whole lot here.  Fashion industry metaphors are obvious and they do nothing to advance the underdeveloped story which eventually devolves into a laughable horror movie of sorts.  Admittedly, the stylization of this film proves to be a near perfect match for the industry it's trying to send up, but with one-note characters and a too-basic story, The Neon Demon doesn't quite make the grade.

The RyMickey Rating:  C

Movie Review - Knock Knock

Knock Knock (2015)

Starring Keanu Reeves, Lorenza Izzo, and Ana de Armas 

Directed by Eli Roth

On Father's Day weekend, husband and father of two Evan (Keanu Reeves) finds himself home alone with his wife and kids out of town.  With thunder cackling, lightning streaking, and rain pouring down one evening, Evan hears a knock on his door and, upon opening it, finds two young women soaked to the core having been accidentally dropped off by Uber at the wrong house.  Evan invites them in to allow them to wait for their ride, but the two girls Genesis and Bell (Lorenza Izzo and Ana de Armas) begin to sexually flirt with Evan who, after initially resisting their advances, eventually succumbs to their charms.  However, when he wakes up the next morning, Evan realizes that Genesis and Bell may have some more deviant intentions than just a one night stand with a married man.

While Knock Knock has potential, its story grows tiresome after Evan wakes up following his first-ever sexual indiscretion.  Co-writers Eli Roth and Nicolás López (who were behind Aftershock, the worst film of 2013) refuse to flesh out the characters of Genesis and Bell, rather having them be motivated simply by however they want the film to turn plot-wise.  There are some tremendously ridiculous moments in the film's last two-thirds that play out as cartoonish and poorly planned rather than integral to the plot.

Color me surprised, however, that Lorenza Izzo who topped the RyMickey Awards Worst Acting list in 2013 comes off the best here.  While her character is over-the-top and oftentimes hilariously manic, Izzo showed me hints that the former model (and wife of Eli Roth) has grown a bit since I last saw her in a film.  She certainly fares better than Keanu Reeves whose dumbfounded looks and dry line readings had me laughing more than once as Knock Knock unfolded.  As he's tortured and ransacked by these two young women, Reeves' Evan had me hoping the two gals would off him sooner rather than later.

Knock Knock isn't nearly as bad as the aforementioned Aftershock, but it continues to prove that Eli Roth as an actor, director, writer, or producer may not be my cup of tea.  One of these days, I'll learn...

The RyMickey Rating:  D+

Movie Review - John Wick

John Wick (2014)

Starring Keanu Reeves, Michael Nyqvist, Alfie Allen, Willem Dafoe, Adrianne Palicki, John Leguizamo, Ian McShane, and Bridget Moynahan

Directed by Chad Stahelski

"Keanu Reeves is back!" raved some of the overwhelmingly positive reviews for John Wick upon its release in the fall of 2014.  The story of the title character who seeks revenge on a group of Russian mobsters who kill his newly received beagle -- a gift from his recently deceased wife (Bridget Moynahan) -- John Wick is a series of (admittedly cool) violent fights with the tiniest strand of flimsy story to tie them together.

Reeves seemingly speaks less than one hundred words as a retired hit man called back into duty when the members of a stereotypical Russian mob family pick on him for some reason and to say that the actor "is back" in top form based off this performance is outrageous hyperbole.  Yes, he works well enough in the choreographed fight scenes and he tries his best to engage the audience in his vengeful acts, but there's very little for the actor to latch onto.

The odd thing is that there's some weird sense of potential in screenwriter Derek Kolstad's script with hints of interesting elements.  For example, when Wick heads back into the realm of being a hit man, he sleeps at a hotel that caters to people of his type, keeping their residents' secrets and providing them with the necessary instruments to carry out their assignments.  This is just one of the unique elements present, but very little is done to expand upon them, making me wonder if there was an awful lot left on the cutting room floor...or perhaps it was all oddly surface on the scripted page.

Nevertheless, the incessant fight scenes grow tiresome a little less than halfway through and makes the film's final fifty minutes a slog to watch.

The RyMickey Rating:  D+