IR Film Review: WEAPONS [New Line Cinema/Warner Bros.]
The idea of perspective and perception comes back in the new Zach Creggers film "Weapons". While not as jarring as "Barbarian", its structure is much more specific and crisp despite a little bit of a silly conclusion that nonetheless plays to mythology. Julia Garner and Josh Brolin have the main protagonist roles with a couple other character actors really nicely rounding out the cast. The story begins with a classroom of missing children except one from one teacher: Justine (Garner). She herself seems to have her own problems fueled by who knows but she does seem to have a kind heart despite having to a penchant for drinking and certain bad decisions. Josh Brolin plays Archer who is one of the parents whose kid is missing. Most of the kids ran out of their houses in the middle of the night as if called. Thw deconstruction of what happened does work especially with who the antagonist turns out to be. The way the film works is to take on almost six different perspectives and play them back in an almost non-linear sequence.
Alden Ehrenreich plays Paul, a cop and (even though it is a supporting character) continues his penchant of playing broken individuals (though it continues to take him away from the Solo base). However his characters are always interesting in their details and morality making him unique to watch. Benedict Wong plays Andrew who gets caught in the middle but his crux of the plot is the most visually dynamic and disturbing (especially a scene in the gas station). However it is that scene that makes the connection points of the movie clear. Austin Abrams plays James who is sort of the jester of the proceedings as his character mostly bumbles into what he sees but it does provide some misdirect moments and interestingly enough eyes for the audience.
Amy Madigan plays Gladys who is a mysterious figure but it is interesting since (without opening credits) she is nicely hidden. As the layers are revealed, the story admittedly pulls itself into a corner where an element of mayhem ensues. Even though the eventual resolution points to an almost fable, the person's eyes that it inevitably should be through (like Haley Joel Osment in "The Sixth Sense) is Alex is sort of abandoned in a certain way even though it is specifically highlighted. "Weapons" has a lot of good ideas going for it and delivers on many but like M. Night Shayamalan, sometimes it works better than others. Creggers is still developing and his visual acuity continues to build. B
By Tim Wassberg
