PREMISE
A group of teenage boys competes in an annual contest known as “The Long Walk,” in which they must maintain a certain walking speed or risk being shot.
THE GOOD STUFF
HOFFMAN & JONSSON- These are two beastly level performances. Performances that are so good that if you had never seen their faces or heard their names before, you might hit the Google search after the film just to see who they were and what they’ve been in before.
More so than in licorice pizza, Cooper Hoffman really does carry damn near the entire film. In fact, I want to say he’s in almost every single frame. Every character appears to be undergoing some degree of mental disintegration in this film. Still, Hoffman’s character often plays the one trying to keep up the spirits of the crew while maintaining his own internally. You see it all on his face. He’s very great.
This is a film that desperately wants to be an ensemble piece. We encounter many different characters along this journey, each with their own unique story to tell. Although Cooper Hoffman’s character has the most to do in this film, it is David Jonsson’s character that has more direct connections with the other characters in the ensemble. He is the soul of the film, especially in the final act. David Jonsson is on the way to being one of the biggest stars in the world; we just don’t know it yet. Between this, and alien: romulus, there’s a casual warmth to the movie star swagger that he’s brought to both roles.
THE BAD STUFF
THE GIMMICK – Yes, I know this is based on an actual book. No, I haven’t read that book. Yes, I am aware that the gimmick is the point of the story, and that the gimmick is supposed to be the entire duration of the story IN THE BOOK… But I must ask if that is an inspired creative choice for a film. It certainly is an innovative choice for the first 45 minutes or so. Then it does get stale. Quickly. Think of a song with a repetitive chorus, and that’s what you have with this gimmick. Seems like an excellent idea for a book. However, it doesn’t translate well to the screen.
THE UGLY STUFF
THE CONTINUITY ISSUES….
- The concept is simple. You get three warnings before you are shot dead. That’s something that they say at the beginning of this movie. However, over the course of this movie these rules are bent and flat out ignored in multiple different instances.
- Weather elements play a role in this story. In the first two Acts or so, it is dry outside. But somewhere at the end of the second act, we are introduced to a Matrix Revolution kind of torrential downpour that would probably trigger a flood warning on your cell phone. How were there complete costume changes for the military characters multiple times during this story? Are they on rotating shifts? If not, (As it is heavily implied) WHERE THE F*** ARE THEY CHANGING CLOTHES??
Sloppiness. Pure sloppiness.
THE STORY STRUCTURE- Because the gimmick never changes or evolves, the structure of the story involving the ensemble of characters falls into the same cycle:
*Banter between the group as they walk…
*Somebody gets sick or injured…
*Slow music plays as they are built up to get killed…
*”Oh f***, this is messed up!” reactions from the cast…
*Walking continues…
Rinse and repeat.
There is a solid hour of the screen time following this cycle. Around the third time this happens, you can start predicting it; around the seventh time, you’re sick of it, and by the end of the film, you’re honestly fatigued with the whole experience.
**************
I don’t know what kind of horror film this is, but it is a horror film notwithstanding. A new type of horror film is rearing its ugly head, and hopefully, it will disappear as quickly as it has appeared. I call it “societal horror” (Didn’t workshop that, but if you see somebody copy it… You heard it here first).
I can’t help but be reminded of the societal horror movie Civil War from last year. A movie (like the long walk) that was so focused on the graphic violence that happens to the likeable main characters (and non-speaking characters that are distinctively pointed out in being innocent bystanders) that it completely subsidized the story that they are in so that they can horrify the viewer by adding more graphic senseless violence, perhaps where it doesn’t need to be. But at least with Civil War, we had a fantastic action sequence to top things off. The Long Walk doesn’t even give us that.
This may be one of the top 10 worst movies of the year out of pure sloppiness.
THE LONG WALK is in theaters now
