Now You See Him.
124 Mins. Starring: Elisabeth Moss, Aldis Hodge, Storm Reid, Harriet Dyer, Michael Dorman & Oliver Jackson-Cohen. Director: Leigh Whannell.
Johnny Depp in a 'Dark Universe' of golden era, classic Hollywoodland, supernatural storybook characters from the 1920's (that started with Tom Cruise's 'The Mummy', featuring Russell Crowe's Dr. Jekyll and Hyde and was set to be continued with Javier Bardem's Frankenstein) was originally meant to be 'The Invisible Man' (although how would you have been able to tell if it was him?). But then the universe flopped and the Depp/Amber Heard controversy came out, which has recently come to a head of video admitting that Amber abused Johnny. Proving that just like there's two sides to every story, if there was abuse on his part, there also admittedly was on hers. We'll never quite know what went on between the four walls behind those closed doors, that's between them and the business of the courts. But in the Times Up of the Me Too movement it's important that this movies actors and characters changed, especially in regards to the aggravated sides of antagonist and protagonist in this picture portrait of modern day domestic abuse. Now in a script flip on the classic 'The Invisible Man' book by 'War Of The Worlds' writer H.G. Wells, 'The Handmaid's Tale' star Elisabeth Moss has a mad man on her back with shadows of Kevin Bacon's sinister 'Hollow Man' and she doesn't even know he's behind her. But she can feel something and it will make for the most oppressive, unsettling thing this amazing actress has been in...and she's been a part of 'Us', let alone lived in Gilead. We only need to look at the planets pandemic panic currently with Coronavirus to see the most insidious and frightening things are those that are invisible to us. The threat we can't see, whether it's right in front of us or not. And with COVID-19 shutting everything down from sports stadiums, to concert stages. Even a trip to your local cinema with a date and some picked popcorn is like watching the most scariest film of all our real time, Steven Soderbergh's sobering 'Contagion' (he did a similar thing with 'The Crown's' Claire Foy on his iPhone with 'Unsane'). Now Universal are making their latest movies available to stream on demand from the truly now comfort and safety of your own home like Netflix. I couldn't see 'The Invisible Man' in cinemas (I promise that's the last Dad joke...but hats off with dismembered sunglasses to the official 'Invisible Man' Twitter emoji that had me backspacing a few times before I Homer slapped my head, realized and got the genius gag), but now it's time for the reveal. The Mummy like bandages are coming off.
Surprise. Forget a hilarious 'Guardians Of The Galaxy' Drax the Destroyer poster photoshop (and who knows, perhaps he really is in this movie), this is serious in a hoods up time were people going out wearing shades and face masks look like the classic incarnation of 'The Invisible Man' themselves. One's in Wells' cautionary tale that heartbreakingly ended with a man who felt truly invisible disappearing altogether. But this film is about a man who doesn't want to be seen, for a whole other horrific reason in this horror that is just as psychological as it is out of nowhere jump scare for the true nature of what you can't see being what you are truly terrified of. Your mind is not playing tricks on you for this modern metaphor of how abusers hide in plain sight today. Or how the most scarring abuse isn't even the kind that shows up with cruel bruises. From the torrential virus of the Internet, to the maddening manipulations that will have you believe you're the crazy one. It's no longer a mad world...it's a toxic one. Literally with our current situation. As if our paranoia needed anymore punctuation. So it's our duties these days, like staying indoors-men and women-to reduce even the appearance of behaviour that looks anything in the vicinity like causing anxiety or abuse to others. Trust me. We've all been close to the bone there like the thin line between love and hate. But it's not too late. I myself have even regrettably had a misunderstood situation that has marked my life so heartbreakingly. And for what it's worth I'm so, so sorry. But it is better to protect the ones we care about from a distance, leaving them to and minding our own business, than make things worse whilst trying to preserve our reputation. Don't wait until you make that mistake. Like this current Corona situation it will only make you long for the life you had before that will never be the same again. A nightmare we can never truly wake up from. Now that is something that's clear to see.
Moss gathers her greatest role yet in this science fiction, psychological horror to the tune of a sinister score for 'Saw', 'Dead Silence' and 'Insidious' James Wan writer Leigh Whannell's latest horror show and director 'Upgrade'...and she's been a part of 'Us' and lived in Gilead again. As she walks out to a white picket cold, but safe as suburbia seeming drive like Ben Affleck in 'Gone Girl', she can't seem to make it to the mail. 'Top Of The Lake', this 'China Girl' in a movie filmed in the New South Wales of Australia masquerading as San Francisco, California hasn't got this deep and dark since she walked the bitter Canadian cold earth streets of Toronto with the strings of Max Richter for the moving 'On The Nature Of Daylight' after receiving some bad, bad news. But much more haunts her here in a harrowing nature when he see her wake up in the middle of the night 3.02AM with a cold hand around her waist. She tries to carefully move it, so not to wake it like a considerate lover. Until we realize the last thing she wants to do is wake up her husband...that would be the worst thing in the world for her to do. We see that as soon as we see the surveillance cameras that surround this Stark like mansion in the start-up coast of Silicon Valley. It turns out her husband is no other than Oliver Jackson-Cohen of Netflix's fright binge, 'The Haunting Of Hill House'. Playing none other but an updated version of H.G. Wells' Adrian Griffin, who goes by the other alter ego persona of 'The Invisible Man'. Sure Depp would have fleshed out this character a whole lot better, but it may have been perceived as too close to the bone like Affleck's alcoholic in the best Basketball diagramed picture, 'The Way Back'. And Cohen still captures the creepy, harassing and stalking abuser, moved to murder almost crassly convincingly. And the less you see of him, the better this all works. One psych-ward security guard takedown is straight 'Terminator' with the added second skin of a 'Days Of Future Past' like modern Sentinel, stealth suit for this master of optics. But if you miss the classic, iconic look of the man you can't see then some mannequins and hospital medical dressing will Easter Egg take care of that. Still, between all the heavy rain horrors, 'Paranormal Activity' bedsheet pulling and house paint reveals in the same attic where 'Sinister' tapes of home movies are kept, it's the kitchen knife fight you see from one side that is truly moviemaking mastering at the highest level that is nothing short of excruciating to watch. With every smashed plate, bumped cabinet and bruised soul, as the real domestic horrors, hidden behind closed doors and fearful excuses are exposed for us all to see. It's a lot to cop, so thankfully 'Straight Outta Compton's MC Ren of N.W.A., Aldis Hodge's beat leads the best cast of actors with his rolled up Sipowicz shirt and tie, whose talents are far bigger than their names, or the ones that 'Dark Universe' came before them. 'A Wrinkle In Time' and 'When They See Us' star Storm Reid is probably the biggest one here as she shows her coming of age, shooting for the sky power. Whilst 'Down Under' actress Harriet Dyer on fine form and 'Daybreakers' and 'Pirates' (at least someone made this tide turn from the 'Caribbean') star Michael Dorman sinisterly stealing every scene he's in subtly, insidiously so, help shape up the rest of the support. But from the handprints of a psycho on the steamed shower windows, to the fog of a disembodied breath on the back of your neck which will send the creepiest chill down your spine, the real effects are the visual ones, affected even more by the ones that get under your skin and in your mind. When the suit stutters in harsh glitched frames and sharp, cutting soundtrack jarring jolts you'll feel every ounce of tension in this taught film that all too real is even more anxiety inducing than the 'Uncut Gem' ride of Adam Sandler's Jewish New York shylock jewel. Never has a movie moved you to madness, both physical and literal, crazy and enraged. Put this in a time machine with Steven Speilberg's 'War Of The Worlds' with Tom Cruise and H.G. Wells would be proud that like Stephen King, people reading get the human horrors that exist between the blank white spaces at the edges of print of his timeless science fiction storytelling. Just ask Astwood. No one like Moss moves page to screen quite like this, as the real monster in this dark universe is man. And now with movies and movements like this we can call time on all abusers too. Isolating them until they actually become invisible to us like, now you see me, now you don't. TIM DAVID HARVEY.
Further Filming: 'The Mummy', 'Hollow Man', 'Unsane'.
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