It also frankly deals with the sort of toxic masculinity and cultural misogyny that these YA dystopia franchises usually ignore. I liked that A) Ruby wasn’t the only woman in this core group of survivors, and B) the picture acknowledges that the other young woman (a mute played by Miya Cech) in has been yearning for “girl time.” It’s little details like that which makes the movie work as a character drama. Amandla Stenberg is quite good, and the movie works because she makes Ruby into someone with whom we give a damn.
Viewed as a studio programmer as opposed to a (likely) failed franchise starter, it is a solid little movie. But it’s a handsomely staged, well-acted and empathetic human drama. Yes, it’s another dystopian YA fantasy, like The Fifth Wave, where the prologue (a plague wipes out most of the world’s children) would have made a far more interesting story than the aftermath. Yes, it’s a hodge-podge of various YA fantasy tropes, but director Jennifer Yuh Nelson puts a greater emphasis on character than world building. The Darkest Minds works on its own limited terms. Tennant has a number of grand monologues, his would-be hostage (Kerry Condon) has at least one great line, and the whole thing works as a high-trash good time. It also keeps its carnage in check unless otherwise required, which in turn ups the suspense as the rubber-band stretches further back. The movie works as a horrific variation on the prisoner’s dilemma, and as a meditation on wealth, privilege and cultural assumptions. He escapes but can’t sit idly by, which leads him into an escalating game of cat-and-mouse with a scenery-chewing (in a good way) David Tennant. This Dean Devlin-directed thriller concerns a young man (Robert Shehan) who is attempting to burglarize a home only to discover a captive young woman facing certain doom. I will instead shine a light on another summer genre flick that didn’t get much love. Speaking of Upgrade, Leigh Whannell’s cyberpunk Robocop/ The Crow-homage is going to live forever as a nasty little cult movie. Neither movie reinvents the wheel, but they both serve as solid, somewhat kid-targeted fantasy movies that do their own thing without relying on IP or nostalgia to carry the day. Kin, directed by Jonathan Baker and Josh Baker, Lionsgate’s Kin is a surprisingly grim sci-fi movie about a young boy who finds an alien gun and is forced to flee with his “fresh-out-of-jail” older brother. It gets by on rugged blue-collar atmosphere and likable supporting characters, as well as a brush with darkness as our hero (Alex Neustaedter) flirts with using his new toy for less-than-noble ends. The Global Road super-flop ($6.5 million domestic) is essentially the same plot as Bumblebee, Monster Truck and Iron Giant, but with a robotic dog filling in for E.T. Nonetheless, Hollywood still makes ‘em, but we are far less likely to see them in theaters. Bumblebee was pretty good, but will you see The Kid Who Would Be King later this month? Although we should remember that many nostalgic “classics” ( The Iron Giant, Hocus Pocus, The Monster Squad, etc.) flopped in their day. Venom was a surprisingly huge hit and Hollywood is still trying to reboot The Crow, but you might want to check out Upgrade.
It’s one of the cruel ironies of our IP and nostalgia-driven pop culture that we fawn over big franchise films (be they comic book superhero movies or Transformers prequels) that approximate straight-up genre or old-school kid fantasies while utterly ignoring the non-IP genuine article. Worldwide box office: $6.5 million and $10 million
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