![]() ![]() ![]() “Mon Ami” was also a catalog of grimly funny calamities, but there was an endearing “Fargo”-like quality to its gallows humor that “Harpoon” lacks. ![]() Particularly later on, characters abruptly reveal new sides that serve to trigger drastic reversals of fortune but don’t feel organic. That reduces whatever emotional stakes there are in a plot with empathy-free twists. But it’s hard to like these characters much, and the film sometimes seems to be sneering at them. “Harpoon” is enthusiastically violent, sharply packaged and gamely acted by three able young thesps who make the most of their roles’ frequently over-the-top nature. The grievous bodily harm, bad decisions and unhappy disclosures pile up until our protagonists seem less likely to survive each other than they are starvation and thirst. Naturally, these peevish, finger-pointing millennials aren’t about to pull together long enough in a prolonged, life-threatening crisis. Flip-flopping allegiances within the triangle are temporarily suspended when the boat becomes disabled, carrying its passengers out into the Atlantic with only enough food and water for a day trip. Rotterdam goes hardcore genre with an eclectic mix of films that brashly bend, blend or respect conventions each in their own distinctive way. Turns out perhaps the birthday boy’s suspicions were right after all, which renders him a lethal menace anew. Once all are aboard the “Naughty Buoy,” however, things again rapidly degenerate. Still, the perks are significant, like the yacht outing a remorseful Ritchie proposes after realizing he was perhaps wrong to rearrange his pal’s accusing face. Nor are we ever quite convinced that Sasha and Jonah are so helpless or parasitical that they couldn’t come up with better life plans than hitching their wagons to an abusive frat-brat like Richie (who, to make things worse, is apparently the son of a notoriously savage mobster). Its inappropriateness as a gift to someone noted as “prone to fits of rage” reps just the first among several psychological stretches here. In fact, Sasha and Jonah were orchestrating Richie’s birthday present - the titular spear gun. She’s by now accustomed to juggling what the narrator calls “her roles as girlfriend, mother and referee.” Such multitasking is necessary in dealing with a BF who has psychotic outbursts over nothing, such as beating Jonah senseless because he’s misunderstood texts between BFF and GF as evidence of infidelity. Penniless Jonah ( Munro Chambers from “Turbo Kid”) is a hopeful hanger-on to the Hitler Youth-looking rich kid duly named Richie ( Christopher Gray) and his longtime squeeze Sasha ( Emily Tyra). The arch tone is set immediately by comedian Brett Gelman’s omnipresent narrator, who paraphrases Aristotle on the three types of friendship before introducing us to three friends who barely merit that term at all. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |