Ready or Not (2019)

Director: Matt Betinelli-Olpin, Tyler Gillett

Cast: Samara Weaving, Adam Brody, Mark O’Brien, Elyse Levesque

Have I Seen It Before: Never. Feels like it has been hovering on the perimeter of the Beyond the Cabin in the Woods schedule for years, but for some reason we’re only just now coming around to it.

Did I Like It: Let’s get the unqualified great stuff out of the way first. The film is equal parts funny and gory, and Samara Weaving is an engaging presence who, along with her turn in Bill & Ted Face the Music (2020) is turning out to be an excellent screen actress. My only fear for her is that her career will be plentiful, but may be limited by the fact that people will jump at the chance to cast her simply because Margot Robbie passed. It’s a gift to the movies that there are two of them around, but unfortunately, Robbie became the bigger star first.

Now that we have all of that out of the way, let’s talk a little bit about the ending. As much as I was enjoying the film as it proceeded, when it seemed like the movie was heading towards a conclusion that there is nothing supernatural going on, Le Bail (portrayed in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moment by the film’s producer, James Vanderbilt) and the surviving members of the cast have to leave the house with only the pedestrian comeuppances of the justice system waiting for them.

That ending would have been deeply funny, and kind of preclude any sort of real attempt at a sequel. It might have become one of my favorite movies with that sort of managed anti-climax. The ending we do have is fine, and likely more in line with the gore-fest aesthetic to which the preceding film commits, but a boy can dream, can’t he?

Bill & Ted Face The Music (2020)

Director: Dean Parisot

Cast: Keanu Reeves, Alex Winter, Samara Weaving, Brigette Lundy-Paine

Have I Seen it Before: No. Haven’t seen this Bill and Ted movie before. Feels nice to type that.

Did I Like It: As I type this, it’s been about two days since I watched the movie, and I can’t quite get it out of my head. That’s a good thing.

I could talk about flaws that any film might have. Some of the jokes and plot points are telegraphed. I had a feeling that Rufus’ great prophecy would have quite a bit to do with Bill (Winter) & Ted’s (Reeves) daughters after about twenty minutes. I figured Deacon (Beck Bennett) was going to be Missy’s new spouse after I heard the casting announcement.

But it doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter because the film took years to get off the ground, and I was pretty sure there for a while that it wasn’t going to happen. I love Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure (1989) and Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey (1991), and have since they were brand new. My affection for those films only grew as I did, when it became clear that the films (and their protagonists were way smarter than they first let on. This is the only film still standing in the 2020 release slate that I was looking forward to. I’m really glad that I got to watch it.

It’s genuinely, off-the-wall funny, perhaps just as much so as its predecessors. The robot charged with assassinating the great ones (played by Anthony Carrigan) is one of the nimbler comic creations in recent memory. I’d say more, but it would be ruining most of the fun for you. To not belabor the point, I’ve just mentioned the character’s name a couple of times since seeing the movie, my wife and I break out into laughter.

But this film is of a piece with the rest other films in the series in a far more profound way. I’ve always viewed the more harebrained time travel shenanigans were a metaphor for the writing process. Forgot to introduce the trash can before you needed it to get out of trouble? Just go back and put it in. Time travel is like that, and so is writing multiple drafts of something.

Here, the forward motion of the plot solidified something I knew about the creative process but puts it into stark relief. Billie and Thea try to help their Dads by going back in time and forming the greatest band in the universe to play the song that will put the universe back on track. Where to start? Jimi Hendrix (DazMann Still). Hendrix can only be convinced if his hero, Louis Armstrong (Jeremiah Craft) is brought into the mix. Armstrong brings in Mozart (Daniel Dorr). Mozart yearns to jam with Ling Lun (Sharon Gee), who ten imagines that rhythm began and end with Grom (Patty Anne Miller). The band is formed, but the Preston/Logan scions don’t think they are the genius behind the music. But they are the ones that can bring the greatest bass player in the universe, The Grim Reaper (William Sadler). They just like what they like, and they put together what worked.

But that’s all they ever needed to do. It’s all any creative person can do, really. As somebody who’s work has been dismissed a number of times as just fan fiction, I knew that, but it was nice to hear it.

I really love this movie. It is my favorite movie of 2020. Had we gotten the pleasure of a full slate of movies this year, I imagine I would still put it at number 1.