Month: September 2023

The Blackening

02/09/23

Cineworld, Edinburgh

Spoof horror movies have been around for a very long time – so any new contender in this crowded field, has to offer something radically different. The Blackening manages it. For starters, almost all the characters in this story are Black. Furthermore, they are cine-literate enough to know what generally happens to Black people in such movies. Hence the film’s strap line: ‘We can’t all die first.’

Morgan (Yvonne Orji) and Shawn (Jay Pharoah) have booked a remote cabin in the woods (what could possibly go wrong?) where they plan to host a ten-year reunion with some old school friends. But when said friends turn up, their hosts are nowhere to be found. So they settle down to wait for them.

The guests include promiscuous Lisa (Antoinette Robertson) and – rather awkwardly – her old flame Nmandi (Sinqua Walls). There’s the resourceful Alison (Grace Byers), sassy Shanika (X Mayo), super-snarky King (Melvin Gregg) and nervous Dewayne (Dewayne Perkins, who co-wrote the screenplay with Tracy Oliver.) Dewayne is Black and gay, and has seen enough horror movies to know he is especially at risk. There’s also geeky Clifton (Jermaine Fowler), who the others remember from school – but none will admit to inviting him to this gathering.

In the ‘Games Room,’ the guests are compelled to play the titular board game, which features a really racist-looking mechanical face that asks a lot of difficult questions. How many Black characters appeared in Friends, for example? Tricky… and the stakes are high. Get an answer wrong and one of the hosts will be kaput.

So far, so generic, but what makes The Blackening rise above most of the competition is the fact that, though it’s occasionally quite bloody, it’s the wisecracking dialogue that keeps up the momentum, as the various players snipe, bicker and squabble their way through the ensuing chaos, never losing sight of wanting to be the coolest person in the room. The story heads off in a whole variety of different directions, some of which come as genuine surprises. However, the film is uneven, sometimes propulsive enough to keep me hooked in, but too often slowing right down for long conversations.

There’s a much lower body count than I’m used to seeing in a film like this – and I have to say, it loses a couple of points when a late ‘reveal’ comes as no surprise to me whatsoever… but maybe I simply see too many films. Overall I enjoy The Blackening – and in several scenes, it has be laughing out loud.

3.7 stars

Philip Caveney

Theater Camp

31/08/23

Cineworld, Edinburgh

Joan Rubinski (Amy Sedaris) is a bit of a theatrical legend. She has been running her summer theatre camp for young performers for many years. But, when she suffers a debilitating fit (caused by exposure to strobe lights), her outfit is left without a leader. So it falls to her son, Troy (Jimmy Tatro), to step up to the plate and fill her tap shoes, despite having no experience of drama whatsoever. Troy is an ‘influencer’, who thinks he has what it takes to overhaul the business.

Unfortunately, he has to try to deal with a whole horde of regular teachers, who have been doing this for donkeys years and who clearly view him as an unwelcome addition to the ranks. They include drama coach, Amos (Ben Platt), and his soulmate, music tutor Rebecca-Diane (Molly Gordon). The duo actually met at the camp as students and fell in love – but, since Amos came out, their co-dependency can perhaps best be described as ‘complicated’. There’s Rita Cohen (Caroline Aaron), Joan’s no-nonsense right-hand woman, who seems to have a talent for always saying the wrong thing and there’s new recruit, Janet (Eyo Edebiri), who has as much experience in drama as Troy, but is determined to bluff her way through…

This charming and sometimes very funny mockumentary comes from a team of people who clearly know their subject well. Depicted in a series of short, snappy scenes (but for once eschewing the straight-to-camera interviews that are so often utilised in fake docs), we are witness to the three weeks of frantic work it takes to put together a summer show, a tribute to their beloved leader, entitled Joan, Still. We witness the trials and tribulations of creating a musical from not very much by a cohort of bright, eager students, all of whom have their eyes set on their own individual goals. (I particularly enjoy the diminutive boy who has decided he’s born to be… an agent.)

When Troy is romanced by the villainous Caroline (Patti Harrison), who works with a neighbouring, more upwardly-mobile youth theatre group, bankruptcy hovers in the wings and it’s going to take considerable wheeling and dealing on his part if he’s to save his mother’s camp. Can the team forget their various differences and work towards a solution?

Anyone who enjoyed Summer Heights High, back in the day, will get a kick out of Theater Camp, which shares some DNA with the legendary Mr G. It’s sprightly, silly and a lot of fun. Now, if only there were a rousing singalong to finish it all off… oh, wait a minute, turns out they’ve actually written one!

4 stars

Philip Caveney