Movies
[Review] ‘The Shallows’ – Fun Summertime Popcorn Flick, But Not Much Else
Remember that first teaser trailer for The Shallows? The one that shows Blake Lively stranded on a rock in the middle of the ocean as the high tide starts to spill over the surface and a gigantic great white shark swims slowly by, not five feet away? It was under two minutes, it offered little information, and it was very impressive. I had my doubts about Blake Lively carrying a one woman show by herself, but after seeing that trailer, I had a feeling that The Shallows might be the next great killer shark movie. I was wrong.
In the movie, a surfer named Nancy (Blake Lively) travels to a secret beach and inadvertently puts herself right in the heart of a great white’s feeding zone, and miles away from anyone who can help her. Apparently, the reason why Nancy has travelled to this beach in particular is because her mother surfed here years ago, long before the cancer set in and took her away. Nancy’s hoping to find some sort of connection with her mom out here, even if it just means staring at the same shoreline that her late loved one saw back when things were good and simple. Sadly, for Nancy, something far more sinister is waiting for her in those waters, and it’s ready and willing to drag her down into the depths of despair.
It’s a bold choice that director Jaume Collet-Serra (Orphan, House of Wax) has made here, to make a killer shark movie with a Cast Away meets Open Water angle, and choosing to have a lady lead the usual one-man show. (It’s also a bold choice to move his film up a week and let it go head to head with Independence Day: Resurgence at the box office, and I have to admit I respect him for that.) However, though it may be an interesting decision, it also inevitably means putting the fate of a filmmaker’s entire project in the hands of a single actor, and hoping that he or she can carry that weight and connect with the audience. Blake Lively is decent enough to make The Shallows an entertaining summer movie, but if her character Nancy were played by someone a bit more versatile, the emotional beats might have hit just as hard as the over-the-top moments of insanity.
From the beginning, it’s clear that this movie is going to be a bit ridiculous. From the giant floating text message boxes that literally pop up on the screen next to Nancy’s face as she texts her hung over roommate back at the hotel, to the whale that Nancy climbs on top of to initially avoid the shark, to the bird she aptly names “Steven Seagull” who keeps her company on her lonely rock, it becomes obvious pretty quickly that The Shallows is a pretty perfect name for a movie like this one. However, if you can swallow the cheese, there’s actually a few intense moments scattered throughout the film that make this a fun little movie to watch with friends as you duck into a nearby theater to escape from the summer heat.
It’s just strange that Collet-Serra would even bother throwing in the melodramatic tidbits about Nancy’s family in the first place. Since her mother died, Nancy has taken off on a vacation hundreds of miles away from her worried sister and father and is considering dropping out of med school, despite the fact that she’s very gifted. The movie tries to convince its viewers that its lead character is a smart girl, but all she winds up being is golden hued eye candy filmed from every possible sultry angle. Even when it comes to Nancy’s mother, the audience knows that she has died from cancer, but the timeline and the type of cancer seem like they were never even mentioned, or if they were, it was so brief that it doesn’t seem to matter much to the storyteller. All of this isn’t necessarily offensive, it’s just confusing. It seems like even the director doesn’t know what he wants.
On the plus side, The Shallows has its effective moments of high tension, and it also features some terrific sound design, specifically in the seconds when Nancy is first attacked by the shark. It’s also pretty admirable how much blood and gore Collet-Serra got away with in this PG-13 rated film, and how he found a way to avoid creating absurd explanations for why the characters in his shark movie keep getting back into the water. However, the overabundance of technology, the ludicrous logic and the the tacked on cheesy family trauma refuse to let this movie be anything other than an exciting popcorn flick.
In the end, The Shallows is not the next great killer shark movie, which I find a little disappointing, but who cares? It’s good bloody summer fun at the movies, and as long as you know what you’re getting yourself into, go ahead and treat yourself to some summertime carnage, courtesy of Collet-Serra and crew.
The Shallows hits theaters everywhere on June 24th, 2016.
In this day and age, the word “troll” is often used to describe various online nuisances. Yet as abundant and irksome as the modern troll can be, they aren’t usually as fearsome as their mythological counterparts. I’m not talking about the small and gentler versions that have become more common to see in media. No, there are much bigger and scarier trolls out there—and André Øvredal’s movie Troll Hunter is one of the best places to find them.
It doesn’t take long for Troll Hunter (or Trolljegeren) to dump the Blair Witch Project-esque setup and aim for something a lot fresher. The trajectory of the story is augmented by Otto Jespersen’s character Hans, the titular Troll Hunter. The second he comes barreling out of the deep, dark woods and shouts “troll” at the camera, this movie takes a turn into what feels like uncharted territory. Not only subject-wise, but also conceptually.
For fantastical and made-up subject matter in cinema, found footage is a fast way to add a guise of believability. After all, what we accept to be the most crucial aspect of documentaries—the truth—rubs off on pseudo-documentaries, despite our understanding of the pretense involved. That is what Øvredal delivered with Troll Hunter: a movie so convincing that some viewers wondered if trolls really do exist. So, had this been straightforwardly made, it likely wouldn’t have been as effective. Conventional narratives would be more inclined to treat something like trolls as flat out unreal, and never try to convince the audience to think otherwise.
Hans petrifies the three-headed Tusseladd troll.
The viewers, like the characters trailing Hans, are quickly thrown into the deeper end of that extraordinary story. They have to process all this new information while staying on the go. So, although there is no significant amount of meandering, narratively or physically, there is still a good amount of atmosphere, not to mention tension building. It’s never anything frightful, but then again, Troll Hunter isn’t your standard offering of horror; it’s more on the low end of the dark fantasy spectrum. We aren’t ever spirited away to a faraway world—we stay in rather familiar surroundings, as well as dip into those less so. The outcome is a movie where you’re constantly more in awe than in terror.
As fantasy fiction might do, Troll Hunter prefers not to deal with incredulity. There is no time to waste on doubt, as interviewer Thomas (Glenn Erland Tosterud), soundperson Johanna (Johanna Mørck), and cameraman Kalle (Tomas Alf Larsen) all follow Hans around, recording whatever this character is willing to reveal about his bizarre job. Of course, the Troll Hunter himself is not an open book; in that respect, the diegetic documentary fails to fully capture and unpack the more interesting of its two subjects. Yes, all those giant, monstrous trolls are indeed incredible, but understandably, your mind wanders to their pursuer. What kind of person signs up for this gig and then chooses to stick with it for so long?
Reviews have called out Troll Hunter for its lack of character development. In regard to Thomas and his fellow documentarians, that criticism is valid, but bear in mind, they aren’t the focus of the story, either. Meanwhile, Hans is a well-crafted character. At least better than first realized. Before he was introduced, Hans had already grown tired of the troll grind. Fed up with that low compensation for his services, resentful of the bureaucracy, and wanting to expose his employer on a large scale, Hans’ discontent is glaring.
Then there are those finer details about the Troll Hunter, such as that indifference to both the natural splendor of his everyday surroundings and the affections of an obviously smitten colleague, that also suggest some level of despondency. So it is fair to say this movie doesn’t feature any sizable growth for its characters; however, the namesake isn’t underwritten. No doubt, putting a real-life character like Otto Jespersen in that role is partly why Hans is so fascinating—maybe even relatable.
Otto Jespersen as Hans the Troll Hunter.
There is always a small risk whenever using the term “mockumentary” to describe a found-footage movie, as the word could imply humor where there is none. In the case of Troll Hunter, the term’s usage is appropriate. Some folks have claimed the English-dubbed version has the more comedic tone, however, the Norwegian cut isn’t exactly humorless. Apart from the trolls’ absurd appearances, this is a movie where the characters nearly choke on the monsters’ farts, and Christians are like walking targets. Hans’ complete apathy towards everything is another cause of laughter. Overall, the comedy is intentionally dry and inconsistent. Unfunny, though? Absolutely not.
In a movie where endemic creatures are maltreated, as well as disavowed from living freely and peacefully, it’s hard not to notice the ecological message buried beneath the story. In addition to that is the unmistakable political satire. There is this whole business about intrusive and unsightly power lines—like trolls, they’re big blemishes on the land—that leads to what is perhaps the movie’s funniest moment. The scene in question is that one where certain electric lines, the ones secretly being used to keep the trolls at bay, go in a loop and don’t actually send power to any residents. Yet the monitors of said lines don’t find this at all weird. So it stands to reason that Øvredal was having a go at those who accept the government’s doings without question.
Looking past the fact that trolls aren’t actually real, this movie is an enlightening source of information. And not just for international audiences; Norwegians, too, get schooled about their homeland’s own mythology. It’s also evident from everything on screen that Øvredal and his crew were enthusiastic about the topic. The creature designs are the most indicative of that zeal; those imaginative yet myth-accurate manifestations are equally amusing and grotesque. One second you’re laughing at their phallic noses, the next you’re white-knuckling during a hairy sequence. Most surprisingly is how well the trolls’ visual effects hold up after fifteen years. It’s not all spotless, but on the whole, they remain impressive.
Vouching for a mockumentary about trolls isn’t easy, but those who do come around and give it a shot will more than likely be grateful for the recommendation. For Troll Hunter is a real find in that vast and varied genre we call “found footage“.
A bridge troll reaches up for food and finds Hans decked out in armor.
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