Old (Movie) Review

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This week we went and saw Old by M. Night Shyamalan and I was reminded of super-obvious dialog from 50’s monster movies in the most charming way possible.

Synopsis

Old is a film about a group of strangers who meet on a resort trip to a special beach. Our main characters are the family of father Guy (Gael Garcia Bernal), mother Prisca (Vicky Krieps), daughter Maddox, and son Trent.

Our protagonist couple are experiencing marital strife, but are taking this vacation nonetheless. 

As our band of beach-goers spends their day, they find a woman’s body in the waves and things take a turn for the unpleasant. They also start to notice that they seem to be showing signs of mysterious aging…

At the end of the day, everyone gets older than they bargained for.

Review

Old is, at it’s core, a fun movie. It has some disturbing concepts, impressive stakes, interesting characters, and that trademark M. Night twist that we’ve all come to expect. We expect the twist so much that it might be more of a twist if he left the twist off, but whatever.

I found myself giddy with laughter at points in Old, and oddly disturbed at other points. Mostly I had a wonderful time in the theater giggling like a school-girl with my buddy Bryce, tittering over little jokes we made or quotes we thought of.

Old is not a serious movie, it’s like going to see Batman Forever with friends in the theater, but good. 

Is it Scary?

If you are looking for something to terrify you, let’s face it, M. Night isn’t your guy. He’s your guy for stuff that makes you think about all the weird possibilities in this world he dreamt up.

How do we get out of this trap? Why is this happening to us? Who is in charge? How old do I have to get before I accidentally shit my pants?

There are lots of panning shots that cleverly make use of space and time, but some of the panning was distractingly stuttery. This stutter may be because of the theater we were in which is quite old, I’m not sure.

Watch Old

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So much of Old felt like an homage to thrillers and monster movies from the fifties because the script is utterly expositional. It’s cheesy, yes, but it’s not remotely offensive in the way it’s pulled off. I cared about and was interested by all the characters and their sometimes insane actions. 

Old was way more fun than I thought it would be, and thanks to the beautiful sunny locations, it’s this year’s must-see summer thriller.

Score

7/10

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