"Drop" - Review

Violet (Mehann Fahy) is recovering from a traumatic incident in her past and works as a single mother and therapist. She finally manages to snag a hot date with sexy photographer Henry (Brandon Skelnar), and heads to meet him at a fancy high-tower restaurant. But though the pair of them manage to hit it off, Violet starts receiving anonymous messages and images on her phone and before she can attempt to parse who they are from, they start to show pictures of her house, and demand that she murder Henry... Now she must keep the date going, keep it secret from Henry, and figure out who is sending these messages to her...

A fine effort from Mr Landon, as usual! I'm a long-standing defender and advocate of the man's works, and he's been on a tear: from writing the fanatastic "Heart Eyes" and directing a tight, fun little thriller as this, he's been on a tear this year. One heck of a one-two punch. It embraces the inherent silliness, and leans upon the dated memes angle for it all, and stays on course to be a fun little mystery, and a "how shall this character escape the situation?" kind of movie. Fahy (the first thing I have seen her in) is excellent, and Reed Diamond shows up for a little bit, hell yes! Skelnar is lovely too, and has, most essential for this kind of movie, smooth and fluid chemistry with Fahy in this. Everybody who shows up is good: the movie does that thing I really appreciate and respect where it has hired good, solid, experienced and unknown actors to really sell the piece rather than rely on big names and make money disappear, instead saving its budget for some creative little asides and camera angles to show off how far Landon (definitely up for Sweeties this year) has come as a filmmaker. I rather enjoyed it and the mystery's reveal works. Violett Beane is delightful in this as Violet's sister, and everything seems to come together nicely enough and tightly enough that I wasn't picking holes in it, enjoying it so much as I was, which is what it's out to do. Another cracker to the Landon canon, though "Heart Eyes" remains the one to beat this year.

"Heart Eyes" - Review

for the last 4 years, the mysterious "Heart Eyes Killer" has been on something of a tear across 4 different cities in America: killing couples on Valentine's Day at a swift pace. This year they have targetted Seattle: beginning their new reign of terror with an attack on a proposal at a winery. In the midst of all of this, marketer Ally (Olivia Holt) is in hot water because her latest advertising campaign themed around doomed lovers is seen as exceedingly bad taste. Her firm flies in hotshot freelancer and wunderkind Jay (a bloody excellent Mason Gooding) to help right this ship. As the grumpy and cynical Ally and the romantic carefree Jay try to come up with ideas over dinner, they are mistaken for a couple by the killer, and are in for the night of their lives...

This movie fucking ruled.
More than living up to its mish mash of genres (a slasher movie and a rom com), it happily adores and plays up both of them. We get a deliciously bloody, fun opening murder lit and played like every corny rom-com from the 2000s, followed by a legitimately witty and charming odd-couple mish mash with the leads (who have electrifying chemistry) going about their evening, learning about each other and genuinely feeling like endearing characters. Mason Gooding has been wasted in movies up until this point, and relishes the chance to spread his wings, and continues the iron clad rule that cast members from "Booksmart" improve every movie (see also: Skylar Gisondo, Molly Gordon, Kaitlyn Dever, Beanie Feldstein, Eduardo Franco and Noah Galvin). God I love Mason Gooding in this - he gets a fucking hilarious scene in a police car... And this is the first project I have seen Olivia Holt in, and I can absolutely see her having a wonderful future in romantic comedies if she wanted to: she bounces wonderfully off of Mason Gooding and carries the movie well. The rom-com is romantic and LEGITIMATELY funny, the writers (of the ever excellent "Freaky" and all time classic "Happy Death Day" and "Happy Death Day 2 U") use every opportunity to add subversive jokes rather than simple quips, and tying them into the two genres: be it a compliment given to Jay merely to justify why he was abandoned to the killer, a romantic smashing of a window turning bloody and painful (side note: watch "The Nice Guys") or both Jay and Ally telling the killer "we're not a couple! Fuck off and kill someone else!"; even the reveal of the killer's identity feels like a pisstake of movies with seemingly arbitrary identities of their murderers (remember "The Raven" starring John Cussack? Of course you don't). It's a good rom-com, then the slasher movie kicks in, and it becomes a great rom-com (my fiancee described the blending of genres as "sterling silver out of regular silver" and I cannot agree more), with a constant tug-and-fro between its leads and a perpetual sense of fun, never feeling like it is dismissive or derisive of the genres it is loving and playing with. Sure, the killer suffers a bit because the economy of conservation of characters mean you have few suspects to choose from, but even that is played for not one but two aforementioned jokes. It's great stuff, a worthy addition to the canon of both genres, and a fine effort from the writers involved. I will happily add this to my Valentine's Day rotation, as well as watch it alongside the ever-fun "Freaky" and "Happy Death Day" (and its arguably better sequel). Highly recommend it for its comedy and energy, great date night movie, and one of the few genuinely great films I've seen this year so far.
There's also a "Hobbs and Shaw" joke tailor made for me.