It movie review- a critique by Beyond The Trailer

Full text transcript of the It movie review:

While it’s always open season on teenagers, the worst thing that ever happens to actual kids and mainstream horror films is that someone or something really weird wants to play with them. They’re the chosen one, or sometimes they’re even the aggressor, but they’re never the victim, especially on screen until now. Yes. Welcome to my spoiler review of it, where here it is, the answer to the question so many of you have asked me. And that’s yes, you actually see poor, adorable little Georgie crawling for his life away from the storm drain with his arm freshly bitten off blood spewing into the rain soaked street quite artistically, I might add. But that’s not all. And this is your last chance to bail out of the spoiler review still here. OK, on top of that, the other Ghatak scene with a kid was that you see a vision of a little body rips them and they set that up really well throughout the whole film, who’s been ripped in half and still alive, screaming for help to social media to complain again about violence against children. No, and here’s why. There are actually three reasons. The first is that both scenes happened so quickly and are more about the aftermath than the actual violent act itself, that by the time you get over your initial reaction of is this actually what I’m looking at, it’s over. I’d also say that they’re very low on blood and gore, you know, except for that artistic angle.

But and maybe that was an intentional choice, because that’s the second reason they never glorify the violence, which I think is really important. There’s a very fine line to walk here. And I think the non glorification of it in the speed is key. And then here’s the third reason why I think that it’s the right choice for this movie. And that’s the in real life, bad stuff happens to kids. And kids are often the easiest targets or one of the easiest targets. So maybe there should be a movie that gives kids a heads up and says, if you’re not careful, this could be you. And I’m really torn as to what age is appropriate to be able to see this movie. I mean, it’s rated R, but again, I think that’s more for disturbing, disturbing imagery and also the fact that this happens to kids. But it’s not that gory. It’s not that bloody. But I think, you know, no matter who is able to see it in theaters, I think that this It movie is going to absolutely kill on the sleepover market because what a perfect movie to watch with your own losers club. Right? I mean, I think this I think seeing it as a sleepover movie will be a rite of passage, which is perfect because this is a film about a rite of passage for the Losers Club. It just works out also beautifully. So I see this movie, especially if they’re able to to stick the landing with the sequel being something that, you know, is a slow burn.

You know, it stands the test of time, which which is an incredible achievement. Now, speaking of kids who are who are in the line of fire, who are in danger, perhaps my favorite thing about this movie is that you see kids realizing that the only one who’s really going to save them is themselves. And that that realization and maybe that’s kind of like becoming an adult. I mean, I don’t know. I’d have to think about that more, but I thought that was fascinating to behold. I mean, sure, there’s a big emphasis on the Losers Club and we have to all stick together. But even that bond is portrayed from the viewpoint of the individual and being a part of the losers club and how each per each child interacts with that group is something that each individual is a choice they have to make and a choice they have to constantly, constantly re-evaluate throughout the film. I thought that was really, really interesting. It’s it’s it’s very much a film I think about. It’s interesting because it’s called The Losers Club is such a big part of it. But I do think it’s a film about individuality and individual choices. And, you know, I guess is you will see who you become when you grow up, which is an individual choice. It’s influenced by outside parties. But, you know, that famous that famous saying you’re born alone and you die alone.

I think that could apply very much to this movie. And the best example of that is my favorite line in the film. And that’s when Ritchie has this long laundry list of why he’s upset with Bill. He’s like, Oh, Bill, I’m so mad at you. And he ends it with and they’re trying to set it up because, you know, here’s for those of you obviously you’re watching us. You’ve seen the movie. But just to reiterate, Pennywise says, you know, here’s the deal. Kids, you know, they have Pennywise on the ropes and he’s like, you can just leave me. Bill is is a nice little snack before I go into hibernation or I’ll kill you all. And Bill, I think quite to Bill’s credit, again, an individual choosing to sacrifice himself says it was my I put you all in danger. Just go get out of here. You know, actually, in some ways, let me be put out of my misery because I miss Georgie so much. But and you think that’s what Richie is going to do? You think he’s making a long list of why it’s OK for them to leave Bill, but then he ends it and then Wilford doesn’t telegraph this twist, which is why it’s so great. And he says. Now, I hate you because I’m going to have to kill this fucking clown and the whole audience just erupted with like applause and cheers and laughter, it was just a perfect moment.

And it’s like it’s not so much, again, about the group, but it’s this moment where Richie is like, you know, you’ve put me as an individual in a really difficult position, but I’ve decided that I’m not going to be the type of person who abandons my friend. I just can’t be that person. And again, it’s all about it’s Richie. I can’t be that it’s not so much about what’s going to happen to Bill, but Richie making a choice about who he is. And I loved it so much. It was fascinating. And I also thought, speaking of kids versus adults, it was a really interesting choice that the adults in the film are portrayed as grotesque. And you have to wonder if that’s like the curse of Dary, right rodding these adults, the longer they stay there or if it’s just how these kids in the story see adults, like as you get older, you get that much closer to death and these adults are literally rotting. And it’s an interesting choice. And it’ll be interesting to see what they go with for the sequel. When the kids are then adults like, well, they no longer see adults that way because now they’re part of the group. Or if they apply that really negative view of adulthood to themselves, maybe it’ll be a mix. Maybe some of the Losers Club will thrive as adults and maybe some of them will have that negative mentality of growing older, just haunt them.

And it’ll be really interesting to see how that plays out. But it was a great choice. It was really it was a very interesting choice. Now, let’s go through the losers and the order of which they appealed to me so no one is so feel Lilith’s as Beverly Marsh, maybe because she was the girl of the group. But I just really related to her. I liked it. There seemed to be so much going on inside of her head and her heart. There was just there is just like she was just a hurricane of emotion and and also sexual awakening. I thought her exploration of her sexuality was incredibly well done. Talk about another tightrope to walk right. Violence against kids, sexuality and kids. And this movie did them, you know, walked cross both those ropes beautifully. But here there is a lot of different elements going on with Beverly Marsh. There were the rumors at school about how she talked with everyone. And I thought it was it was interesting how she chose to deal with that. You know, she just kind of let it ride because she knew it was pointless to try and change everyone’s mind about her after also her discovering the power of flirtation. That scene with the with the chemistry, you know, the pharmacist, that was really fantastic. And I also thought that was great juxtaposed with her father’s predatory nature towards her.

Like Beverly was growing up a little bit too fast because of what was going on at home with her father, which I also thought was really interesting to see that both the negative and the positive of a child, you know, starting to become aware of sexuality and then contrasted with all of that is the sweetness of realizing that she has a secret admirer like the all the more crass elements about sexuality were just Beverly playing around, exploring, testing. But the idea that her love for Bill could actually mean something and seeing how that affected her behavior was beautiful. And something that’s really, I think only shown so far in books just to see it in a mainstream film was really, really amazing. And the love triangle was so well done. That was another element of the movie that they just did perfectly. And again, to Beverly’s credit, showing when a nice person she is deep down, she remember all this, the whole Losers Club, they were all really, really nice. I really just nice people, which I think helped really pull you in more to the story. But the way she handled being in that situation, torn between Bill and Ben was really it was real. And I thought it was a good example of how to handle yourself in that situation, actually, like when I thought it was great when Bill and Ben were waiting at the end to their awaiting each other out for who could be left with some alone time with Beverly, the whole audience is laughter that because, again, it was just so real and so much of what happens with crushes and boy girl interaction and even man woman interaction is nonverbal, yet still speaks volumes.

And this movie did that like the watering hole scene. Again, perfect example of, you know, how that nonverbal communication, but it’s just so potent. And it took me a while for for to for Bill to grow on me, actually, because he’s so in his own head for most of the movie. But when he finally decides to do something about missing Georgie and also at the end, when he finally forces himself to accept George’s death, and just as he emerges from his cocoon, we get to see him. And he’s he really is like a special individual. He is a leader. And my favorite line from him was when he was making that speech about the house on Niebla Street. And then it was easier for him to go inside that rotted, haunted house than to go into his own home where he was just constantly reminded of George’s death. That was amazing. As I said in my non-special review, this is the speech that pulled everything into focus, the stakes, why they had to do it, what was going on with Bill? It was just it was it was perfect. It just really he was trying to shake.

The losers into action, and I think it really shakes the audience into, like pinpoint focus as well, the next Ben Wolfert is Richie Towser. He was just really funny. He was really funny. And in many ways, he was almost like the audience reacting and commenting on what was happening with everyone else. I loved it when he said, like he was the only one that made that interesting choice that he didn’t see Pennywise until they were doing with the slides. And then it was great when he was like, what the F is that? But I thought it was funny when he said, oh, you have to be a virgin to see this clown or what. It was great. Like little stuff, little things like that. I thought maybe a group of kids seemed more real and was just made Richie really endearing. And a lot of that was not only the lines, but also Finn Woodford’s delivery. Really good stuff. But also I thought the Jack Dillon Grazer is Eddie Kasprzak was also really funny. I thought he was really funny. And I think that he really I guess maybe one of the reasons his jokes were so funny to me was that I’m a germophobia, too. So I was like, I’m right there with you, Eddie. We should stay out of that water. And I have to say, I think he’s going to love it when Purell is invented. They can have a lot of fun with that character, with moving the time frame up instead of the 50s to the 80s, like in the book, they’re doing the 80s, of course, to current times.

And that that’ll be a lot of fun with Eddie in particular. But I loved him learning about his mother using placebos on him. And I thought it was great when he said these are gazebos. That was such a great line. It was great because he’s this child trying to build the sophisticated situation and word and and what his mother’s doing to him. But he still reminds you of what a child he is because he doesn’t know the word. It’s great. But, you know, in the 80s, many, you know. Well, actually, I think he met early 90s. It’s available on iTunes. That’s where I recently saw it. But in that mini series, he didn’t find out about that until he was an adult. So to have that happen now, I wonder how that’s going to shape him when we do see him. Twenty seven years later. It’s really fascinating. And also think about it. I mean, he made a big deal about having to give his mom a kiss goodbye in front of his friends. Loved it when Richie was like, you want to kiss for me, too. So funny. But when that it was he was at the door and he turned around and he so sweetly said, Bye, Mommy, you can tell that he loved and trusted his mother, you know, no matter how grotesque she looked to us, because, again, that’s how they were portraying the adults and that was broken.

That bond was broken. And again, fascinated to see what that does to him when he becomes an adult the next I liked why of is Stanley Urist? Mostly because I know he’s a ticking time bomb for the sequel. I don’t want to give anything away if you haven’t seen the sequel, but he’s holding a lot back and you’ll find out. And I hope they do something with that in the sequel because, you know, they didn’t do too much with it in the miniseries. But I hope that plays out because I think it’s, again, fascinating that these kids are too young to realize that in the end, when Stanley says I hate you to Bill, he might laugh it off. But he genuinely meant that when someone turns to you and looks you in the eye and says they hate you, even if it’s a it’s with a smile or they said they were just kidding, later on some levels they were not. So I thought that was really well done then. Jeremy Retailer has been Hanscom and Chozen Jacobs is Mike Hanlon, who I’ve put together for a reason what you’ll see in just a moment. But the first thing I want to say is that I was shocked that Henry Bowers literally carved an H into the flesh of Ben’s stomach, like you really carved it in there.

And that’s going to leave a mark that H isn’t going away. I mean, maybe if Ben pays for plastic surgery as an adult, but are you really going to invest that kind of money in your stomach, especially when it will be such a great visceral visual reminder in the sequel? I’m very curious about that, but I wish to see that kind of violence again towards towards a you know, it was child on child, but still it was shocking. And I can’t believe, by the way, that with all the injuries in the movie, all of them quite serious, no one got an infection. Like when Eddie was like, we’ve got to clean this up. I was like, Eddie’s not kidding around. You really do have to clean that up. I mean, that would be far scarier than anything that Pennywise could come up with. But my real my real problem with Branscombe, and I’m not quite sure why they did this, was that they gave the research angle to him. I mean, you had the new kids on the block jokes. Those were Golden Eye again. So it was so funny of Beverly to notice that poster on the back of the door, but it was so sweet of her just to keep it between her and Ben, like, just to like, you know, just poke like, you know, just playfully nudge them a little bit, tease him a little bit, but not to be cruel as to expose him to the rest of the rest of the group.

But so, I mean, I guess they wanted to get them to Ben’s room, but they could figure out another way to do that, you know, I mean, to take the research stuff away from Mike when it’s like his defining character trait. It’s just really unfortunate, especially when he’s the only character of color. I get very angry when they take, you know, traits for female characters, the only female character, and give it to a male character. That was a problem with Watchmen. And so expect expected she would be in a scene and they would take her lines that she was still in and she was still in the scene and they just given to a male character. You like what are standing right there? Why can’t you say a line? So to have Mike just just standing right there while Ben tells everybody about the history of dairy was really, you know, unfortunate because it definitely didn’t leave milk much. I mean, he had the real. One thing from the slaughterhouse where his uncle works and that give and take, you know, I could see where they were trying to go with that, but it didn’t quite work, I think, because we didn’t get really to know Mike at all. But Kareem Abdul Jabbar recently wrote an editorial piece for The Hollywood Reporter, and he was talking about superheroes of color and what was important about them.

And he said Hollywood should be careful not to play up the stereotype that black people are only brawn and not brains. And this is a really perfect and unfortunate example of what Kareem Abdul Jabbar was talking about to to rob Mike of the chance to be the brains of the group. And instead, he’s the guy with the with the weapon. Then speaking of the person that he got into a big fight with at the end with the weapon, Nicholas Hamilton is Henry Bowers. And the beginning, this character was just so psychotic that it seemed beyond reason to me. I had a really hard time connecting with it, like when his friends were like, I think you’re going too far, Henry. I was like, Yeah, he’s clearly going too far. Why are you hanging out with him? But then when his officer father showed up and he his father said the line about nothing makes a shot at Henry’s feet and he said nothing makes a paperman crumble like fear. I was like, oh, that’s amazing. That was just I was just really well done. And I thought that the way that Henry killed his father and how easy Pennywise made it, literally the flick of a switch was also excellent. But then they just had him fall down the well. I was like, isn’t he supposed to stick around to be blamed for the deaths of all these kids and to be in the mental institution for the sequel? I mean, I don’t know why you just literally throw a character away like that, especially one who had been so so, I think strongly established, even if it was a little weird and it was a little too much.

I mean, Henry Bowers made an impression. Why would you just do away with him? I don’t know. Maybe he survived that fall down, but I don’t think so. He, like, ricocheted. You ricocheted. If he survived, he’s going to be awfully broken up. But as for Bill, I did like when Eddie broke his arm. That was that was really amazing as well. I liked it when he said, don’t you touch me when Richie tried. I think it was Richie tried to reset it. I again was like, I agree with Eddie. Let a doctor do it then. As for Bill Skarsgard, is Penny Wise. I really loved Tim Curry’s portrayal of the of the character in the miniseries because he was to me like a sex offender dressed as a clown, but who’s totally not into the clown disguise. You know, he just put it on and was like kind of resented that he had to wear it. And he was like, let’s just get to the bottom line here, kid. Right. So it took me a while to warm to Skarsgard, who obviously has an incredibly different take on it. He has to have a different take on it.

You don’t want to just be copying what Tim Curry did. There’s the bunny teeth, there’s the eyes, the point in different directions as he loses his train of thought. And then also the drool like this, the drool. I mean, I think it becomes clear towards the end of this movie The Pennywise is just trying to survive as well. So I think when you look back at penny wise, it’s performance. It makes a little bit more sense. But for me, where it came together and I was like, oh, I get you, clown. I see you was on the house, a nice old street when he’s downstairs with Eddie. And then he hears Bill and Richie saying, talking about how it’s not real, just remember it’s not real. And then I like that. I kind of like it really kind of frustrated Pennywise. Right. Like, it’s like, oh, come on. Like, what more do I have to do for you kids? And he really turned around, literally turned around and sarcastically and frustratingly said, not real enough for you. Right. Like you’re criticizing my work. And I realized that he’s a performance artist and he’s not a particularly good one. He’s just taking stabs in the dark and he’s playing with his food, actually. Also, in a way, you know, fear makes the kids tastier. So his heart’s not really into it. He doesn’t have, like, a mission statement. He’s just like the taste better when I poke them.

So I’m going to poke them. But, you know, I wish I didn’t have to write. Like, that’s kind of like what I was getting from Bill Skarsgard Pennywise. So I guess that feeling of, you know, bottom line, this was there from Tim Curry’s performance. But then again, they’re very, very different. I almost feel like Pennywise was like this artist who knew he wasn’t very good. So he really put his defense up and got angry if you would criticize him because he knew what you were saying was true. But again, his motivation was more about just surviving. And I hope I hope they fill in more of the blanks with the sequel, because I think there’s more there. And I think you have to fill in more to make this really stick like they have me intrigued. But he’s not a full character just yet. I also wasn’t sure how I felt about the liberalisation of we all float down here with all those dead kids floating around. Pennywise is like headquarters because isn’t he feeding? I mean, if these kids are food, isn’t he just wasting food? Like, why didn’t he eat them? I mean, in the mini series, he’s storing them for the winter, like cooling them. But, you know, that didn’t seem to be the case here at all. They fell down, in fact, and he had no food stored for twenty seven years. So I don’t know how that worked. Maybe he was waiting to cocoon those kids.

I’m not sure. And I was surprised they never spotted Georgie. They I mean, they had the raincoat, but I’m surprised I would be like if I mean immediately as soon as they were like there’s a bunch of kids bodies up there, I’d be like, where’s Georgie? At least you can get a good burial. I did like the one. Pennywise tried to strike a deal. I thought that was good. And that’s what made me feel like a talk to Penny Wise. And I hope we do get to talk to Penny Wise because clearly he’s been orchestrating things for for like a century or so, you know. Dairy was first founded, so there’s got to be a little bit more going on inside of them, so I want to find out what that is. Then here’s the big question. Is the movie scary? I think that if you don’t like it, this version of it, that’s going to be your chief complaint. It’s not scary enough, but I think it’s more disturbing. And as I said in my non spoiler review, it’s more about forming a connection with the story in the characters. This movie is a vivid dream, a haunting moment or an intense personal connection. And those things can all be fleeting, but they still stick with you. And this film, in my opinion, is able to reach out and touch you as an audience member. Enough times, particularly in the second half, that a bond is formed and that keeps you up for the sequel.

And again, they have to stick that landing. But I’m I’m ready to see that the second act and I think if I had to say the film in any weak points, I think there are two. One would be the director and but not with the actors, any Muskett. He did a great job casting these actors and directing them. But I felt even with Changwon and cinematography, it was a little flat. Visually, people make comparisons to The Shining with this movie and I think with the pacing and the mental aspects of it in this disturbing nature of it, that’s there. But Machete simply doesn’t have Stanley Kubrick’s visual command or discipline. I also think that George was a bit of a problem. I mean, he’s absolutely adorable, but he never seemed quite real to me, especially when you consider how real the other kids are. But thankfully, Jane Lieber was still able to make me feel that loss through his performance, but still an incredibly strong, haunting film that if that’s if the sequel delivers, I think we’ll definitely stand the test of time. So what’s your thoughts about this is the spoiler review. So go to town down below. I’m very excited to hear what everyone thinks about it. I know some people aren’t going to like it because it’s not what they expected. And so I’m very curious to have that conversation down below. And as always, you can check out some more videos right now from. And.