Soft & Quiet

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The female leads, portrayed as out-of-the-closet bigots turned loose, were too ridiculously unbelievable to really hate, which weakened the motivation to care about their inevitable demise. The lead bully's discovery of a failed pregnancy...was that supposed to be her justification for starting a chapter of Nazis? Also weak was the stupid woman from Nebraska who for some reason spoke with a Southern accent(?), a mixed stereotype that ironically revealed the writer's own weird prejudices. Admittedly, the means of their demise was uniquely done, it but didn't make up for the fact that even caricatures of bigots aren't this silly.

Not a horror movie, and lacking in any semblance of entertainment value. This movie is like being trapped in a junior high auditorium being lectured on the evils of racism...with a bunch of tired cinema-verite tropes and manufactured outrage that feels about as genuine as the canned laughter on an 80s TV sitcom. POSSIBLE SPOILERS Labeling this a horror movie is about as deep a stretch on the genre as I've ever seen. This is not Martyrs or Speak No Evil--which is the kind of breathless, 'I can't believe I sat through this' buzz this film is getting. I was bored and irritated. Once the central theme is revealed, it's basically racist idiots being racist. Period. You get to watch obnoxious, unlikeable, characters do horrible, stupid things for 90 minutes without any empathy or insight to engage you other than being dutifully outraged. Big surprise: the world has racists in it. And they might be your kid's teacher, or the woman running the neighborhood store. Which would be interesting if the film explored the intricacies of racism and how its tendrils spread, and the economic and cultural elements that allow it to take root and grow. But instead, we get a 'shooting-fish-in-a-barrel' diatribe wrapped up in a one-take gimmick that just feels like smoke and mirrors to distract from how thin the story is. The central characters are so odious from the start--even before it's revealed that they are Nazis--I'm left with no emotional stake in the proceedings. Everything that follows just feels like the filmmakers patting themselves on the back for how 'daring' they are, instead of trying to navigate an emotional thread that will resonate and create real dialogue. If only there was a movie that lured you in emotionally, with a charismatic central character who earned your empathy, who then traversed a tragic arc spurned by their racist underpinnings, only to come out the other side with true perspective and regret. Imagine how haunting, shocking and satisfying that would be. Oh, wait--they made that movie. It's called American History X. Watch that instead and skip this one altogether.

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