I can’t stress enough on going into a movie cold. Look at a poster. See the cast list. If you need to watch a trailer, watch it once. That should indicate if you want to see something or not. No one needs to see the first trailer, the second or third, let alone the final trailer before seeing the actual movie. But you do what’s best for you.
I went into Weapons with minimal knowledge. I knew it was about missing kids. I knew Julia Garner was in it. I knew Josh Brolin was too. It was the second feature from Zach Cregger, following Barbarian. But I wasn’t going to hold that against him. Barbarian was intriguing up until the third act. Then it took a turn…it was a tonal shift that became outlandish. Teetering on the absurd. In spite of that, the movie had good bones. I was curious to see what Weapons was about.
Weapons wastes no time in getting right into it. A child narrates that on a Wednesday, all the third-grade students in a particular classroom disappeared at 2:17am. The children woke up, left their homes, and vanished. And therein lies the mystery. The town tries desperately to make sense of it. Because it was Justine (Julia)’s classroom, they point the finger at her, accusing her of having something to do with their disappearance.
It’s a non-linear story structure, built in five chapters. Each one leading into the next, at which the following chapter is from a different perspective of the previous scenes. On a technical level, I couldn’t wrap my head around the scenes that were repeated and them being so precise.
The first half of the movie was the building of the mystery. The other half was where the horror aspect was ramped up. Unlike my issue with Barbarian, Weapons’ turn made sense. It didn’t change its logic. It wasn’t sudden, it was gradual. The mystery slowly revealed itself. Speaking of which…
There was a headline I came across that prior to seeing the movie, indicating a certain actress to be in Weapons. I thought nothing of it. As I said, I like to go in cold. I want to be surprised. So, as I’m watching the movie, a character comes on screen and I don’t recognize them. Their voice doesn’t sound familiar to me. It was killing me! Who IS this?! As the movie moves along, they have some more scenes where I can slowly…get a hint…as to who…it is…ah-HA! It was the actor from the headline!
In my defense, they were buried under makeup and this is probably their best role in their career. Amazing! It’s unfortunate, the Oscars don’t give awards to actors in horror movies. And that’s not right. Excellence should be rewarded. Politics, man…oh, in case you were wondering who I’m talking about, go see the movie! See if you can tell who I’m referring to.
I’m very much someone who lives in the moment. How I feel NOW could change later. Weapons is one of those movies that sits with you. Even a week later, I’m thinking of scenes and how they made me feel. I’m hard pressed to think of another movie that has done that for me. I don’t think I’m too off base when I say, Weapons is front runner for “Movie of the Year”. If you haven’t seen it yet, drop what you’re doing and go NOW.
Arguing With Myself 