A QUIET PLACE: DAY ONE. In the before times, when A Quiet Place (2018) was released, it seemed unlikely to spawn a series, much less to outlast and outwit the 800-pound gorillas that were essentially unbeatable at the box office and in the popular consciousness. But in a sort of "turnabout is fair play" moment, Jim from The Office (John Krasinski) remade himself as a viable action star and then as a director and then as a writer-producer shepherding an artistically and commercially successful franchise through the American movie industry's dying of the light.
Having helmed and starred in the first installment of this alien invasion/domestic drama/low-key horror enterprise, he subsequently wrote and directed A Quiet Place Part II (with credit to originators Bryan Woods and Scott Beck), which, in the midst of the still-wounded uncertainty of 2021, offered more than enough reason to venture back into theaters. And now, based solely on anecdotal observations on my part, he has used his newfound but hard-earned clout to cede the writer/director's chair to Michael Sarnowski, whose Pig (2021) was as welcome a surprise as Krasinski's own sequel (he retains a story by and producing credits, of course).
Where the aforementioned gorilla has struggled mightily to legitimize itself — to whom, one wonders — by snatching up promising directors of independent features and then enlisting them to color by numbers and/or be lambasted by the faithful for wandering off the path of formula, the forces behind A Quiet Place have allowed chapter three to become an almost anthology addition to the franchise by allowing Sarnowski to add his particular stamp without losing the thread.
The first movie having dropped us into a world already beset by space monsters with impossibly acute hearing and then drawing us into the challenges of a family uniquely capable of navigating the crisis — a through-line continued in the second chapter — Day One abandons the bucolic setting and familiar characters (save one) to tell a separate but connected story about the beginning of things.
Samira (Lupita Nyong'o), a poet frustrated as much by the boredom of ending her life in hospice as by her illness, is convinced by a well-meaning nurse to join a group for a trip to a show in New York City. Compelled by a diaphanous promise of a real slice of pizza, she packs up her adventurous support cat Frodo and tags along. In the midst of a surprisingly affecting marionette performance, she wanders into the streets just as the lizard-spiders descend. In the chaos of the war-torn city, she manages to find refuge and, perhaps, an end-of-life plan more suited to her temperament than wasting away in a dorm room adrift on Fentanyl. This is complicated, as it must be, by Frodo's discovery of a law-student named Eric (Joseph Quinn) who is even more alone than our protagonist. They forge a mostly unspoken pact to make their way to the soon-to-depart evacuation boats at the South Street pier.
Day One is not viscerally scary, but then it doesn't feel as intent on presenting itself as a horror movie as its predecessors. Instead, it takes the fundamental premise of the story (quiet must be enforced) to challenge the primary cast to reveal their dramas through internalism expressed, by showing rather than telling. Simultaneously, Sarnowski deploys the inventiveness borne of necessity that defined a whole generation of indie filmmakers, deepened and expanded here by the addition of money to spend. The movie relies on special effects to achieve its aims, but there are subtle elements of creative craft at work that lend an air of legitimacy and need to the spectacle. Also, Frodo is a heroic cat equally comfortable on and off leash. PG13. 100M. BROADWAY, MILL CREEK, MINOR.
THE BIKERIDERS. My brother hipped me to Shotgun Stories (2007) not long after its release, and it introduced us both to writer/director Jeff Nichols and to now and forever favorite Michael Shannon. I've followed Nichols' career since then with interest, even as I have occasionally missed some of what he has offered us (mea culpa). He emerged as a new auteur at an unlikely moment and has been able to continue building a catalog of strange, insightful, uniquely American character pieces ever since. I like what he does, even if I don't always love it; same goes double for The Bikeriders.
As an idea, this movie is as tantalizing as anything that's made it to theaters in the hinterland in a long, long time: a story about the birth of biker gangs, set in '60s Chicago and inspired by a book of photographs taken as that story was actually unfolding. Add to that one of the most supercharged casts outside of a superhero movie since the Ocean's movies and a flashy trailer set to an anachronistic Rolling Stones song, and it seemed like a can't-miss. Which it almost manages to be.
Anchored by a tremendous performance by Jodie Comer as a working-class midwestern girl falling in love with an outlaw (Austin Butler, continuing to prove he actually does have the goods) and his lifestyle, The Bikeriders falters in its attempt to straddle a line between square-society and the titular fellows who kind of want nothing to do with it. The result is a muddled narrative, perhaps overburdened by underdeveloped characters and seasoned actors. Tom Hardy, Norman Reedus, Boyd Holbrook, Shannon, Mike Faist, Damon Herriman and others are all invited to chew on the scenery (deliciously, it must said), but the result is neither as immediate nor as dangerous as it needs to be to truly serve the material. R. 116M. BROADWAY, MILL CREEK.
John J. Bennett (he/him) is a movie nerd who loves a good car chase.
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For showtimes call: Broadway Cinema (707) 443-3456; Mill Creek Cinema 839-3456; Minor Theatre (707) 822-3456.