Joseph Allen
Ready or Not is an explosion. In a year filled with entertaining, highbrow movies about class disparity, it was a lowbrow counterpart. Its ambitions were less nuanced, but more effective for their bluntness. Set at a wealthy mansion, the movie follows a young woman as she’s hunted by the family she’s just married into. The result is an immensely satisfying movie about an ordinary girl outsmarting and brutally executing a wealthy family that is trying to kill her so they can survive.
Sharply directed by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, the movie is all flare from its first moment. It also makes excellent use of its cast, especially Adam Brody and Andie MacDowell, two actors who almost always delight. Ultimately, though, this movie belongs to Samara Weaving. Her slow, steady realization that the family she thought she was joining is trying to kill her is beautiful, as is her transition into a full-fledged vengeance machine. Ready or Not’s ending is the best joke of the year. In a movie year filled with narratives about eating the rich, Ready or Not gets the closest to giving us that reality.
