Josh Bell
In this week’s minor VOD releases, a cop tries to help his addict daughter, a wedding-vow writer falls in love with her client’s fiancé, and characters wearily go through the motions of Wuthering Heights and The Breakfast Club.
Clean Hands (VOD and select theaters October 16): As a feature-length PSA for Brooke’s House, the drug treatment center started by former police officer Kevin Simmers in memory of his daughter Brooke, Clean Hands is well-intentioned, but as drama it’s a dreary slog. Zach Braff is half-believable at best in the role of gruff, hardened cop Kevin, who takes a zero-tolerance attitude toward drug users. That perspective is challenged when he discovers the teenage Brooke (Esther McGregor) has been using, and his solution is to attempt to arrest everyone she’s come into contact with, while forcing her into various ineffective rehab facilities. The repetitive cycle of recovery and relapse may be realistic, but it’s also tedious, and writer-director Jake Allyn sidelines Brooke in favor of focusing on the journey of the middle-aged white guy. Although Kevin has to learn that trusting the system isn’t the best way to help Brooke, the movie is also full of simplistic thin-blue-line boosterism, and it wraps up as a commercial for Simmers and his political backers. Grade: C
Wuthering Heights: The House of the Damned (VOD October 16): Emerald Fennell’sWuthering Heights wasn’t successful enough to warrant a mockbuster, but Emily Brontë’s source novel lends itself well to this slightly higher-brow version of public-domain horror exploitation. Director Rebecca J. Matthews and screenwriter Liana Failla take the material seriously, amplifying what is already a haunting Gothic tale of romantic obsession. They elevate timid tenant Mr. Lockwood (Ross Townsend-Green) to the lead role, functioning as a terrified observer to the homicidal actions that the brooding and brutal Heathcliff (Sky Cheema) commits in the name of his lost love Catherine (Elle O’Hara). Lockwood deteriorates mentally and physically, while periodic flashbacks fill in the basic details of Brontë’s familiar story. The result is often disjointed, like a horror movie written in the margins of the novel’s CliffsNotes, and characters are introduced abruptly without a clear sense of their identities or how they relate to each other. Still, Matthews captures enough of the novel’s moody sensibility to rank this somewhere around the middle of themany, manyadaptations. Grade: C+
I See the Demon (VOD October 20): The title promises a horror movie, and there are glimpses of what could be demons as main character Lucy (Alexis Zollicoffer) undergoes an apparent mental breakdown. But director and co-writer Jacob Lees Johnson’s film is really a dystopian sci-fi story, as disclosed fairly early on, when characters talk about off-world outposts and uploading their consciousnesses, and one is revealed to be an android. They’re all gathered for Lucy’s surprise birthday party, even as the threat of an enemy attack looms. Something is not quite right here, as Lucy keeps experiencing strange time jumps and horrific visions, while her friends creepily assure her that everything is fine. Johnson creates some unsettling atmosphere, but the movie is mainly an exercise in waiting for the twist, which is fairly obvious and comes too late to be properly developed. Zollicoffer gives a strong performance as a woman who refuses to be coddled, and the minimalist sci-fi world is mostly convincing, even if it doesn’t amount to much by the end. Grade: B-
Detention (VOD October 22): Somehow no one ever mentions The Breakfast Club in this dramedy about four disparate high schoolers who are forced to spend an entire Saturday in detention, where they learn important life lessons, grow closer together, and become better people. Rather than a stern vice principal, these teens are supervised by a touchy-feely therapist (writer and co-director Emma Cameron), who is dealing with some angst of her own as a sleep-deprived new mother. She leads them through a variety of therapeutic exercises of dubious value, while giving them a surprising amount of freedom so that Cameron and her co-director husband Mark can showcase their upscale Washington island community. The protagonists all suffer from parental issues that are broadly defined and neatly wrapped up, and the quartet conveniently resolves into two hasty romantic pairings. The Camerons borrow from John Hughes without any meaningful updates, with characters who are never more distinctive than their basic archetypes, and dialogue that’s as clumsy and belabored as Hughes’ was assured and iconic. Grade: C
Love Language (VOD and select theaters October 23): Although she has a day job in marketing, heartbroken singleton Lou (Chloë Grace Moretz) takes a side gig in one of those only-in-rom-coms professions, as a wedding-vow writer for hire. Naturally she’s unwittingly hired by the fiancée of her college crush, Warren (Manny Jacinto), whom she hasn’t seen in a decade. Moretz can be charming, but Lou is selfish, inconsiderate, and whiny, and it’s tough to care about whether she ends up with Warren — whose bride-to-be seems perfectly pleasant — or the bland Dash (Anthony Ramos), the smitten real-estate developer she’s been stringing along. Writer-director Joey Power saddles his characters with overwritten try-hard hipster dialogue, although Billie Lourd and Lukas Gage are occasionally amusing as Lou’s exasperated besties. The Chicago-set movie looks slick and stylish, with characters living in improbably lavish apartments, but there isn’t much below the surface. Like the verbose vows that Lou writes for other people, Love Language is full of lofty romantic sentiments that are ultimately interchangeable. Grade: C+
