The Bad Batch is the latest from filmmaker Ana Lily Amirpour, who caused quite a splash at Sundance in 2014 with her first feature, A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night, which she described as "the first Iranian vampire Spaghetti Western." It was kind of like what might happen if David Lynch and Jim Jarmusch decided to make a hipster vampire film, complete with lustrous black & white cinematography and beautifully meandering scenes in which not a lot happened, but the proceedings managed to be compelling nonetheless. Think the Lynch-produced Nadja meets Stranger Than Paradise, by way of Only Lovers Left Alive- sort of.
As to be expected, Amirpour was soon declared the "next big thing" or the "female Tarantino" and the like. Hyperbole, to be sure, but such is to be expected when dealing with a new cinematic voice, I suppose. The point was, Girl was a pretty damn unique film that stood out in its originality, even if it was a little on the poky side, pacing-wise. It was nominated for a slew of awards and snapped up and distributed by VICE films, which seems about right.
Though it didn't exactly light the box office on fire, only grossing about $628,000 at the box office, it did put Amirpour on the map in a big way, garnering her enormous praise from critics, a 95% "certified fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes and paving the way for her to garner some pretty big names for the follow-up, including Keanu Reeves, Jim Carrey, Giovanni Ribisi (Avatar), Diego Luna (Star Wars: Rogue One) and Jason Momoa (Game of Thrones).
With big names comes bigger responsibility, and typically, a bigger budget, and such is certainly the case here, though the $6 million Amirpour landed is a drop in the bucket by Hollywood standards, so it's not as if her movie had to light the world on fire to be successful. Unfortunately, it only earned about $180,000, which isn't great, but, given the subject matter, I can't imagine her backers thought it was going to be a massive hit, either.
So, off to home video it goes, where I can't imagine it won't find it's intended audience eventually. The real question is, is it any good? If so, it would hardly be the first cult film to belly flop at the box office, only to find belated success later on, thanks to critics and fans' support.
The story revolves around a young woman named Arlen, played by supermodel-turned-actress Suki Waterhouse (Insurgent, Pride & Prejudice & Zombies). Arlen is deemed "unacceptable" to society and unceremoniously dumped into a fenced-in area outside of Texas to live with others, who, as a whole, are dubbed "the bad batch"- hence the title.
No sooner does she arrive than she runs afoul of trouble, getting kidnapped by a group of cannibals (!), led by the body-builder type "Miami Man" (Momoa, naturally), who makes his home on the outskirts of the slightly-more-civilized Comfort, which is where most people end up, if they make it that far.
Arlen manages to escape, albeit missing some key limbs, with the help of a hermit-type, played by a flat-out unrecognizable Jim Carrey. (I literally had no idea it was him until I watched the making-of after.)
Arriving in Comfort, she gets help from the locals, who provide her with a makeshift prosthetic leg, and short order, begins plotting her revenge. Naturally, things go sideways, and she ends up saddled with a little girl, who, unbeknownst to her, is the daughter of "Miami Man." She flees back to Comfort, with the little girl in tow, but later loses her during a wild desert rave, a la "Burning Man."
Before long, "Miami Man" comes looking for his daughter, eventually leading him to semi-partner up with Arlen to find her. They both run afoul of the local kingpin, The Dream (Reeves, looking like a chunky, mustachioed Mexican drug lord- El Keanu, if you will), who rules over Comfort with the help of drugs to ply the citizens and a cult of worshipping women, many of which are carrying his children.
That's about it for plot, and as with her first feature, that's about all Amirpour needs. It becomes crystal clear in this second feature that she's much more interested in the visual aspect of filmmaking and sustaining a distinct mood for the entirety of a film's running time than in such things as dialogue, characterization, and story in general.
If that sounds a bit harsh, I don't mean it to be, just to say that those things are secondary to her given style, so if you require them to enjoy a film, then boy, are you shit out of luck. Probably the best film to compare this to is something like Spring Breakers, which is to say, sort of a tone poem to doing lots of drugs and partying, but not without some nasty things happening along the way.
People die violently, others are eaten alive piece by piece, and no one gives a damn about much aside from themselves, save "Miami Man," who only cares for his daughter, and being a cannibal, he's not exactly that sympathetic, either.
Even Arlen, our main protagonist, isn't particularly likable, and certainly won't win any awards for caregiver of the year, given the fact that she takes drugs at a rave and loses the kid she's looking after- albeit not exactly by choice.
That means that we're looking at what I like to call "Cinema De Terrible," or one of those movies where no one is particularly likable or relatable, and pretty much everyone is a self-serving asshole. Think The Social Network, Wolf of Wall Street, Fight Club, that sort of thing. Nihilist cinema, in other words. Not my favorite type of film, TBH, but it has its fans, I suppose. If you like stuff like that, you might enjoy this.
If you're a fan of some of the filmmakers I mentioned earlier- Jarmusch, Lynch, as well as iconoclastic types of directors like Hal Hartley, Wes Anderson, David Cronenberg or Harmony Korine- then you also might like this, but all others might find it endless, meandering and boring as all get out. I won't lie, it tested my patience at times, much more so than Amirpour's debut, which I quite liked.
At nearly two hours long, there's just not enough happening here to sustain a film of that length. As a short film, it might have been unique and attention-getting, but as a feature, it just runs out of steam. Given that Amirpour has done a fair amount of shorts in her career- Girl also began as a short before being expanded into a feature-length film- it may just be that Amirpour excels at short-form stories, but is at a bit of a loss as to how to sustain an idea for a longer period of time.
I think having a better sense of her characters would be a start- say what you will about some of the directors I mentioned, most of them do have a strong sense of character, even if those characters are no one anyone would want to meet, ever. But that's fine. Although not every movie has to have a likable protagonist, certainly, it does help to at least have a strong sense of character, even so, as it helps the viewer to connect with the material.
For instance, the best character here by far is The Dream, and a lot of that is what Keanu Reeves brings to the table. Once a bit of a punch-line, Reeves, as of late, has turned into a fairly solid character actor, of all things, helped immeasurably by some unpredictable, left-of-center movie choices recently. He's basically Johnny Depp in reverse- he started taking more chances AFTER he hit it big, instead of the other way around.
Anyway, his character here is something to see. Surrounded by a bunch of pregnant, assault-weapon-wielding gorgeous girls, while others sift through drugs of all kinds, the charismatic cult leader is nothing like anything we've seen him play before. I never thought I'd say this about Reeves, but damned if he alone doesn't make the film almost worth seeing, as brief as his appearance may be.
I mean, don't get me wrong. I don't dislike Momoa or even Waterhouse. Momoa has managed to make inherently hissable characters likable before- witness his Game of Thrones character, for instance, which certainly has its fans, and he basically rapes his wife on their (forced) wedding day! I guess I get his appeal, if you're into muscle-bound lunk types.
Meanwhile, Waterhouse, even missing a few limbs, is nothing if not easy on the eyes, even if her character isn't all that sympathetic, which is something, considering one can't help but root for her early on not to become cannibal food.
Once again, I don't think it's necessarily Waterhouse or Momoa's respective faults- they just don't have a lot to work with here, and, unlike Reeves, they don't have enough inherent charisma and talent to make something out of practically nothing.
Then again, Carrey does, and he doesn't make a huge impression, either, so there you go. I suppose there's something to be said for the way he completely disappears into his role.
But ultimately, someone like Ribisi, who at least has some choice dialogue to feast on, is able to do more because he has more to work with, whereas Carrey uncharacteristically practically has no dialogue, which doesn't give him much to work with on his end.
Say what you will about Amirpour's writing skills, she certainly has a director's eye- or at the very least, an ace cinematographer. (Lyle Vincent, who also did the honors on Amirpour's first film, as well as the underrated Urge- another drug-fueled indie flick- is the man behind the lens in question.)
The film did win a Special Jury Prize at the Venice Film Festival, so it's not already without its accolades, but for me, it just didn't quite get there. It's more of a half-baked idea masquerading as a feature-length worthy idea that is painfully padded in places.
Some of the visuals are undeniable, and Reeves is a hoot, but I'm not sure it's enough to wholeheartedly recommend. I'd say it's worth a watch, but maybe don't buy it sight unseen until you know for sure that it will be your cup of tea. Trust me- it won't be everyone's.
That said, Amirpour remains a talent to look out for- with the right material, she could be a contender. I would say the best thing she could do is either hire an outside screenwriter next time out, or, at the very least, find something quirky to adapt that provides her with a solid framework with which to work freely within, i.e. Lynch's work with Barry Gifford (Wild at Heart, Lost Highway) or Mark Frost (Twin Peaks); Tarantino's adaption of Elmore Leonard's Rum Punch, Jackie Brown.
Until then, The Bad Batch isn't quite an outright failure, but it definitely qualifies as Sophomore Slump material, that's for sure. Much like Arlen, you should proceed with caution into this uncharted territory.
Writer's Update: Completely randomly, and in what had to have been a total coincidence, I was watching one of my favorite shows, FX's Legion, later on in the evening after writing this review, and lo and behold, whose name should come up at the end, but... you guessed it, Ana Lily Amirpour, who directed "Chapter Ten" of the show.
Though I'm sure she's got better things to do than read some rando critic's reviews- and regardless, even if she had, the ep must have been in the can for some time- but nonetheless, it served almost as a response to my earlier criticism that she would probably fare way better with a better screenwriter.
In this case, it was the excellent Noah Hawley, who created the show, as well as the superlative TV version of the Coen Brothers' Fargo. And, as I suspected, Amirpour totally rose to the occasion, delivering a top-notch episode, in the show's patented extra-trippy style, having no problem slipping right into the oft-psychedelic shoes of the extremely off-the-charts weird visuals and non-linear sensibilities that is a typical Legion ep.
Hopefully, this will open up a whole new avenue for her considerable talents, and lead to more of the same. I'd certainly love to see what kind of TV show she'd come up with!
For those interested, here's an interview with her about her work on the show, and congrats to her for a job well done. And if you've never seen the show, don't be frightened off by the whole X-Men spin-off/superhero thing (it's ostensibly a take on the comic The New Mutants)- it's nothing like any other such thing you've ever seen, movie, TV or otherwise, trust me.
If David Lynch ever saw fit to do a superhero adaptation, this might be the sort of thing he came up with, I'll put it that way- and yes, that's a total compliment. Do yourself a favor and check it out- bonus points if you're a big-time Aubrey Plaza fan- she's great on it, and sexy AF, if a bit on the cray-cray side.
Congrats, Ana! You knocked it out the park! 👍😘
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