Not by the hair of my chiny, chin, chin
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
You're a 12-year-old living in the mid-eighties, unhappy and lonely. Neglected by your divorcing parents and harassed by cruel bullies at school, life pretty much sucks. That is, until you spy the new girl moving into your apartment complex. She's pretty and interested in you and your Rubik's Cube. Sure, she doesn't wear shoes to walk across the snow-covered ground and is reluctant to develop a close friendship at first, but you overlook that. It's a little harder to dismiss her tendency to drain the townsfolk of their blood and rip the local law enforcement's throat out. Oh yeah, forgot to mention she's a bloodsucking vampire in the body of a 12-year-old girl.
This is the premise for Let Me In, the American remake of Swedish cult masterpiece Let The Right One In. Based on the novel by John Ajvide Lindqvist, Australian actor Kodi Smit-McPhee plays our protagonist Owen and Chloe Mortez is his fangy female friend Abby. Directed by Matt Reeves (Cloverfield, The Yards), Let Me In is a rarity - an American remake of an extraordinary foreign film that isn't blasphemous. Sure, the Swedish subtleties are swapped for blonde-haired and blue-eyed Americanisms, but as a whole the film is a slow, creepy example of modern horror at its best. 
Innocence and evil are contrasted beautifully in the endless snow-filled exteriors, often splashed with arterial red blood. Reeves hasn't deviated too far from the original, adding an extra bonding scene here or a warmer colour palette there, but the biggest difference is the paedophilia and gender themes written out altogether. Which is probably a good thing, given there isn't sufficient time to explore it in the film (like there was in the book) and a superficial take will only leave you slightly baffled like the Swedish version.
The two young leads, Smit-McPhee and Mortez, are extraordinary, the latter proving she can be soft and alluring as well as brutal and full of attitude like her role as Hit Girl in Kick Ass. After star-making turns in The Road and Matching Jack, Smit-McPhee is undoubtedly the male child actor of his generation. His portrayal of Owen is beyond endearing; you actually feel for this sensitive and different child. He wins you over by doing something as small as singing an advertising jingle in his sweet alto, to embracing blood-soaked Abby after she reveals what happens when she's `uninvited'. 
Looking at the big picture, Let Me In is a huge horror achievement but as your watching it everything is understated. The suspense, terror, dread and gore are all slow-building and unlike so many contemporary genre films, it doesn't overdo any of the key elements. Let Me In takes the original vampire mythos, a bloodsucking male preying on the blood of young women, and literally flips it on its head. Reeves proved with Cloverfield that he can make a big, flashy blockbuster when he wants to and it's fantastic to see this upcoming filmmaker is just as capable of handling more muted and intelligent material.
Let Me In is available to rent or buy on DVD now.
Based on the fiercely original graphic novel by Mark Millar and illustrated by John Romita Jr, Kick-Ass follows the story of a teenage fanboy Dave Lizewski (Aaron Johnson) who decides to become a super-hero, even though he has no powers, training or meaningful reason to do so. After being caught on camera saving someone from a beating, Kick-Ass becomes a YouTube phenomenon and a media frenzy descends on the story of a masked vigilante. It is not long before he meets real superheroes in the form of a Hit Girl (Chloe Grace Moretz) and her father Big Daddy (Nicolas Cage), plus newbie Red Mist (Christopher Mintz-Plasse). Together they work to bring down gangster Frank D'Amico (Mark Strong) and his many cronies.
Fans of the graphic novel will be pleased to see it keeps the pacing and many of the quirks of the original story. The actors are all perfectly cast, none more so than Brit Aaron Johnson as the title character. After playing a young John Lennon in Nowhere Boy and now a geek-turned-hero, he is really proving himself to be a remarkable talent. Nicolas Cage always tends to balance on the line between cool and neurotic, but he delivers what is undoubtedly one of his coolest performances to date as the Adam West-esque Big Daddy. The young Chloe Grace Moretz is also a stand out, backing up her dramatic turns in The Poker House and (500) Days of Summer with meaty role few child actors would have been comfortable tackling.
But the film as just as ultra violent, ultra awesome and, in some cases, ultra offensive as its source material. Produced by Brad Pitt (among others) and his production company Plan B Entertainment, it has not lost any of its bite in the transition to the silver screen and as a film, it delivers a one two punch to the traditional comic book movie. Like the bastard child of Tarantino and Spiderman, Kick-Ass proves you can make adult entertainment from a juvenile concept, with a sprinkling of social commentary. The ending leaves opportunity for a sequel, so you can only pray enough people see and support this ballsy film that makes no apologies for what it is.