It’s fairly obvious what Talk to Me is really about — I don’t think many will walk away from it missing the metaphor. A bunch of teens take turns strapped into a chair via belt, gripping a supernatural hand that summons demons/spirits etc. They talk about how good they feel during it, people get pressured into doing it, the youngest kid isn’t allowed to — you probably get it just off that description.
Directed by Danny and Michael Philippou, a pair of YouTubers — the film has a firm grasp (lol) on youth culture. They *get* it folks! Technology is used like it actually would be…that’s rare. Usually in movies , Youths + Tech = cringe* (*a word that gets screentime in talk 2 me) ..Bo Burnham’s Eighth Grade remains one of the only films I’ve seen accurately portray what being a teen in the smartphone age is like. This one is another.
The Philippou’s tease an event early with exagerrated/fantastic sound design then deliver on the tease soon after. They don’t wear out sequences, *they get* that *you get* how the thing works so they speed it up even though you’ve only seen (it) for real once or twice. In many ways it’s a circular story, things come back around…there’s a lot of setup and payoff. It’s good stuff.
The film is significantly heavier than I was expecting for a horror movie from a couple of YouTubers…it’s dealing with a lot; grief and loss and how trauma follows and how it’s so hard to break patterns…how people get stuck in cycles. It’s smart, sharp, tough. I don’t want to say too much here — I recommend it bigly.
Sophia Wilde is incredible as Mia. Miranda Otto as Sue and Zoe Terakes are the other two standouts. Like I said, it’s heavy and they have to do most of the lifting. Marcus Johnson as Max has the most emotional scene.
Is it scary? it’s a horror movie after all. . . yeah I think so. It’s kind of like a flavorful hot sauce..there’s a section of people that only want the HOTTEST hot sauce ever and if its less than that it SUCKS cause its for babies . . . talk to me is not Da Bomb of horror. Not incredibly scary but there’s some great gore — I looked away for a second cause it was gross but excellently done. It’s creepy and there’s a few haunting images. The ideas and themes stay with you more………
The one gripe I have is something I have noticed frequently with new filmmakers in the era of digital . It seems like everyone (not everyone but. a lot of people) (even real pros that have been in the industry for a long time) are opting to shoot with low light + muted colors + low contrast relying on very shallow depth of field. It was one of my chief complaints with Teyana Taylor’s acting debut, a film called A Thousand and One,,, an uneven movie with promise that I mostly liked— did it have to be shot as consistently shallow as it was..no!!!! What happened to deep focus @ Kubrick you gotta be shaking ur head eh smh.
So yeah talk to me looks kinda muted and is often shallow depth of field but there’s a few really striking images, especially the other side stuff in particular with the kid (because there’s a real dominant color, not just white + grey maybe some blue kinda look). It is generally pretty well shot and its a very well made film. I am impressed with those 2. shoutouts to australia
Go see it for sure if you can stomach the themes + horror.
Barbie was obviously going to be about feminism and gender roles. . . unlike talk to me, which was also obviously about something , barbie stopped everything to (lol) talk to me, tell me THE message , even preached at me, which is worse. the satire worked great and the commentary was great when the material was the commentary,,,when the commentary became the material ….ehhh. I’ve written before about how I don’t think 4th wall breaks should be used anymore. We have gotten to a point where it’s just not something you can do. It’s been done so much in so many ways — advertising killed it. If the ad knows it’s an ad it’s not an ad! the marketing exec smiled, nodding his head,,,with blood starting to flow down from his nose
Barbie is so fun and smart when it’s in Barbie Land. I loved that stuff..it’s much weaker with the IRL exec stuff, and REALLY weak when it became an SUV ad? What happened there>? The film looks so rich and gorgeous with those beautiful sets. incredible production design, the cast is perfect for it, costumes perfect..loved all that. Script stretched a little too thin but then it was back to barbie land and we were all good again. It’s really that simple…..good movie.
Greta Gerwig’s a bright and a REAL director an actual artist I’m glad she got a mega ultra hit like this. The stupid minions and morbius irony pilled BS tiktok stuff was funny but like why couldnt it happen to a real movie? is what I said a few years ago (tweet deleted) . and we got it with barbenheimer! Margot Robbie is a movie star for sure and everything Ryan Gosling touches turns to gold.
The lesson in all of this — people want to watch real movies, even if it’s attached to a toy, and they want to see physical things with their eyes. They want to know it’s real even if it’s all fake, isnt that funny? CGI can’t be the start middle and end, somewhere along the way we want to be tethered to reality, preferably more often than not (actors do too). Oppenheimer, practical practical practical, Talk to me had a lot of great in camera tricks/simple physical camera movements. Want to rent the barbie house? you can , because its real! as chris nolan wisely said…practical is the way to go most of the time,,,,if for no other reason than its fun. i contend that if you showed kids jurassic world and buster keaton clips on youtube back to back the keaton stuff would test higher. how’d he do that? is that real? God bless cinema. Bring on Scorcese.
