movie reviews talk to me

Danny and Michael Philippou’s “Talk to Me” cleverly imagines a deadly craze that would easily sweep a generation—this horror movie’s plausibility is one of the freakiest things about it. The social media-feeding frenzy involves spiritual possession, made possible by grasping a ceramic-encased severed hand graffitied with names and symbols that suggest a long line of previous owners. Aussie teens like Mia ( Sophie Wilde ), Jade ( Alexandra Jensen ), and eventually Jade’s younger brother Riley ( Joe Bird ) are the latest players in such a game, which has them seeing dead people and giving them access to their tied-up bodies for 90 seconds, tops. When the spirits are “let in,” the teens suddenly shoot backward in a chair (the camera jolting back with them, the sound mix dropping out), and their pupils burst into a deep black. They shiver, choke, and asphyxiate as if they are gonna die. Meanwhile, their giddy friends surround them, filming. What a rush, as a YouTuber probably once said about eating Tide pods.

It’s a brilliant device for a modern horror story ( Daley Pearson is credited as the concept’s creator), and a franchise waiting to happen (in the case of horror, that often means a fruitful idea is intact, like when “ Final Destination ,” “ The Purge ,” and “ Saw ” first debuted.) “Talk to Me” could easily lead to a higher body count or a more directly spooky story in its sequels. But the game begins small here with a sincere pitch that aims for the gut—this first installment is about watching someone be possessed by horrible ideas of grief, and the damage their decisions inflict on their loved ones.

There are rules for how this dance with death can be done “safely,” and in a snappy montage that mixes partying with possessive play, we get a great sense of what extreme fun it can be for Mia, her friends, and the hand’s current owners, Hayley ( Zoe Terakes ) and Joss ( Chris Alosio ). But everything shifts in a nifty, nasty instant when one of the spirits that overtakes young Riley turns out to be Mia’s mother who died by suicide two years previous. Or at least the spirit claims to be. A freaked-out Mia forces this one communication with the dead to go on too long, putting Riley in a coma with many self-inflicted gashes on his head, an attempt by the spirit to kill his soul and fully control his body.

The second half of “Talk to Me” suffers from being yet another recent horror movie built on the trauma of loss, but it gets a special amount of layers from Sophie Wilde’s excellent performance. It’s not just about Mia trying to hold onto contact with her mother, but her need to not lose her new family, that of Jade, Riley, and their protective mother Sue (played with dry toughness by Miranda Otto ) in the process. We ache for Mia to be OK, especially since she’s such a bright personality—her constant yellow wardrobe always pops, and she has sweet scenes with Riley, like when the Philippous hard-cut to them early on bursting out Sia’s “Chandelier” during a night-time car ride. Wilde exemplifies a feverish, youthful need to balance both the pains of the past and a jeopardized future, and by trying to hack the hand’s magic, she isolates herself from reality in the process. “Talk to Me” could have been more rote without such voluminous work, but Wilde’s tragic interpretation—her big-screen debut—is one for the horror movie history books.

The Philippous rarely show us the TikToks or Snapchats that document these possessions, but we don’t need to see them: these freaky scenarios play out exactly as they might in real life, with writers Danny Philippou and Bill Hinzman allowing teens to be teens. When everything starts to fall apart—and souls are on the line—the characters just become more stubborn, their desperation making things worse and even more dangerous. “Talk to Me” has the bare wisdom of a coming-of-age tale, and while it conjures a few excellent moments of guffawing disbelief from the audience, it never talks down to the audience it wants to reflect. The Philippous’ filmmaking comes from YouTube (known there as RackaRacka), and their eye for this psychology is more savvy than it is cynical.

A good deal of nasty fun is scattered throughout “Talk to Me,” especially for fans of well-made blood-dribbling head wounds, sound design that makes you wince without relying on jump scares, and a tone that doesn’t play nice. Plus, the movie’s playful possession scenes get better and better (the movie’s young cast is impressive wriggling in those chairs, even if the possession make-up style looks familiar to so many other movies). But “Talk to Me” can bank too much of its quality on simply being a good pitch best fulfilled later—it’s hard not to see its gripping opening scene of terror, a one-shot through an unrelated, crowded party, as an isolated red herring not followed through by the rest of the film. The movie’s overall restraint is admirable, and best felt in the numerous moments when the camera holds on someone’s scared face, so we can build dread about what ghoul they are looking at. But “Talk to Me” risks holding back too much despite its excellent concept’s promise.

Whether or not we get more rounds with this hand of fate, “Talk to Me” lingers as a striking and confident directorial debut from the Philippous, whose penchant for hyper-active YouTube fight and prank vids is mostly evident in this movie’s emotional carnage. With such a playful send-up on a possession story, the Philippous have successfully crossed over into feature filmmaking, but it will take a little more genre ingenuity for us to keep talking about them.

Now playing in theaters.

Nick Allen is the former Senior Editor at RogerEbert.com and a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association.

Sophie Wilde as Mia
Joe Bird as Riley
Alexandra Jensen as Jade
Otis Dhanji as Daniel
Miranda Otto as Sue
Zoe Terakes as Hayley
Chris Alosio as Joss
Marcus Johnson as Max
Alexandria Steffensen as Rhea
Ari McCarthy as Cole
Sunny Johnson as Duckett

Cinematographer

Aaron McLisky
Bill Hinzman
Danny Philippou
Cornel Wilczek
Michael Philippou

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Critic’s Pick

‘Talk to Me’ Review: Letting the Wrong One In

A bereaved young woman falls under the spell of a dangerous artifact in this vibrant and poignant horror debut.

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A close up of a woman, eyes closed, tears streaming down her face.

By Jeannette Catsoulis

Steeped in yearning and chockablock with shocks, “Talk to Me,” the first feature from the Australian filmmaking brothers Danny Philippou and Michael Philippou, is a horror movie huddled tightly around a story of filial grief. The result is an enduring melancholy that no amount of ghouls or gore can entirely dispel.

A shifting weave of tones and textures, the movie owes much of its potency to Sophie Wilde’s continually evolving lead performance as Mia, an anxious teenager barely coping with her mother’s death a year earlier. Unable to connect with her emotionally distant father (Marcus Johnson), Mia has created a surrogate family with her best friend, Jade (Alexandra Jensen), and Jade’s younger brother, Riley (a remarkable Joe Bird). Yet Mia remains alienated, hanging awkwardly apart from her raucous, thrill-seeking friends, wearing her bereavement like a scarlet letter.

An opportunity to belong arises at a rambunctious house party, where a new game involving an embalmed hand — frozen in the handshake position and supposedly chopped from a long-dead medium — is being played. The rules are simple: Grip the hand, say “Talk to me,” and a ghost will appear. If you are then brave enough to tender an invitation, the entity will obligingly possess you while your guffawing friends, smartphones at the ready, gleefully capture its disturbing, sometimes embarrassing behavior. The spirit’s move-in is easy; the eviction is where things get sticky.

Distinguished by wonderfully gooey practical effects and deeply distressing visual jolts (especially when young Riley falls under the hand’s malignant influence), “Talk to Me” has a hurtling energy that’s often violent but never purposefully cruel. The film’s ideas are not novel, or even fully formed (the narrative has more holes than a lace doily); yet by choosing simplicity over specifics, the filmmakers free themselves from the weight of words and open up space for a mood of intense disquiet and unusual sensitivity. Their empathy for Mia — whose longing for connection has blinded her to the game’s deceptions and dangers — is unexpectedly touching.

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A riveting look at the life of legendary DJ "Petey" Greene, Talk to Me goes beyond the typical biopic with explosive performances from Don Cheadle and Chiwetal Ejiofor.

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Talk to Me Is Horror Made by and for the Internet Generation

Kids are going to do stupid stuff. But what does being terminally online do to IRL relationships when the entire internet is in the palm of your hand? In that world, what does real connection even look like?

These were some of the many questions posed by Talk to Me , the new horror film from directing duo Danny and Michael Philippou. This movie isn’t really about the internet, which forms an invisible presence in the background, reaching in to influence the characters’ lives. In that way, it’s not unlike the deceased spirits the film’s protagonists are trying to contact.

But I’m getting ahead of myself.

Talk to Me centers on Mia (Sophia Wild), a teenager who became close with brother-sister pair Riley and Jade (Joe Bird and Alexandra Jensen) following the death of her mother. At a house party, one of the trio’s friends produces a mysterious ceramic hand, etched with cryptic writing. Light a candle, hold the hand, say the titular line, and the totem can bring anyone face-to-face with a random dead person’s ghost. With another voice command, the hand can even let the spirit into their body for a short while.

While the premise sounds like so many other movies about teens dabbling in the dark arts, each of the seances are shot like they’re in your stoner friend’s basement in college. One by one, the kids are possessed while the others pull out their phones and laugh at how strung out they get. Then the kids post the videos online, despite their friends’ protests.

With this framing, much of the horror in the film comes not from nameless hell spawn, but from the callousness with which peers bully each other—and the fear of losing what found family you still have. In fact, for much of the film, letting a dead person possess the kids’ bodies is almost portrayed as harmless fun. Don’t stay possessed for too long; don’t take too high a dose of the underworld—but as long as you’re safe, it should be fine.

Things only start to go off the rails when the spirits become more familiar. This ties in to the film’s themes of connection, grief, and coping mechanisms. But what I find most fascinating is how the characters are egged on by the pressure of social media.

While that’s not the focus of the movie, it’s hard to avoid, given that the directors got their start on YouTube. The twins have been creating videos since before they were teenagers, and in at least one instance, one of them was arrested for a stunt that involved driving a car filled with water .

It’s hard not to feel that extra weight when the phones come out. Kids are being peer-pressured to take a hit of supernatural powers that none of them can control. And when they get freaked out or terrified by what they experience, well, that’s #content, baby.

Talk to Me doesn’t dwell on the internet itself—there’s no montage of likes and comments or even any indication of whether anyone’s watching the videos at all. The movie concerns itself more with how the pressure to perform can affect the person who’s captured on camera.

It’s an added dimension in a horror film that manages to keep audiences on edge while exploring how difficult it can be to find safe connections and community in the midst of tragedy.

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‘Talk to Me’ Is a Thrillingly Weird Horror-Movie Debut From A24

By David Fear

Teenagers — you can’t reason with them, you can’t get them off their phones, and you definitely can’t convince them that fucking around with a cursed mummified hand that allows them to speak to the dead is a bad idea, amirite? Talk to Me, the directorial debut from Australian twin brothers Danny and Michael Philippou , starts with the premise that if a group of suburban high schoolers somehow came into contact with a mysterious body part, encased in plaster and petrified into a permanent claw, they would not turn it in to the authorities, contact a museum curator, or alert their local priest or rabbi. Instead, they would immediately treat it like the supernatural equivalent of a nitrous oxide canister, taking collective hits off of it and posting the results on social media for the lulz. These filmmakers know their audience all too well.

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Talk to me's reviews break a 2023 horror movie rotten tomatoes record.

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Talk to Me is Certified Fresh with a positive review score of 96% on Rotten Tomatoes, making it 2023's highest-rated horror movie so far.
It has surpassed notable A24 horror films like Hereditary and Midsommar, as well as other major cinematic releases of the year.
Critics are praising the film's quality filmmaking, interesting spin on a familiar concept, psychological terror, and the performance of lead Sophia Wilde. The Philippou brothers may have just released a modern horror classic.

Reviews are pouring in for A24's psychological horror movie Talk to Me , and it's on pace to set a significant record for 2023 horror films. According to review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes , with 100 critic reviews in, Talk to Me is Certified Fresh with a positive review score of 96%. Obviously, that's a good sign of the upcoming film's potential for success at the box office.

Talk To Me is yet another supernatural horror movie looking to make waves at the box office. Prior to its theatrical release, the Australian film had its world premiere at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival. The film tells the story of several teenagers who discover how to summon spirits and end up getting much more than they bargained for and in turn face deadly consequences for their actions.

Talk To Me Is 2023's Highest-Rated Horror Movie On Rotten Tomatoes

Talk To Me's 96% Rotten Tomatoes score makes it A24's highest-rated horror movie ever , an impressive feat considering that it is on pace to beat out notable titles from the A24 horror hit factory like Hereditary , Midsommar and The Witch . But more important than its rank among A24's horror films is its rank across the entirety of horror films in 2023. Assuming that the rating for Talk to Me holds (or improves), it will be the highest-rated horror movie of 2023 so far. In fact, it will rank among the highest-rated major cinematic releases of the year, regardless of genre.

Talk to Me 's 96% Rotten Tomatoes score puts it in the upper echelon of Hollywood hits for 2023, beating out critically-acclaimed films like Creed III . Not only that, it currently sits at the very top of the list for horror films. Horror-comedy M3gan , which has a 93% on Rotten Tomatoes, held the title as far as mainstream Hollywood horror movies are concerned, but Talk to Me has since surpassed it. Talk to Me 's ranking is especially impressive in 2023, which has seen a number of horror movies perform well. Talk To Me has beaten M3gan , as well as other high-quality horror flicks like The Blackening (87%), Evil Dead Rise (84% ) , and Scream VI (76%). While there are still a handful of horror films with great potential on the way in 2023, they will all be hard-pressed to overtake Talk to Me .

Related: A24's Highest-Rated Horror Movie Ever on Rotten Tomatoes Releases This Week

Why Talk To Me's Reviews Are So Positive

The core concept of Talk to Me isn't unique - simply put, it's about a group of young people messing around with a method of getting closer to death, similar to any ouija board-based story. What apparently sets Talk to Me apart is a combination of quality filmmaking and an interesting spin on a familiar concept. Rotten Tomatoes' Critics Consensus for the movie states, "With a gripping story and impressive practical effects, Talk to Me spins a terrifically-creepy 21st-century horror yarn built on classic foundations." [via Rotten Tomatoes .]

An examination of individual reviews reveals some further details about what critics are responding to. Many mention the skill and style with which the film is directed by 30-year-old twin brothers from Australia, Danny and Michael Philippou , who are making their directorial debut with Talk to Me . Others make mention of the psychological terror invoked by the film, as it deftly deals with grief and depression. Praise for the movie's lead Sophia Wilde is also common, alongside postive reception for well-executed scares throughout the film. If its early Rotten Tomatoes score is any indication, the Philippou brothers may have just released a true modern horror classic with Talk to Me .

Source: Rotten Tomatoes

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Movie Review: Horror flick ‘Talk to Me’ is a hand-some high-five for twin Australian filmmakers

This image released by A24 Films shows Sophie Wilde in a scene from “Talk to Me.” (A24 via AP)

This image released by A24 Films shows Sophie Wilde in a scene from “Talk to Me.” (Matthew Thorne/A24 via AP)

This image released by A24 Films shows Joe Bird in a scene from “Talk to Me.” (Matthew Thorne/A24 via AP)

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You’ve got to hand it to the Philippou brothers. They’ve taken an old horror cliche — a severed hand — and made something worth, well, applauding.

“Talk to Me,” which hits theaters this Friday, is a stylish, well-crafted piece of filmmaking that marks the auspicious arrival of twin Australian filmmakers Michael and Danny Philippou.

Directed by the brothers from a script by Danny Philippou and Bill Hinzman, “Talk to Me” is modern and yet ancient, with just enough jump-cuts and zombies and dread, but not too much. It also downshifts out of madness in the final third to explore loss and guilt just when most films would ramp up the running-from-scary-guys part.

Our focus here are a pack of teens in Australia. Teens Down Under are pretty much the same as they are everywhere — snarky, peer-pressure-y and clique-y. But in addition to stealing their parents’ booze and smoking, these guys have a porcelain hand that is a doorway to hell.

Curiously, these teens don’t sit around and play beer pong or spin-the-bottle. They take turns holding the hand and inviting whatever bug-eyed, damp and foul demon to enter their body. (For not too long, though: 90 seconds sounds good before someone needs to cut the connection.) The kids film it all on their phones and post it on social media. (Who should get royalties isn’t clear.)

OK, let’s talk about this hand, which initially just looks like one of those mannequin pieces you find in upscale jewelry stores to show off expensive rings. It’s got loads of graffiti but looks pleasant enough. Underneath the porcelain we’re told, might be the severed hand of a medium or a satanist. Don’t ask a lot of questions about how some teens in suburban Australia got it. Talk to the hand.

What’s surprising is the joy it brings to our weird group. Being possessed in this movie is a rush — an unconventional idea in the horror genre — even though the demon who briefly controls you can do embarrassing things, like make out with a dog. The script seems to be playing with notions of recreational drugs as much as horror here.

The heroine of this tale is played by Sophie Wilde and it’s her vehicle to stardom, too. It’s a role that asks her to be sad, exuberant, frightened, deadly, possessed, lusty, mournful and vengeful. She is all those things and more. She’s one to watch.

Her Mia is grieving the anniversary of her mother’s suspicious death and a demon that may or may not be mom shows up during their little game. That leads the plot in the second half to go supernatural and where holes in the logic tend to stretch.

But there’s no doubt the Philippou brothers have possessed us. Born and raised on YouTube — they cut their filmmaking teeth building RackaRacka (take that, fancy film schools) — they’ve crashed the party with a great debut. Welcome them warmly, just don’t shake their hands.

“Talk to Me,” an A24 release, is rated R for “strong, bloody violent content, some sexual material and language throughout.” Running time: 95 minutes. Three stars out of four.

MPAA definition of R: Restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian.

Mark Kennedy is at http://twitter.com/KennedyTwits

Review: You have to hand it to ‘Talk to Me,’ a gripping thriller about love and loss

A woman sitting in an upholstered chair grips a ceramic model of a hand sitting on a table in front of her

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If Regan MacNeil were to go skittering backward down the stairs today, would her onlookers scream in terror or whip out their phones — or both? The question comes to mind more than once during “Talk to Me,” a viscerally effective supernatural freakout in which demonic possession isn’t just an abomination but an addiction, a recreational pastime and sometimes even a viral event.

In the movie’s most pleasurably disturbing sequence, several thrill-seeking teenagers take turns shaking hands with the devil, conjuring malevolent spirits for a brief spell and videoing the results for kicks, laughs and internet posterity. Better judgment be damned; the power of likes compels them.

The idea that kids these days might rent out their bodies and risk their souls for 90 seconds at a time is so darkly funny and spookily resonant, it’s a bit of a letdown that this sharp, bristling Australian thriller doesn’t take it much further. What the concept does establish from the outset — starting with a squirmy house-party prologue, featuring much stabbing of flesh and waving of phones — is a keen sense of the dark side of youthful anomie, and the ways even an ostensibly good time can go lethally awry. Danny and Michael Philippou, twin brothers making a slick and assured feature directing debut, know that a casual hangout isn’t always just a casual hangout, especially when there are lingering rivalries and unhealed traumas festering just beneath the surface.

Purely in terms of latent emotional volatility, the most troubled and troubling character in “Talk to Me” is its teenage protagonist, Mia (the excellent newcomer Sophie Wilde), who’s hiding more than her share of scars beneath her warm smile and gregarious demeanor. Since her mother’s untimely death not too long ago, Mia spends less time at home and more time with her best friend, Jade (Alexandra Jensen), and Jade’s younger brother, Riley (Joe Bird, in a superb and surprising performance). It’s both telling and touching that one of the first times we see Mia, she’s giving Riley a ride home, with both of them belting along to Sia‘s “Chandelier” on the radio. The two are practically surrogate siblings; unlike Jade, with whom Riley bickers constantly, Mia is the cool big sister he wishes he had.

But then the car stops, its headlights revealing a mortally wounded kangaroo — a regionally specific piece of roadkill, yes, but otherwise an all-too-familiar harbinger of horror-movie disaster. Before long, Jade, Riley and Mia find themselves at a party, where they’re sucked into a game centered on a creepily disembodied hand, now embalmed and encased in ceramic, that’s rumored to have once belonged to a medium with the power to conjure the dead. The hand’s rowdy present owners (Zoe Terakes and Chris Alosio) lay out the rules: With a few magic words (“Talk to me,” “I let you in”) and a firm, willing handshake, each player can invite a spirit into their body, with deliciously freaky results. But the invitation must be revoked in 90 seconds or less, lest the possession risk becoming permanent.

A woman screams, her palm against the glass

It’s a nifty, hooky premise, one that soon gives rise to that inspired recreational montage. The grotesque prosthetic effects and nerve-shredding sound design are first rate; they’re also a calculatedly showy distraction. Beneath all the creepy pupil dilations and ghoulish makeup, the Philippou brothers, working from a script by Danny Philippou and Bill Hinzman, maintain a strong grip on the group’s emotional dynamics, layering on the minor misunderstandings and petty jealousies while maneuvering their characters into position. By the time Mia comes face to face with what may be the spirit of her late mom, what began as a game has tilted into a full-blown hallucinatory nightmare.

The specifics, violent and terrifying, are best left for you to discover. Suffice to say that Mia is hurled into a maelstrom of guilt, terror and desperation that finds her suddenly estranged from a family — Jade’s — that had come to feel like her own. To some extent, “Talk to Me” is very much about this blurring of emotional and relational boundaries. With parents and children so often at odds, whether it’s Jade arguing with her protective single mother (a fine Miranda Otto) or Mia walling herself off from her grieving dad (Marcus Johnson), real family is often where you find it. The intimacy of friendship becomes its own benign form of possession, a willing exchange of souls.

These are fascinating, even moving ideas, even if the Philippou brothers don’t always have them entirely under control. In its harrowing closing stretch, the narrative begins to unravel in ways both effective and not; as Mia struggles to appease or defeat the demonic forces in her midst, it’s not always clear if the movie is dramatizing or succumbing to her break with reality.

But even when “Talk to Me” flirts with incoherence, Wilde pulls it back from the brink. More than just a great scream queen, she makes vivid sense of Mia’s ravaged emotions, revealing her to be a captive less to the spirit realm than to her own inconsolable grief. She’s the movie’s revelation, hands down.

'Talk to Me'

Rating: R, for strong/bloody violent content, some sexual material and language throughout Running time: 1 hour, 35 minutes Playing: Starts July 28 in general release

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Talk To Me is a potent dose of unrelenting teen horror

A familiar premise is elevated by a combination of brutal violence and urgent pacing.

By Andrew Webster , an entertainment editor covering streaming, virtual worlds, and every single Pokémon video game. Andrew joined The Verge in 2012, writing over 4,000 stories.

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A still photo from the horror movie Talk To Me.

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: a group of high school kids gets their hands on a cursed occult object, and after some fun and games, they end up being terrorized by a presence from the other side. It’s not the most original premise. But in Talk To Me — the directorial debut from brothers Danny and Michael Philippou, best known for their YouTube channel — it takes on a new urgency and ferocity with a story that races to its bloody, brutal conclusion without letting up.

The occult object in question is an embalmed hand that supposedly has the power to let people see, and be possessed by, the spirits of dead folk. The process is straightforward: you grab the hand, say “talk to me” to summon a random specter, and then say “I let you in” to invite them to inhabit your body. It’s creepy stuff, and easy to repeat, making it the ideal thing for viral video fame. Suddenly, high school kids in Australia are watching videos of what appear to be possessions, sometimes ending in a splash of blood. Of course, it’s just a hoax, right?

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Mia (Sophie Wilde) first experiences the effects of the ritual at a party, and she instantly becomes hooked. Possession, it seems, is as addictive as a drug — especially for teens going through a tough time, where being out of body for a bit is a welcome change. This is Mia, who is grieving the loss of her mother, and who clings desperately to her friends Jade (Alexandra Jensen) and Riley (Joe Bird) to stave off the loneliness. Not long after her first experience, she tries it again and — despite objections — lets Riley join in, too.

One important part of the ritual is timing. Let the spirit stay in for too long, and it won’t want to leave. Her inability to stop going back for more possessions, combined with this very strict rule, ends up leaving Mia haunted by terrifying visions, while she’s also trying to save her friend from a living nightmare.

What follows is a fairly standard ghost story, but one that’s elevated by urgency and brutality. Seriously, when bad things happen in this movie, they’re really bad — “I had to look away from the screen” bad. Possessed kids brutalizing themselves, horrifying visions of the afterlife, and deaths that, even when you see them coming, are so violent you can’t help but wince. That’s perhaps to be expected from a film helmed by the proprietors of a YouTube channel full of goofy and gory videos. But the Philippou brothers show a remarkable amount of restraint in Talk To Me . There’s more to the violence than pure shock value; it punctuates the story, which — once it gets going — moves at an unrelenting pace. The twists and turns aren’t necessarily all that surprising, in retrospect, but they come at you so quickly that it feels like you barely have a minute to catch your breath.

If nothing else, Talk To Me is a shockingly competent debut — and not at all what I expected from a horror movie made by YouTube stars. It may be a movie about viral videos — but the film itself is much more than an extended YouTube skit.

This review is based on a screening at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival. Talk To Me doesn’t currently have a premiere date, but it’s reportedly been acquired by A24 for distribution .

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Talk to Me Review: An Ingenious, Terrifying Horror Thriller

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Horror movies have a tendency to get repetitive, and not just because of sequels designed to cash in and strip mine a premise. Hollywood is a reactionary place, with producers rushing to duplicate the success of others rather than run the risk of — gasp — trying something new. Every now and again, however, the horror genre gets a much-needed shot of adrenaline that jump starts imaginations and sends viewers flocking to the cinema.

Get out your hypodermics, kids.

Talk to Me , the debut feature from writer/directors Danny and Michael Philippou, plunges the adrenaline syringe deep into the arm of viewers, leaves it there, and proceeds to spend the ensuing 95 minutes keeping them frazzled. We never thought we would write such high praise for a directing duo that began its career on YouTube . Nonetheless, the Brothers Philippou have crafted one of the most thrilling horror films in recent memory, and done so on a minimal budget.

A group of Australian teenagers have discovered a new social media fad . A ceramic hand — allegedly encasing an actual human member — can open a dialogue with the souls of the dead. Mia (Sophie Wilde) and Jade (Alexandra Jensen) attend a party with some friends to see if the rumors about the hand have any merit. The pair have a long history as best friends, with Mia becoming an unofficial big sister to Jade’s younger brother, Riley (Joe Bird). Riley and Jade’s mother, Sue (Miranda Otto), also dotes over Mia, who lost her own mother to a drug overdose.

Mia, Jade, Riley, and Jade’s boyfriend Daniel (Otis Dhanji) all get to see the hand’s power in action: for exactly 90 seconds, a participant dissociates from his body and experiences a rush of euphoria. Everyone else in the room then get to watch as various spirits inhabit the participant’s body. Exceed the 90 seconds, and the spirits can take permanent control. At first, the kids love the novelty of talking to the dead. Then Mia makes contact with her dead mother, and things take a dangerous turn.

Getting Handsy

The Philippous populate Talk to Me with lots of hand imagery. On an absolute level, this is a story about severed connections and loneliness. Mia wants to speak to her dead mother again. Jade has trouble relating to Mia because of her relationship with Daniel. Riley wants to party with the big kids, but feels like an outsider.

These feelings of isolation drive the characters to commune with the hand, despite the obvious danger. They don’t want a thrill. They want affection. They want community. That motivation makes the actions of the characters—no matter how ludicrous—relatable. It also helps that all the young performers actually look like real teenagers, rather than 20 and 30-somethings slathered under make-up.

The obvious antecedent to Talk to Me is Flatliners, Joel Schumacher’s cult film about a group of med students who “die” momentarily in order to make contact with the dead. Whereas that movie relied on special effects, the Philippous adopt a more unorthodox approach. The pair achieve most of their supernatural images through a combination of clever editing and in-camera tricks. Apart from a handful of obvious computer-altered shots, everything here has a physical feel to it, which adds to the tension.

Related: Best A24 Horror Movies, Ranked

Horror movies also have a habit of either A) showing the monster to the audience before the characters see it to create suspense or B) having the spooky creature jump out in front of the camera, in essence yelling “BOO!” at the audience. The Philippous do the opposite in Talk to Me . Characters see the frightening thing before the audience does. Their horrified reactions ratchet up the tension a considerable degree. The audience in our screening of Talk to Me seemed to want to climb the walls.

That the camera lingers on the faces of the characters also gets at the directors’ boldest choice. The success of Talk to Me rests almost solely on the performances of the actors to sell the horror. That requires some very difficult work from Bird, and in particular, from Wilde. Had either of their performances faltered for even a moment, Talk to Me would have collapsed under its own weight. Bird approaches his role with total abandon, making Riley by turns both lovable and repulsive. His youth and inexperience (this is, to date, his fourth role) make his work here all the more impressive.

A Star Is Born with Sophie Wilde

History, however, will remember Talk to Me as a star-making performance for Sophie Wilde . Horror movies seldom allow an actor to run the full emotional gamut in a movie, and even then, only a few titles — The Exorcist, Whatever Happened to Baby Jane, The Sixth Sense — demand as much attention to the acting.

Related: How A24 Has Been a Pioneer in Modern Horror

Wilde commands the screen in every frame of Talk to Me , giving a performance that's both heartbreaking and unnerving. This is her second movie, but it will not be her last. If she makes wise career choices, Wilde could follow in the footsteps of Cillian Murphy, Jamie Lee Curtis, and Sigourney Weaver: performers that had breakout roles in horror films and went on to long and beloved careers in the movies. She’s damn good here.

Talk to Me doesn’t rely on heavy special effects, gratuitous violence, a high body count, or an established franchise to tell its story. On the contrary, it depends on the performances of its actors and relatable characters to draw an audience in. Despite a ludicrous premise, every moment of the film feels grounded in our reality. With their debut feature, Danny and Michael Philippou have proven that ingenuity and creativity in cinema do not require massive budgets or special effects to thrill, horrify, and yes, entertain.

Apropos of nothing, Talk to Me arrives in cinemas via acclaimed art house studio A24, the same artists behind such sleeper hits as Midsommar, Heredity, Everything Everywhere All at Once, and the TV series Euphoria . While “big league” studios continue to churn out sequels, reboots, and cannibalized versions of animated films (looking at you, Disney) in a real-life horror movie of sorts, it’s comforting to know that one studio remembers that movie magic begins with a captivating story and inventive talent, not a title. Go see Talk to Me and prepare to hear screams … followed by applause.

A24's Talk to Me opens in cinemas on July 28.

Movie and TV Reviews
Talk to Me (2023) (2023)

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‘talk to me’ review: mingling with the spirit world brings bone-chilling shocks in australian horror debut.

Twin brothers Danny and Michael Philippou springboard from their popular YouTube channel into features with this tale of possession for the viral-video generation, picked up by A24.

By David Rooney

David Rooney

Chief Film Critic

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A24’s new horror hit, Talk To Me, begins in a rowdy fit of chaos. The film, which debuted on July 28, tells a tale of teens playing party games with an embalmed hand—which allows them to see and speak to the undead. What could go wrong, right?

Well, Danny and Michael Philippou —Australian YouTubers who make their directorial debuts in Talk to Me — throw us into the middle of a high school house party. We see the familiar pounding of electronic music and teenagers drunkenly stumbling over each other. The camera focuses on the back of our desperate protagonist, Cole (Ari McCarthy), who is searching for his brother, Duckett (Sunny Johnson). Finally, we settle in on a locked door, and Duckett is on the other side. Cole bangs on the door. That doesn't work. He smashes his shoulder on it. Still no luck. Then, Cole kicks it down. What lies within the room? Are we ready to see it?

Throughout Talk to Me , I kept coming back to this moment—which, it turns out, foreshadows the dark crux of the film : How do we reach out to our lost loved ones, when they’ve closed themselves off to us, locked the door, and thrown away the key?

Known for their chaotic YouTube videos , the Philippou brothers' first feature effort shows off a surprisingly deft ability to balance emotional weight with well-calculated scares. After Talk to Me 's world premiere at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival, those who saw the movie immediately labeled it as the scariest film of the year. Critics gave Talk to Me just about every superlative in the horror-movie lexicon. (" Talk to Me delivers an intense, nightmarish horror movie that’ll leave you breathless.") But walk into Talk To Me expecting scares and gore on the level of Hereditary or X, and you’ll be disappointed. Really, the film delivers its best thrills when the emotional drama is dialed up to the max—and the blood and guts are dialed back.

This is painfully evident from Talk To Me ’s first scene, which pulses with narrative intent. When Cole finally makes it to his brother, we know that something isn’t right. He argues with Duckett, who is seemingly catatonic, speaking in cryptic, disturbing phrases. Cole shields his brother from the barrage of iPhone-wielding teens—who are more interested in recording the situation than stepping in to help. Before the brothers can reconcile or escape, Duckett grabs a knife, stabs his brother, and kills himself. With an inexplicable act of violence between two brothers—Cole trying to save Duckett, and Duckett overcome with demonic rage— Talk to Me immediately begins to elevate itself from a simple possession story to a gut-wrenching tale about the crippling loneliness of grief.

It's a natural segue into another family tragedy: the introduction of Mia (Sophie Wilde), a young girl who is struggling to understand her mother’s sudden death—and her father’s ensuing depression. Mia’s loneliness bleeds through the screen; we only see her light up when she spends time with her friends Jade (Alexandra Jensen) and Riley (Joe Bird). The three go to a party, where everyone's playing a game, if you can even call it that: grabbing an embalmed hand, saying "talk to me,” and welcoming spirits into your body. But the possessions should never go over 90 seconds. The hand, rumored to be the dismembered appendage of a powerful medium, is a red herring—and we quickly learn that it's not nearly the scariest thing in Talk to Me.

Eventually, it's Mia's turn to grab the hand, which gives her visions of decaying corpses. But her brush with these spirits quickly turns physical. They contort Mia’s face and blow out her pupils until her eyes go completely black. When doors slam open and disembodied voices ring from the rest of the teens' mouths, everyone is downright thrilled . Even Mia, who is downright joyful after her ghostly encounter. Wilde skillfully portrays Mia’s turn from fragile and forlorn to giddy and enthralled by this dark thrill. It’s hard to keep your eyes off her—just like all the other kids in the room, who eagerly record her every move. Like Duckett, Mia finally found her escape.

A group of teens playing dangerous with a ghostly conduit? It's hardly a brand-new convention. Still, Talk to Me feels fresh, due to the emotionally grounded performances of its young cast, and how the Philippous continuously raise the stakes on the consequences of their characters’ horrendous choices. By chasing the high she gets from communing with the dead, Mia avoids confronting the painful truth about her mother's death and reconciling with her father. When she finally contacts the spirit of whom she thinks is her mother—communicating through a possessed Riley—she goes past the 90-second safety window, which causes the young boy to beat himself nearly to death.

But Talk to Me 's biggest scares aren’t the few scenes of violence, Mia’s ghoulish mother, or even Mia's nightmarish vision of undead bodies torturing Riley’s soul while he lies comatose in the hospital. The true horror is watching Mia, in her loneliness and desperation, fall victim to the voices telling her to hurt the ones who love and care for her. Blood and guts may exhilarate you, but the Philippous know that it's the secret wounds that keep you up at night. They gladly sink their embalmed hand into those sore spots and don't let go.

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Common Sense Media Review

By Cynthia Fuchs , based on child development research. How do we rate?

Cheadle shines in radio icon biopic. Not for kids.

Parents Need to Know

Why Age 16+?

Frequent cigarette smoking and drinking (in bar scenes and elsewhere); Petey app

Frequent and varied language, including "f--k" (at least 35 times, sometimes wit

Vernell repeatedly wears short, cleavage-enhancing outfits (she calls it "Foxy-e

A fight in the office includes punching; report of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s ass

References to and images of popular figures of the day, including Foxy Brown, Be

Any Positive Content?

Petey is rude and crude, drinks and smokes to excess, and repeatedly resists aut

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Frequent cigarette smoking and drinking (in bar scenes and elsewhere); Petey appears staggering drunk at a concert he's meant to emcee (he vomits) and is also drunk for his appearance on The Tonight Show ; allusions to drug abuse; Petey looks ill at the end, coughing harshly (apparently the result of his many years abusing drugs, liquor, and cigarettes).

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Frequent and varied language, including "f--k" (at least 35 times, sometimes with "mother-"), "damn," "s--t" (25+), "ass," "b--ch," "hell," "p--sy," as well as repeated uses of the n-word (at least 25 times) and a string of anti-white slang ("honky," "ofay," "peckerwood," "cracker").

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Vernell repeatedly wears short, cleavage-enhancing outfits (she calls it "Foxy-ed up," as in the movie character Foxy Brown); she visits Petey in prison in the "booty line," removes her bra from beneath her shirt and hands it to Dewey in public, and engages in deep kissing in public places. Sexual language includes repeated uses of "d--k," "pimp," and other phrases ("What you got in your boxers?"). A naked man appears on the prison rooftop (not explicit, but plain enough). Vernell catches Petey having sex with another woman (naked buttocks visible) and gets very upset, revealing a sexual liaison with Petey's coworker (it takes place off-screen, but she flaunts it).

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Violence & Scariness

A fight in the office includes punching; report of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s assassination leads to riots in D.C. streets (fires, looting, car explosion).

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Products & Purchases

References to and images of popular figures of the day, including Foxy Brown, Berry Gordy, James Brown, Michael Jackson, Sam Cooke, Bette Midler, Johnny Carson, "Mr. Tibbs" (from In the Heat of the Night ), etc.

Positive Messages

Petey is rude and crude, drinks and smokes to excess, and repeatedly resists authority (even claiming to have stolen silverware fro the White House); still, he embodies a moral code, speaking truth to power.

Parents need to know that this biopic about controversial '60s radio host Petey Greene isn't for kids. Though Greene is often very funny, the film focuses on the sources of his comedy: his anger at oppressive systems of class and racism. Expect lots of sexual references and sexy outfits (a couple of scenes, while not explicit, also show some lively writhing). A fight (punching and falling) between rivals ends when Martin Luther King, Jr.'s assassination is announced; a brief sequence following shows street rioting (looting, flames, explosion). Language is super spicy and includes lots of uses of both "f--k" and the "N" word (spoken by African-American characters). To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

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Parents say (1)

Based on 1 parent review

What's the Story?

TALK TO ME chronicles the career of controversial Washington, D.C., radio personality Petey Greene ( Don Cheadle ), an ex-convict who described himself as "a 'N'-word in America telling it like it is, telling the truth." From prison, Petey convinces station manager Dewey Hughes ( Chiwetel Ejiofor ) to hire him as a DJ. Petey arrives at the radio station determined to prove himself. Though Dewey's boss ( Martin Sheen ) has doubts, Petey draws listeners, uniting the community and becoming a local hero. At the same time, Petey's personal life suffers from his excessive use of alcohol and drug. Though Dewey encourages him to greater and greater visibility, Petey rejects going mainstream because he sees constraints in performing to audiences outside his community. At last he has a profound moment, seeing before him an expectant "room full of white folks" who want to see him make fun of his background. He makes a fateful decision that the film represents as a mixture of disappointment and resistance.

Is It Any Good?

Kasi Lemmons 's smart, enthralling TALK TO ME shows that Greene was at once inspired and troubled, ambitious and self-destructive. Greene makes his difficult decision in a what is a fittingly complicated scene that showcases both Greene's and Cheadle's brilliance.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about the accuracy of biopics. Do you think movies based on true stories (particularly one person's life) generally stick to the facts? Why would filmmakers change details? How could you find out what really happened and what might have been exaggerated? Families can also discuss what Petey's commentary has in common with the later humor of comics like Richard Pryor and Dave Chappelle. What function does envelope-pushing "shock" comedy serve in society?

Movie Details

In theaters : July 12, 2007
On DVD or streaming : October 30, 2007
Cast : Chiwetel Ejiofor , Don Cheadle , Taraji P. Henson
Director : Kasi Lemmons
Inclusion Information : Female directors, Black directors, Black actors, Female actors
Studio : Focus Features
Genre : Drama
Run time : 118 minutes
MPAA rating : R
MPAA explanation : pervasive language and some sexual content.
Award : NAACP Image Award - NAACP Image Award Nominee
Last updated : August 9, 2024

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Talk to Me (Australia, 2022)

It’s in vogue to call some horror films “throwbacks,” but, at least in the case of Danny and Michael Philippou’s directorial debut, Talk to Me , it’s an accurate assessment. In recent years, the horror trend has been for “safer” movies – those that offer quick scares at the expense of the deeply-rooted sense of terror an unease that alienates sensitive viewers. Talk to Me recalls a time when the term “horror” was entirely appropriate. It is uncompromising, both in the way it travels a seemingly inevitable trajectory and relies on practical effects (rather than CGI) to present gruesome imagery. Talk to Me isn’t for the faint of heart. It isn’t for those who believe horror movies can easily be shaken off. And it isn’t for those who aren’t willing to pay attention and allow the film’s unsettling aesthetic to seep into one’s bones.

The film transpires in Adelaide, Australia, the filmmakers’ hometown. It opens with a prologue presented an unbroken tracking shot that invades a house party and features a bloody ending. It then shifts to the main plot, which features different characters than those highlighted in the first four minutes. The protagonist is Mia (Sophie Wilde), a young woman still trying to cope with the suicide of her mother – an event that happened two years ago. With her father having become distant and withdrawn, she has been “adopted” by the family of her best friend, Jade (Alexandra Jensen), and treats Jade’s younger brother, Riley (Joe Bird), as she might her own sibling. Jade’s mother, Sue (Miranda Otto), welcomes Mia into her home with unqualified affection.

With a limited budget, the Philippous rely on “old-time” special effects rather than computerized graphics. This enhances the movie’s dark, nihilistic atmospherics, which represent the strongest element of the production. This no horror-comedy; it lands squarely on the serious side of the genre. From the suffering, dying kangaroo lying in the middle of the road to a brutal instance of shocking violence, Talk to Me doesn’t skimp on the hard-core elements of non-slasher horror.

Although the bare bones of the story rely on familiar tropes from possession-type films, the filmmakers imprint their own stamp on things by including some interesting elements and keeping things grounded. The decision to blur “objective reality” with Mia’s perspective of events, which are often colored by visions manufactured by demonic entities, mandates attentive viewing. We’re never quite sure whether the apparition representing Mia’s mother, Rhea (Alexandria Steffensen), is a genuine spirit or a demon in disguise, and the Philippous don’t feel the need to talk down to us. That level of trust in the viewer is emblematic of Talk to Me , which offers a different brand of horror than what has become customary in multiplexes. If successful, it may usher in additional films from the director-brothers.

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Halloween (1978)
Frankenstein (1931)
Blair Witch Project, The (1999)
Plan 9 from Outer Space (1959)
Captivity (2007)
Halloween 6: The Curse of Michael Myers (1995)
(There are no more better movies of Sophie Wilde)
(There are no more worst movies of Sophie Wilde)
(There are no more better movies of Alexandra Jensen)
(There are no more worst movies of Alexandra Jensen)
(There are no more better movies of Joe Bird)
(There are no more worst movies of Joe Bird)

Talk To Me Review: An Unsettling Horror That'll Get You Talking

A punchy directorial debut from the Philippou brothers
A brilliantly realized story, told economically
Has enough humor and heart to ensure it never becomes a purely nihilistic experience
Toys with the theme of grief without ever truly diving into it

The best horror movies have the air of an urban myth, the kind of eerie story kids tell each other around the campfire and say happened to a friend of a friend of theirs. From the original " A Nightmare on Elm Street " to more recent films like " It Follows ," these are typically otherworldly tales embedded within an unremarkable, unsuspecting suburb — but now, in a world where the younger generation is glued to their phones, crafting a story that has that innate mysticism is a harder task than before. These stories wouldn't be urban myths, confined to a tight circle; they'd be posted across their social media feeds within seconds.

This creates a difficult problem for any horror filmmaker aiming to create a contemporary supernatural tale, as technology means that characters can alert the wider world to the threats against them, even if they are the only ones who can see them. With their directorial debut " Talk to Me ," twin brothers Danny and Michael Philippou have done the seemingly impossible, creating an unsettling story with the air of an urban legend without divorcing themselves from the lived-in reality of Gen Z.

Who needs ouija boards to contact the dead?

It's through a Snapchat video that we're casually first introduced to the film's central conceit; gatherings of teens and young adults who meet to take part in séances. By touching an embalmed hand, which seems to have mysteriously passed from owner to owner, and uttering the phrase "talk to me," a lost soul will appear in front of the one holding it — and they are then encouraged to "let it in," but for no more than 90 seconds (there are no "Flatliners"-style testings of these limits).

The results are typically filmed by the others in attendance, their camera flashes lighting up rooms otherwise only lit via a single candle, and posted across their socials. It's a surprise that demonic possession remains mythical in this world when nobody partaking in it keeps it a secret. Why would you when, for example, one of your friends could get possessed by a spirit that makes him start making out with your pet dog? So many horror films introduce disturbing games that make you question why anybody would part with their sanity to play them. The directors, best known for their comic shorts as YouTube duo RackaRacka, do their best to make you understand the appeal of something so dangerous, even if it won't exactly make any viewers wish they could try it out for themselves.

Mia (Sophie Wilde) is reluctantly invited into this world at a time that initially seems narratively contrived. We're told her mother died of an accidental overdose exactly two years prior to this day and combined with the brief lore explaining the rules of the séance, many in the audience will begin mapping out exactly how this can go wrong. Surely, she is greeted by her mother, remains under the spell for longer than 90 seconds, and all hell breaks loose, right? It's to the Philippou brothers' credit that it finds a narratively satisfying way to tie Mia's lingering grief into the story without taking the obvious route — even as it wastes no time putting her under a spell that turns awry as soon as the exposition has finished being delivered. Having worked on short-form YouTube videos for the entirety of their career to date, they are naturally economical storytellers, wasting no time putting the easily digestible lore into practice as soon as it's established. The rules are simple to grasp, which is central to why their side effects are so deeply horrifying to ponder at length.

Deals with grief — but it's not about grief

It should be highlighted that, despite a central character observing the anniversary of a deeply personal tragedy — and, of course, the specter of death looming large over the entire narrative — "Talk to Me" never becomes a simplistic exploration of grief like so many other recent films within the genre. Yes, the ghost of Mia's mother ends up factoring into the story, but it never fully grapples with the subject, either head-on or allegorically; perhaps the film's one flaw is that the director siblings don't linger on anything too long if it doesn't advance their plot forward. They're good at digging deeper under the skin of their characters in a way that doesn't hesitate to keep the narrative moving, but any weighty thematic content brought up is only afforded a surface-level exploration. Luckily, this doesn't matter too much when the side effects of the central conceit are so unnerving to see unfold, and the film's second half increasingly warps the mental states of its characters. Nobody would describe it as a horror-comedy in the same vein, but not since Sam Raimi's "Evil Dead" trilogy have the spirits of the deceased had so much fun messing with the humans that have fallen into their trap.

It moves toward one of the most satisfying horror endings I've seen in a while, the neat narrative bow it wraps itself in so well-constructed it offers a brief reprieve from the sheer bleakness of it all. And yet, with this being said, "Talk to Me" isn't the unrelentingly miserable experience much of its marketing has painted it to be. The brothers' innate sense of humor frequently shines through in the screenplay, be it through the childish interactions of its teen characters, or a standout sequence in which mother Sue (Miranda Otto, the Matriarch-in-Chief of Australian cinema) tries and fails to get her children Jade (Alexandra Jensen) and Riley (Joe Bird) to confess that they're having a party when she leaves the house. Things may become suitably unsparing moments later — one of these characters becomes possessed in a manner that turns graphically violent — but the overarching experience of watching "Talk to Me" ultimately isn't. The film leads you to many dark places, but the directors are always reassuringly holding your hand through even the most extreme of these moments; there's a clear heart to it, not just unrelenting otherworldly nihilism.

"Talk to Me" is a punchy directorial debut from the Philippou brothers; deeply unsettling, ultimately devastating, but not without humor and heart. I'm excited to see what they do next.

"Talk to Me" premieres in theaters on July 28.

This piece was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, the movie being reviewed here wouldn't exist.

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Alec baldwin prosecutor wants ‘rust’ manslaughter trial resurrected; state looking to “blame” someone for case’s collapse, armorer’s lawyer says, breaking news.

Rivulet Films Co-Heads Rob Paris & Mike Witherill Talk Fully-Financing David Gordon Green’s TIFF Opener ‘Nutcrackers’ With Ben Stiller

By Diana Lodderhose

Diana Lodderhose

International Features Editor

Orlando Bloom And Sean Ellis Talk About Star’s Transformation Into Past-His-Prime Boxer In ‘The Cut’: “He Was Willing To Have His Nose Broken” – Toronto Film Festival

Watch on Deadline

Rivulet has fully-financed the project and produced it with Green’s banner Rough House Pictures. UTA Independent Film Group is handling sales for the title and it is wide open to U.S. and international buyers. Deadline can exclusively reveal that Rivulet Films is re-teaming with Stiller and his Red Hour production banner on another film, which will be announced soon.

“It’s not often that there’s an untethered Ben Stiller project available to market,” says Paris, who adds that tonight’s debut will not only be the first time it’s screened to audiences, but also to buyers. Stiller has spent the last seven years focusing on directing and producing with 2018 miniseries Escape at Dannemora and then sci-fi thriller Severance .

“A lot of companies would not have been able to shoulder the risk that we took on with this movie because they would have needed pre-sales, a verified tax credit and all of those things – that’s how 90% of financiers are based out there right now,” he says. “It’s a pretty standard operating procedure for risk mitigation.”

But Paris, a former CAA talent agent who segued into production with credits such as Osgood Perkins’ breakout films The Blackcoat’s Daughter and I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House , saw an opportunity and was keen to “thread the needle.”

“David said that if we could go right away, he could do it,” recalls Paris. “And we said yes, and we did that on the basis that we wanted to be in business with David Gordon Green.”

Witherill, whose background is in finance and has produced a raft of titles ranging from John Wick to Joe Swanberg’s Drinking Buddies , adds: “This business is wrought with risks on a bunch of different levels, in different places throughout production and we want to back director-driven films so this felt like a perfect fit.”

He adds: “We’re also very budget conscious in how we do things and we like to think that if we put the right pieces in place, we’ve got a really good chance of making money if we make it for the right budget.”

Rivulet beginnings

Paris and Witherill met right before the pandemic struck. Witherill was raising money for a Catherine Hardwicke project and Paris was brought aboard to help with casting and packaging. While Covid brought that project to a standstill, the pair decided to join forces to form Rivulet Films.

“We found we could cover a lot of ground the two of us and it really set the tone for the company in terms of scope and size,” says Paris. “The first three years of any startup in the film business is aggravatingly painful – it’s all cash out and very little cash in and you have to have a real stomach for it, and you have to have investors who have a real stomach for it. What Mike presented to me was a model whereby we did the opposite of SPACs [special purpose acquisition companies] which were very in vogue at the time.”

He continues: “We curated a specific list of investors that Mike was able to find who were in it for the right reasons and the long game and who were looking to build something sustainable that could span decades. What we did was we acquired a company that was already active on the stock exchange but not free trade…but still an FCC-regulated entity. So, rather than do an IPO, which is an enormous amount of work, painstaking and expensive and time consuming, the very intelligent choice was to roll into a company.”

Witherill adds: “We backed into a public company shell and then just expanded on that as we expanded our slate of films.”

The idea, they say, is to accumulate more IP and more properties to “create value across all of our platforms and divisions.”

Elsewhere on its slate, Rivulet is working on a sequel to Law Abiding Citizen with Village Roadshow, and Derek Kolstad’s original screenplay Acolyte with Ascot Elite Entertainment.

He adds: “We know it’s a fickle marketplace, but we like our odds and that is exciting.”

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‘The Greatest of All Time’ movie review: Vijay, Venkat Prabhu’s ‘GOAT’ chooses theatrical fan service over a compelling story

Venkat prabhu’s ‘goat’ might let you down if you’re expecting a globe-trotting espionage thriller or a genre-specific entertainer, but it is definitely a celebration of everything fans have ever loved about vijay.

Updated - September 05, 2024 07:57 pm IST

Vijay in a still from The Greatest of All Time. Photo: Special Arrangement

Director Venkat Prabhu sets the tone of his Vijay-starrer GOAT (The Greatest of All Time) right from the first scene. It’s a recovery mission for a covert team of agents led by Gandhi (Vijay) against the villain Rajiv Menon (Mohan). Gandhi, as someone the film hints about in its title, brings down the house with an action sequence laced with his unique style, but before taking the final shot at Rajiv, he is stopped by his friend, owing to the circumstances. This sequence, in a way, is a synopsis of the overall plot, and such slivers of excellence from Venkat and his team stand apart in this template film enhanced with impeccable fan service.

In GOAT , Gandhi and his Special Anti-Terrorism Squad consisting of Sunil ( Prashanth ), Ajay (Ajmal), Kalyan (Prabhu Deva), and their chief Nazeer (Jayaram) are seasoned agents/friends. Without their rationales milked in the name of patriotism, we see them as regular office-goers with the usual workroom banter and why Gandhi’s wife Anu (Sneha) isn’t impressed when work spills into their personal space. Unless GOAT is your very first action thriller, you know for sure that all can certainly not be good, and this is just the calm before the storm. So when tragedy finally strikes, and the film moves from 2008 to the present, the pedal hits the metal, and GOAT turns into a Chupacabra.

Sneha and Vijay in a still from ‘The Greatest of All Time’ | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

Inarguably, the best aspect of GOAT is its strong casting. While some might feel like glorified cameos, the dream team feels like the closest we have ever gotten to an Expendables . Not only does the familiarity help us invest in the camaraderie and friendship the team shares, but the veterans bring their A-game to the party.

Despite the ensemble cast, it’s Vijay who shoulders the film in dual roles as Gandhi and his son Jeevan. And Venkat, knowing his assignment well, gives ample space for both characters to have their moments. They both care for their ménage and have their fair share of losses and a mission to complete. Then comes the dichotomy, and that’s where both the filmmaker and his hero shine. As Gandhi, Vijay aces the role of a man with a lot of responsibilities that turn into a burden and end up as grief — the actor Vijay takes centre-stage in a scene where his character faces a major loss. But it’s arguably Jeevan who steals the show (and probably hence the name), and it’s a blast to see Vijay as a young adult, complete with antics we have long loved. Without entering the spoiler zone, it’s safe to say that Vijay has pulled off a role he rarely succeeded in with his past attempts.

GOAT/ The Greatest Of All Time (Tamil)

It’s brilliant when a filmmaker takes feedback and reworks their product to deliver a better end-product. That’s how we got the Zack Snyder cut of Justice League and a more recognisable titular star in Sonic the Hedgehog . Similarly, after the de-ageing VFX criticism that GOAT’s promotional content got , it’s apparent that the makers returned to the drawing board to give us a far better and more credible rendition of a younger Vijay. Given that it plays a major component in the grand scheme of things, the makers took a precarious call that has worked wonders.

But similar to how the film uses technology to mask a 50-year-old and show a young adult, it also tries to conceal its shallow, simple, and painfully predictable plot with its star cast. If Vijay’s Leo reminded you of multiple films, GOAT will do the same; the Vijayakanth-led Rajadurai, helmed by Vijay’s father S. A. Chandrasekhar (in which the younger character is named Vijay, I kid you not), is a film that instantly comes to mind. GOAT , at its core, is a basic revenge story, and when made to look past the glitz — which you ought to at one point or the other — you are bound to see the paint chipping away from its grand facade. The action sequences are not exciting, the songs and background scores are disappointing, and probably the biggest pain in the neck is the antagonist played by Mohan. The character is bitterly underwritten, and the veteran cannot do much to salvage it. Not to mention how all the prominent female characters are always damsels in distress.

Prabhu Deva, Vijay and Prashanth in a still from ‘The Greatest of All Time’ | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

What works for GOAT majorly is how it keeps its stakes to a bare minimum and relies upon playing to the gallery. And boy, when the film gets into fan service mode, there’s no stopping it. Right from hat-tips to Vijay’s previous hit films, dance moves, and even mannerisms and references to his peers and political innuendoes, GOAT is undoubtedly a pop-culture treasure trove complete with its share of exciting cameos and a wonderful homage to a late legend .

GOAT might let you down if you’re expecting a globe-trotting espionage thriller, or just a genre-specific entertainer along the lines of Venkat’s Maanaadu . But if you want to catch the celebration of one of our most popular stars doing everything we love in his penultimate outing — including transforming from a GOAT to a Beast — then The Greatest of All Time is worth the entry fee; even with all its drawbacks, isn’t a lion always a lion?

The Greatest of All Time is currently running in theatres

Published - September 05, 2024 06:39 pm IST

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The Cheap Tricks of Me Too Thrillers

One night at a party, a woman meets a charismatic man. She’s smitten; he is too. Their attraction is exhilarating, but just as they get more deeply involved, our heroine realizes that her paramour is actually evil — an abuser, possibly a killer. Newly aware — and filled with righteous rage — she decides to escape, enacting retribution against the monstrous man on her way out. This is the plot of Zoë Kravitz’s directorial debut, Blink Twice , which follows a struggling caterer, Frida (Naomi Ackie), who absconds with a toxic tech billionaire named Slater King (Channing Tatum) to his private island, where he repeatedly assaults her; in time, she gets her revenge.

But let’s be honest, we’ve seen this film before. By that I mean the Me Too social thriller, now a veritable 2020s subgenre, which also includes Emerald Fennell’s 2020 rape-revenge flick Promising Young Woman and Olivia Wilde’s dark take on domesticity, 2022’s Don’t Worry Darling . And by now, we’ve heard what the genre has to say about feminism. It’s a simple message: Rape culture hides in plain sight. Of course, any conscientious consumer of these movies already knows that. So, by simply reiterating that truth with no other insights, these films leave on the table many other complex and urgent emotional questions that face those of us who have experienced sexual trauma, not to mention our culture at large. On a personal level, how can survivors of sexual violence reclaim ourselves in its aftermath? And on a societal level, now that we have been awakened to the omnipresence of sexual abuse, what should we do with this knowledge?

Part of the reason Me Too thrillers cannot begin to answer these pressing questions is that their high-concept premises turn their characters — especially their women — into modern mythic archetypes rather than people. Blink Twice ’s Frida, a working-class Black woman wooed by a hard-partying tech CEO, stands in for women who are exploited by powerful men; Promising Young Woman ’s Cassie (Cary Mulligan), a med-school dropout obsessed with the rape and subsequent suicide of her friend, is the Ur-traumatized woman who can’t just “move on”; Don’t Worry Darling ’s Alice (Florence Pugh), a surgeon whose husband traps her in a computer simulation that makes her believe she’s a 1950s housewife, represents careerwomen saddled with unsupportive partners.

But in making their characters so nonspecific as to appear universally relatable, Me Too thrillers shortchange the women whose stories they’re ostensibly telling. We never know these women before they are sucked into the Rube Goldberg plots of the Me Too movie. The filmmakers, of course, have justifications for why their female characters are so hollow. In Blink Twice , Frida’s abuser repeatedly wipes her memory after assaulting her — a plot point designed to demonstrate cycles of abuse, but which has the knock-on effect of making it impossible for the viewer to understand who Frida is. Similarly, Alice in Don’t Worry Darling spends most of the film unaware that she’s in a simulation; she doesn’t know who she is, so we don’t either. Cassie in Promising Young Woman has the opposite problem: Her sole defining characteristic is that she remembers one thing too well — her friend’s rape — which erases the rest of her personality. A deft film might linger on what’s most compelling in these premises: their commentary on the way trauma renders selfhood slippery, making it hard for us to know who we are in the throes of abuse, and difficult to understand ourselves long after.

But Me Too social thrillers are not deft, nor are they interested in the specifics of anything their characters have been through. These are parables with one goal: to get us to the epiphanic moment in which their heroines become aware of patriarchy, in painful and reality-disrupting fashion. In Don’t Worry Darling , Alice presses herself against a glass wall to exit the Matrix -esque simulation in which she’s imprisoned. In Blink Twice , Frida drinks snake venom to snap out of her haze (like Eve in the Garden!). As a rule, these thrillers do not venture past such moments of consciousness-raising. Instead, after the heroines discover the truth of their oppression, they enjoy a few cheap thrills of boss-bitch revenge (which stand in for actual self-knowledge): Our protagonists psychologically torture sleazebags, kill their husbands with whiskey glasses, stab rapists with corkscrews.

Then, having pointed out injustice, Me Too social thrillers refuse to engage with what follows a given revelation of abuse or assault, for either their characters or for society at large. Instead, they substitute rushed, pandering empowerment for self-realization. “I loved working!” shouts Don’t Worry Darling ’s Alice, when she discovers that she’s not a housewife but a surgeon. (The viewer has no idea what Alice likes about medicine.) Moments later, Alice’s fellow imprisoned wives turn on their husbands spontaneously, one of them declaring, “ You stupid, stupid man. It’s my turn now ,” as she knifes her spouse. (Her turn … for what? The Me Too thriller doesn’t seem to think that’s a worthwhile question.) “Success is the best revenge,” says Frida, who by the end of Blink Twice has become the queen of a tech empire, fulfilling an unironic arc from victim to CEO that neatly summarizes the moral of these stories: The body keeps the score, but Girlbossing will set you free.

It is extraordinarily difficult to say anything original about sexual abuse. Groomers and rapists and their colluders are fundamentally unoriginal. They follow patterns: They love-bomb, they gaslight, they victim-blame. It can be illuminating to articulate these repeatable patterns — to identify them as patterns at all. But good art should do more than just faithfully render the real world. It should surprise us, even as it shows us what we may already suspect. The power of genre conceits, in particular, is that they can reintroduce us to the known in startling ways.

The capacity to say something wonderfully revelatory about something horribly familiar was the great achievement of the second-wave ancestor of many of these Me Too movies: The Stepford Wives , the 1975 satire-horror flick (not to be confused with the tonally confused 2004 remake) about men who kill their spouses and replace them with housework-loving robots, which also influenced Get Out . The brilliance of Stepford and Get Out is that, rather than trying to lay out a case proving why sexism or racism are real and evil, they assume we already got the memo about injustice. They then satirize their respective subjects — fatally boring men in Connecticut, hypocritical white liberals in upstate New York — before making a horror turn.

Unfortunately, there is rarely anything approaching comedy in Me Too social thrillers, nothing like The Stepford Wives scene when the robots join a consciousness-raising circle but can only discuss cleaning products, or that Get Out shot of Rose (Allison Williams) malevolently sipping milk as she hunts for her next victim. Instead, the more sophomoric Me Too thrillers seem hung up on convincing us that patriarchy exists instead of commenting on the lived experience of patriarchy. Promising Young Woman is a case in point: As Cassie systematically torments everyone complicit in her friend Nina’s death — the university dean who dismisses Nina’s accusations; the frenemy who slut-shames Nina; the lawyer who badgers her into dropping her case — one gets the sense that Fennell wants us to take notes at home.

To be fair, Blink Twice tries to acknowledge the fact that, six years after the Me Too movement began, no one is shocked to learn about men’s misbehavior. We meet Frida as she sits on the toilet, watching a video that’s meant to refer to our “post”–Me Too Zeitgeist — an interview with the disgraced yet apparently contrite tech CEO, Slater, who is recovering his public reputation after committing some kind of impropriety. Minutes later, we witness Frida chastising her friend for continually going back to a shitty guy; shortly after that , when Frida finagles a meeting with Slater, she jokingly asks the man Slater introduces as his therapist to “blink twice if I’m in danger.” The therapist blinks twice. It’s all out in the open: We know Slater is Bad, and Frida knows Slater is Bad, and yet — for reasons Kravitz and her co-writer, E.T. Feigenbaum, neglect to elucidate — Frida and her friend still accept an invitation to Slater’s Jeffrey Epstein–esque island. The plot demands of the Me Too thriller leave no space for the film to get hung up on why .

It’s a disappointing omission, because what’s most interesting here is precisely these gaps in the storytelling: What did Slater do, and how does Frida explain his misconduct away? Why do we trust powerful, obviously Bad Men when we know better? What exactly is Frida drawn to about Slater? How does her inner life change as she comes to suspect something’s wrong? How does she relate to herself, her friends, other men, other women? We never learn, because the genre is pathologically allergic to specificity, and because the Me Too social thriller’s job is not to render a portrait of how one woman gets entrapped by one man; it’s to show us all women, trapped by all men. Why spoil the thrill of revealing the patriarchy with the messy details of an actual woman’s life?

One recent movie that does actually take a sincere interest in a specific woman’s life after trauma is Yorgos Lanthimos’s 2023 film Poor Things , about a young woman named Bella (Emma Stone) who embarks on a sexual awakening. Perhaps more than any of the women in Me Too thrillers, Bella could be nothing but a traumatized body: Though she appears to be a 30-something young woman, she actually has the brain of a fetus, which a Dr. Frankenstein–style mad scientist implanted into her as part of an experiment in reanimation. To make matters worse, when Bella seems roughly adolescent-brained, and with the partial blessing of her semi-paternal figure, she absconds on a world tour with a known womanizer, Duncan (Mark Ruffalo).

What follows is a surprisingly complex portrait of agency, consent, and curiosity, not to mention an example of a richer path forward for Me Too storytelling. Where the Me Too social thriller hollows out its women, refusing to let us know them beyond their experiences of abuse, Poor Things takes a genuine interest in Bella’s becoming: Her defining characteristic is not her traumatic genesis, but rather a thirst for knowledge. Poor Things also carries on the semi-satirical traditions of Stepford and Get Out better than the straightforward Me Too thriller can, because it mocks its villains even as it critiques their social power. When Bella, whose brain is evolving at a rapid clip, grows out of Duncan, he goes comically mad, unable to respond to her rational arguments with anything except repeated howls of “Cunt!” before ending up in an asylum.

Like Me Too thrillers, Poor Things indulges in escapism; but instead of having its heroine physically attack men in justice- and adrenaline-fueled rages, it offers a more emotional hypothetical: What might happen if disempowered girls and women could face down their groomers and abusers with the advantage of rapidly evolving brains and a grown-up body that knows its own desires? The answer is that we might see terrible men as, ultimately, buffoons. A little-discussed truth about abusers is that they are terrifying in one light but fools in another. Of course, it’s almost impossible to notice their idiocy in the throes of trauma, but art is a safe place — perhaps the only safe place — where we can turn rogues into jesters, and in that way defang them. (Greta Gerwig’s Barbie also creates an alternative, fantastical universe in which we can afford to see patriarchy, embodied in Ryan Gosling’s Ken, as ludicrous.)

One portrait of an abuser is not inherently more accurate than another, but it seems a shame that so many Me Too stories have obsessed over men’s power instead of finding other ways to see them. Abusers might be clichés, but movies about abuse don’t have to be. The inner lives of sexual-assault survivors, not to mention our relationships with each other, with friends, with family, and with institutions, are infinitely wide-ranging. But if we want to hear those varied stories, we have to keep the camera rolling after the awakening instead of cutting to black.

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We Need To Talk About THAT 'Bad Monkey' Reveal

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A severed limb, oddball locals, and a meddlesome monkey are what we signed up for when Bad Monkey first premiered. Apple TV+'s newest dark comedy also hit us with a delicious slice of psychopathy that reared its manic head from the most unexpected place. Just as we thought we had the show's big bad figured out, Bad Monkey turns the tables in Episode 4's lengthy flashback that reveals who the real villain is.

While the first three episodes depict Rob Delaney 's Christopher as the greedy private developer who has no qualms about disturbing the local peace, we discover that he is also alleged murder victim Nick Stripling . The latest episode's flashback paints Nick in a light that is completely unlike the unsavory character we have seen thus far, and instead explains that he is tentatively spiraling due to the influence of someone who is particularly heartless and nasty. Why is this intriguing? Because now we know to keep our expectations at bay, and that Bad Monkey is promising us a more gripping ride than we realized.

Nick Stripling Subverts Our Expectations in 'Bad Monkey'

So far in the season, Delaney's character has been portrayed as a detached limb and also in the form of Christopher. The glimpses and rumors we have collected about Christopher have overall generalized him into a typical selfish and ambitious developer who has no regard for ethical or environmental concerns. He mainly appears in Neville's ( Ronald Peet ) storyline , as he pitilessly demolishes Neville's homey shack and runs him off the beach in order to build a fancy and profitable mall. Christopher even points a shotgun towards Neville when the monkey-less local tries to get to his boat, threatening him with a stray bullet and accusing him of trespassing. Neville speaks about him in complete contempt, yet when he does so, his friends often give him ominous warnings to not cross the elusive man. There is a general air of foreboding and destruction surrounding the reputation of Christopher, eventually earning him a hex that Neville pleads the Dragon Queen ( Jodie Turner-Smith ) to bestow him with.

However, Episode 4's flashback portrays a completely different man : one far more friendly and bubbly than we could ever reconcile with the Christopher we knew about. Nick is proud of his daughter's ( Charlotte Lawrence ) emerging modeling career; he awkwardly flirts with attractive aspiring actresses ( Meredith Hagner ) at parties; and goofs around with his best friend ( Zach Braff ) as they carry out a mid-rate medical scam. It is far from the mysterious Christopher who sometimes feels like a crime-lord in this coastal city. The jarring twist comes out of seemingly nowhere as, just before the flashback begins, we see Nick walk out of the shadows and embrace his estranged daughter who thought he was dead. There is still an enigmatic air around him during this scene, which immediately drops away when we see him cheering about Caitlin earning a spot in a magazine. While also keeping us on our toes, Bad Monkey just becomes even more interesting as we realize where the true villainy lies.

Eve Stripling Is the Real Psychopath in 'Bad Monkey'

Nick's life is completely upended when he escorts Caitlin to a modeling party and sticks around to supervise his underage daughter, only to meet Eve. She is outrageously flamboyant and witty, quickly alluring Nick, especially after he promises to give her the lavish lifestyle she believes she deserves. In her determination to attain luxury, she embodies the role of a femme fatale , seductively whispering fantasies of developing strip malls and reveling in wealth — that is, the price of her love. And all Nick craves is Eve's seal of approval. As a father who is watching his daughter branch out from the nest, he is particularly susceptible to the attentions of Eve, completely swept away by the idea that this gorgeous woman would choose him to marry.

As such, driven by Eve's urging, he increases the scope of his ghost-patient scam with Israel, and when that puts his shady business on the fed's radar, he hatches a plan to fake his death. During this planning scene, Eve's manipulative side truly begins to shine through, as with mere suggestions and vacant facial expressions, she manages to rile Nick up further . His idea to legitimize his faux-death began with chopping off two fingers, but as Eve rolls her eyes and eggs him on, he grandly declares he will part with his entire arm. Her femme fatale status increases as she also encourages him to commit murder when their accomplice tries to extort money from them. It becomes clear that she has a tight grip over his actions, parasitically invading his mind until his thoughts become her own.

But there is a moment that diverges her character from the femme fatale archetype and proves that she truly is a fully-fledged psychopath . Devoid of empathy and remorse, at one point in the episode, someone overhears Christopher's criminal confessions, and she manically shoots them, thriving in the bloody deed that will bring her closer to her one true love: wealth . This scene also overtly reveals Christopher's reluctance in these schemes, as he mourns his morality and his best friend, whom he has just killed. Turns out, she is a bad influence on Nick, causing his estrangement from his daughter and hurtling him from a life of petty scams to fraud and serial killing. This brings into question who the true villain in the series is, as it was the lovebird's fateful meeting that brought these disastrous events into fruition.

Custom image of Bill Lawrence smiling for an interview

Bill Lawrence Talks More 'Ted Lasso,' 'Shrinking's Three-Season Plan, and 'Bad Monkey'

Creator Bill Lawrence talks inspirations, working with Vaughn on set, and why he loves when actors break during a take.

Rob Delaney and Meredith Hagner Have Compelling Chemistry in 'Bad Monkey'

Rob Delaney as Nick marrying Meredith Hagner as Eve in S1E4 Bad Monkey.

Hagner's performance as a textbook psychopath is extremely riveting to witness, as she perfects the maniacal flourishes and deceptive switch-ups we expect from one. Eve flagrantly wears her superficial interests on her sleeve, yet quickly dips into manipulative emotion whenever she needs to keep Nick in check and on their path of destruction. The chemistry between the two cast members makes it all the more compelling, even rivaling that between Yancy ( Vince Vaughn ) and Rosa ( Natalie Martinez ). It makes their relationship dynamics more credible, as we truly believe that the desperate Nick would be wiling to do nearly anything for Eve. This is especially during the scenes that include Caitlin, where Nick is torn between his love as a father and his infatuation as a husband, often mediating the tension between the two powerful women, yet also slightly taking Eve's side.

Delaney's lost puppy dog eyes whenever he shares the screen with Eve also adds layers of intrigue to his character and the show. Especially as they often flit between a desperation that recklessly desires to serve Eve, and a grievous look whenever he faces the moral implications of something he did. Delaney's conflicted performance resonates with us as we watch his character struggle with his descent into sin , yet also become increasingly more numb to his actions. Though we don’t know just how far Nick will go under Eve’s evil directions, this is a deviously clever twist that makes the mystery around these Bad Monkey characters and relationships so appealing.

The first four episodes of Bad Monkey are available to stream on Apple TV+, with subsequent episodes dropping every Wednesday.

Bad Monkey follows Andrew Yancy, a former Miami detective demoted to restaurant inspector in the Florida Keys. When a tourist finds a severed arm while fishing, Yancy sees an opportunity to regain his badge by unraveling a web of greed and corruption. Along the way, he encounters a cast of quirky characters and a troublesome monkey.

Watch on Apple TV+

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Talk to Me (2023)
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Talk to Me Movie Review
‘Talk to Me’ Trailer: A Séance Goes Sideways in A24 Horror Film
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TALK 2 ME: Everything We Know! (Talk To Me Sequel!)
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Talk to Me movie review & film summary (2023)
Talk to Me. Horror. 95 minutes ‧ R ‧ 2023. Nick Allen. July 28, 2023. 5 min read. Danny and Michael Philippou's "Talk to Me" cleverly imagines a deadly craze that would easily sweep a generation—this horror movie's plausibility is one of the freakiest things about it. The social media-feeding frenzy involves spiritual possession ...
Talk to Me (2023)
Aug 7, 2023. The Philippou brothers conjure up a delightfully devious horror in Talk to Me, which excels when they lean into intense violence and the eeriness of the supernatural. Rated: 3.5/5 ...
'Talk to Me' Review: Letting the Wrong One In
Steeped in yearning and chockablock with shocks, "Talk to Me," the first feature from the Australian filmmaking brothers Danny Philippou and Michael Philippou, is a horror movie huddled ...
Talk to Me
Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Sep 29, 2023. Anthony Gagliardi The Movie Podcast. Talk to Me is TWISTED, TERRIFYING, and the BEST HORROR film of the year. Directors Danny and Michael ...
Talk to Me
Rated 3.5/5 Stars • 03/31/23. All you have to do is just talk Kasi Lemmons directs the true story of Ralph Greene starring Don Cheadle, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Taraji P. Henson, Cedric the Entertainer ...
Talk to Me Is Horror Made by and for the Internet Generation
Matt Kamen and WIRED Staff. But I'm getting ahead of myself. Talk to Me centers on Mia (Sophia Wild), a teenager who became close with brother-sister pair Riley and Jade (Joe Bird and Alexandra ...
'Talk to Me' Is a Thrillingly Weird Horror-Movie Debut From A24
Talk to Me purposefully ends on an open-ended note, suggesting not just a reversal of fate but the chance of further excursions into one hellish version of the hereafter. The Philippous have said ...
Talk To Me's Reviews Break A 2023 Horror Movie Rotten Tomatoes Record
Summary. Talk to Me is Certified Fresh with a positive review score of 96% on Rotten Tomatoes, making it 2023's highest-rated horror movie so far. It has surpassed notable A24 horror films like Hereditary and Midsommar, as well as other major cinematic releases of the year. Critics are praising the film's quality filmmaking, interesting spin on ...
Movie Review: Horror flick 'Talk to Me' is a hand-some high-five for
Movie Review: Horror flick 'Talk to Me' is a hand-some high-five for twin Australian filmmakers. ... "Talk to Me," an A24 release, is rated R for "strong, bloody violent content, some sexual material and language throughout." Running time: 95 minutes. Three stars out of four. ___
Talk to Me Review
Talk to Me is an enthralling take on a classic horror standby: possession. The directorial debut of twin brothers Danny and Michael Philippou - who first rose to prominence posting videos of ...
'Talk to Me' review: A24's latest shocker grabs you
Advertisement. Purely in terms of latent emotional volatility, the most troubled and troubling character in "Talk to Me" is its teenage protagonist, Mia (the excellent newcomer Sophie Wilde ...
'Talk to Me' Review: An Impressively Slick A24 Horror Movie
A24 has a reputation for being a bastion of art-house horror, thanks to its ties to Ari Aster and Robert Eggers and releases like It Comes at Night and Saint Maud. But the company's latest find ...
Talk To Me is a potent dose of unrelenting teen horror
Talk To Me, a horror movie that premiered at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival, is the directorial debut of YouTube stars Danny and Michael Philippou. ... This review is based on a screening at the ...
Talk to Me Review: An Ingenious, Terrifying Horror Thriller
Siblings Danny and Michael Philippou make an auspicious debut with the A24 horror film Talk to Me, concerning a haunted hand. ... Movie and TV Reviews. Talk to Me (2023) (2023) Horror. Your ...
'Talk to Me' Review: This Wild Horror Debut Is a Smash Hit ...
The Big Picture. Talk to Me is a frequently smashing good horror film from Danny and Michael Philippou. Sophie Wilde gives a strong performance even when the film descends into chaos. Some ...
'Talk to Me' Review: Bone-Chilling Australian Possession Horror
'Talk to Me' Review: Mingling With the Spirit World Brings Bone-Chilling Shocks in Australian Horror Debut. Twin brothers Danny and Michael Philippou springboard from their popular YouTube ...
Talk to Me Movie Review
Parents say (8 ): Kids say (14 ): Directed by brothers Danny and Michael Philippou, this movie is one of the most original and simply brilliant horror films from the past few years. It's a film that stays within the familiar beats of the genre, and yet is unlike anything you'll have seen before. Like all great scary movies, it takes a ...
Review
July 24, 2023 at 10:00 a.m. EDT. (3 stars) "Talk to Me" is a different kind of ghost story: one about the horrors we inflict on ourselves. In most films of this kind, it's the innocent ...
The Unrelenting Grief of A24's 'Talk to Me'
A24. A group of teens playing dangerous with a ghostly conduit is hardly a brand-new horror convention, but Talk to Me still feels fresh. It's a natural segue into another family tragedy: the ...
Talk to Me Movie Review
Parents say: ( 1 ): Kids say: Not yet rated Rate movie. Kasi Lemmons 's smart, enthralling TALK TO ME shows that Greene was at once inspired and troubled, ambitious and self-destructive. Greene makes his difficult decision in a what is a fittingly complicated scene that showcases both Greene's and Cheadle's brilliance. Show more.
Talk to Me
July 28, 2023 A movie review by James Berardinelli. It's in vogue to call some horror films "throwbacks," but, at least in the case of Danny and Michael Philippou's directorial debut, Talk to Me, it's an accurate assessment. In recent years, the horror trend has been for "safer" movies - those that offer quick scares at the ...
Talk to Me
1 h 34 m. Summary When a group of friends discover how to conjure spirits using an embalmed hand, they become hooked on the new thrill, until one of them goes too far and unleashes terrifying supernatural forces. Horror. Thriller. Directed By: Danny Philippou, Michael Philippou.
Talk To Me Review: An Unsettling Horror That'll Get You Talking
"Talk to Me" premieres in theaters on July 28. This piece was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, the movie being ...
Rivulet Films Co-Heads On Fully-Financing Ben Stiller Pic ...
"A lot of companies would not have been able to shoulder the risk that we took on with this movie because they would have needed pre-sales, a verified tax credit and all of those things - that ...
GOAT movie review: Vijay, Venkat Prabhu's 'The Greatest ...
Director Venkat Prabhu sets the tone of his Vijay-starrer GOAT (The Greatest of All Time) right from the first scene. It's a recovery mission for a covert team of agents led by Gandhi (Vijay ...
The Cheap Tricks of Me Too Thrillers
The capacity to say something wonderfully revelatory about something horribly familiar was the great achievement of the second-wave ancestor of many of these Me Too movies: The Stepford Wives, the ...
GOAT Movie Review: Venkat Prabhu film wonderfully champions Vijay, but
GOAT Movie Review: Vijay's The Greatest of All Time is effectively shouldered by an in-form superstar, but crumbles under the pressure of having an old school template one-liner that is heavily reliant on a singular idea. Rating: 2.5 out of 5. Written by Avinash Ramachandran
We Need To Talk About THAT 'Bad Monkey' Reveal
A severed limb, oddball locals, and a meddlesome monkey are what we signed up for when Bad Monkey first premiered. Apple TV+'s newest dark comedy also hit us with a delicious slice of psychopathy ...
Queer review: Daniel Craig is 'heartbreaking' in this explicit gay
When Luca Guadagnino's Call Me By Your Name came out in 2017, the director was criticised for the coyness of the two male lovers' sex scenes. Even the film's screenwriter, James Ivory, argued that ...

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