Guns Akimbo

Movie, 2020, R

Premise - Miles is very untimidating IRL. An ordinary, nonviolent guy, his fighting abilities extend only as far as trolling back online trolls. When his online troll comments offend a powerful and illegal underground fight club leader, he has guns bolted to his hands and is forced into a fight to the death to prove bite can live up to his virtual bark.

Review - Ahh yes, the DanRad movie that was a meme a year before the film released. There is an iconic photo of DanRad holding the two guns, looking manic, in his bathrobe and tiger slippers, and without context, anyone would think he absolutely lost it. Even when told "Don't worry! It's just for a film!" people were still thinking "He's making yet another weird-ass movie? He's definitely lost it."

It was one of those DanRad films where you read the two sentence premise and think "Yes, that is a Daniel Radcliffe film." It was like reading the premise for Swiss Army Man for the very first time. The concept was brilliant, and he is perfectly cast for the role. Much like his character in Horns, he is an ordinary guy put in a very extraordinary situation, overnight, and then forced to do a lot of strange things. Like really strange. I believed in the premise, and I believed in his performance. The question that was always on my mind was... how will the execution go?

There are definite cases where a film starts with a strong script that an actor gets passionately attached to, but the directorial spin and the post-production shatter its artistic potential. It's especially hard when things go wrong in the post-production stage, so an actor could have had a wonderful performance and promote the film with such love, and then watch back the final cut and hate it. There are certain DanRad films where I feel post-production was a huge factor in my criticism (i.e. Victor Frankenstein). However, this film felt, personally, that it was a bit weak from the script. And then there's the fact that the post-production was way over the top as well, but we'll get to that.

My main gripe with the script was the voiceover. Voiceovers didn't use to bother me until I had a friend point out that it's her biggest pet peeve in script-writing. Voiceovers with a creative purpose can be incredible (i.e. Mr. Robot with Elliot talking to the voice in his head, or The Great Gatsby 2013 when Nick is narrating the contents of the book he had written about Gatsby). But voiceovers with no purpose can be cringey. The narration worked in favor of the trailer because it gave you a little bit of premise to understand. One way that the narration could have been incorporated better in the story is if Miles' narration was what ended up in Nova's comic book strips. It just needs to have SOME purpose and not just be so "Who is he talking to??" I kept wanting to scream "SHOW DON'T TELL!" whenever DanRad's voice came over the film and started explaining everything that was happening in this society. Even while watching the film, I was distracted with my own ideas of how Skizm could have been introduced organically and using only diegetic dialogue. I understand that Skizm presents a complicated alternate universe to explain, but that's the fun of filmmaking. Ultimately, narration is for books. (As a caveat, I have noticed this about SEVERAL of Daniel Radcliffe's films, so I'm thinking this is a personal preference and something that he actually enjoys in the scripts he seeks out. This is just the film where it bothered me the most).

The other aspect of the film that often took me out of the moment was cheesy music. Do it once, cool. Do it twice, alright, you're setting up a mood. Do it three times, you've got yourself a really stylistic film. Do it four times or more, and it's just lazy and offputting. Cool, vocal-less electronic music (like in the trailer) is great, but old cheesy music like "Right Round" is not so much.

So now I have explained the two things that really took me out of the film - narration and music. But story-wise? And visually? I was completely lost in it! I loved it! I love films that takes place over such a short span of time because you really can feel the emotions of the characters in real time, especially when characters are thrown into extraordinary situations REALLY quickly! And this film takes place in maybe 1-2 days. It was very fast-paced.

I loved the crazy video-game nature of the film, very Scott Pilgrim-esque. I imagine the plot/world to be a lot like what the movie Nerve was like, though I never saw it. One criticism I saw from another viewer is that the film takes place in the "real world" yet has all these cartoon-ish features that don't physically make sense. Like obviously Scott Pilgrim is so stylized that you don't expect anybody to be rooted in reality. To me, I liked the highly stylized fight scenes in this film. To me it says, yes, ordinary people are stuck in the normal limitations of reality, but if you are one of the few who live it up and become a HERO (or a villain), then yeah, your life will be like a comic book!

Plot-wise, it actually very much resembled The Hunger Games, though they couldn't be more different in style. In essence, people are being forced to fight to the death for the entertainment of others and are being followed around by cameras. Differences are that Skizm is very illegal and happens within real-world spaces, and the Hunger Games are very much legally and societally supported, and happen in isolated arenas. Skizm to me is very disturbing because nobody was being forced or incentivized to watch. They just did it because it was entertaining. It's about showcasing the worst parts of humanity.

Speaking of worst parts of humanity, how much are we supposed to pity Miles and how much are we supposed to root for him? It’s hard not rooting for Daniel Radcliffe, but Miles was a horrible part of the internet. He’s the kind of guy who takes satisfaction in trolling people online. I get that he’s like trolling back at the trolls already there, but still. I guess it’s kind of like how Miles, in real life, is forced to be violent towards violent people. It’s a horrible thing to do, but he’s doing it for a greater good somehow...
 
In the end (spoiler alert), Miles takes down the local Skizm but too many branches have popped up worldwide. He embraces his role as a comic hero of sorts and will make it his mission to take them all down. It's kind of a cool ending, but very VERY rushed. How did we get from Miles lying on the ground hemorrhaging and going into shock, all the way to a future when he's like "Yeah I'm gonna do this all over again!"

The heart and soul of the story really comes down to the conversations Miles has with a homeless crackhead. That homeless guy is this film's fairy godmother. He breaks it down for him and says that when faced with violence, you better be ready. That doesn't make you a violent person. It's a confusing moral because by the end of the film, Miles is definitely seeking out violence (as a means to end violence though, does that count??) Maybe we just shouldn't think too hard about it. (84/100)

Quote - "When the shit goes down, you better be ready"

What to watch for - Anyone who is anyone on the internet has seen the meme of DanRad holding the guns. The film was self-aware about this and there's a nod to the iconic photo in the movie. See if you can spot it.

If you liked this movie, I'd recommend Scott Pilgrim vs. The World!

Directed by Jason Lei Howden
Distributed by Saban Capital Group