+ Best Horror Movie of the Year + Best Apocalyptic Movie of the Year + Best Screen Couple of the Year: John Krasinski & Emily Blunt
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| A simple yet effective poster solely featuring Emily Blunt for John Krasinski's A Quiet Place |
In a post-apocalyptic America, where strange monsters hunt and kill anything that makes a sound, a family has made a precarious life for themselves on a corn farm.
A Quiet Place is written by Bryan Woods (Her Summer (2004)), Scott Beck (The Bride Wore Blood (2006)) and great Massachusettsan co-writer-director-star John Krasinski (Brief Interviews with Hideous Men (2009)), whose third directorial work (besides 3 episodes of The Office (2010-12)) it is.
Evoking memories of such fine films as Alien (1979), Children of the Corn (1984), Predator (1987) and Signs (2002, A Quiet Place is still its own beast, working suspense magic on a good, traditional family structure and a powerful premise of silence and strong scares, which is established before the title shows.
The film works for many reasons: It has a good script that sets up simple, frightening scenes deftly; a fundamentally exciting central couple in Krasinski and his real-life wife Emily Blunt (Empire (2005), miniseries), who raises the bar with maternal power SPOILER and a couple of terrifying scenes concerning her giving birth alone, silently, and in mortal danger. The family has a conflict that drives much of the film's potent drama, which is between the father and the eldest of the children, the deaf daughter who is portrayed wonderfully by Millicent Simmonds (Wonderstruck (2017)). Noah Jupe (Wonder (2017)) as her brother, who is mighty scared for most of the film, is also good here. There is great sound design, including a lot of silence, - and countless cinema experiences are no-doubt ruined by pointless laughing and belching from teenagers and others who rightly should be caged securely somewhere, - mixed with an expert score from Marco Beltrami (The Shallows (2016)). Truly fine cinematography from Charlotte Bruus Christensen (Fences (2016)) and terse editing by Christopher Tellefsen (The Village (2004)) also distinguish the movie.
A Quiet Place strikes with a pointed, effective simplicity and is a great, nail-biting horror experience. Its horrible-looking monsters get their share of attention, but the gruesome stuff doesn't overwhelm the picture, SPOILER which is also noteworthy for highlighting an alternative usefulness of hearing aids.
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John Krasinski: 2018 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2018 in films - according to Film Excess
13 Hours/13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi (2016) - Bay portrays controversial recent history in generally thrilling actioner (leading actor)
Big Miracle (2012) or, Those Three Whales Must Live! (leading actor)
Promised Land (2012) or, Let's Get Your Small Town A-fracka-lackin'! (leading actor)
Away We Go (2009) or, Where Do We Start This Family? (leading actor)
It's Complicated (2009) - Meyers' delightful romcom star vehicle (supporting actor)
Watch a trailer for the film here
Cost: 17-21 mil. $
Box office: 207.5 mil. $ and counting
= Mega-hit (at least 9.88 times the cost)
[A Quiet Place premiered 9 March (South by Southwest Film Festival, Austin, Texas) and runs 95 minutes. Paramount bought Woods and Beck's spec script in March 2017 and fast-tracked the project: Krasinski rewrote it and cast his wife upon her request. Shooting took place from May - November 2017 in New York. The film opened #1 to a sensational 50.2 mil. $ first weekend in North America, - following a rave welcome at the Austin festival, - spent the 2nd week at #2, before climbing to #1 again for its third weekend. It has grossed a tremendous 132.7 mil. $ (64 % of the total gross) domestically so far. Its 2nd and 3rd biggest markets are currently the UK with 9 mil. $ (4.3 %) and Australia with 6.6 mil. $ (3.2 %). The film has coming releases in 3 May in Hungary, Portugal, Slovakia, 9 May in Belgium, 18 May in China - a rare feat for a Western film of its size and particularly for a horror, - and 20 June in France. Its gross may easily even top 300 mil. $. Stephen King has called the film "an extraordinary piece of work." Krasinski does not have another directing job lined up yet but is starring in Amazon's coming Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan (2018-) TV-series, which has already been extended for a 2nd season. Blunt returns in Mary Poppins Returns (2018). A Quiet Place is certified fresh at 95 % with an 8.2 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]
What do you think of A Quiet Place?
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