Brainspotting: 28 Years Later
Review by Jeff DeRouen Aren’t we tired of zombies by now? We’ve come a long way from George Romero’s slow-walking and moaning dead to the sprinting flesh eaters of today’s pics. I know, I know, some folks absolutely LOVE this stuff and are seated for the four hundredth spinoff of The Walking Dead (now in its SEVENTY-THIRD SEASON), but it’s been quite a while since we’ve experienced anything new in the undead category. Leave it to the guys who reinvented the genre two decades ago to do it again by bringing us back to what made Romero’s films classics: they were about something bigger than eating brains. Director Danny Boyle (Trainspotting, Slumdog Millionaire) and writer Alex Garland (recent writer/director of Civil War), return to the land of “infected” with their follow-up to 2002’s 28 Days Later, 28 Years Later, 23 years later. Look, time has passed, and we meet a cast of new characters: a small family who are part of a community living behind the walls of a fort protecting them from the “infected” - crazed rage monsters (zombies) living on the mainland. Apparently, there is a part of the world that’s progressed with things like Amazon package delivery separate from the diseased area – why everyone doesn’t just live there is never answered, but it doesn’t matter. We follow young Spike (expertly played by gifted newcomer, Alfie Williams) who begins the film with his father, Jamie, making his right-of-passage trip to the mainland to kill infected for sport the way Sarah Palin kills moose. Aaron Taylor-Johnson is a man’s man here and plays the hunter and drinker out loud, but also gives Jamie a quiet nurturing quality that makes us root for him and his family; despite the issues, we know they care about each other. That care is what makes Spike set off with his severely ill mother to the mainland to find a notorious doctor (who apparently loves barbecuing dead people) without his father. 28 Years Later is unique, exciting, and technically thrilling to a nerd like me. They shot the movie with iPhones (with some truly innovative moves for the kill scenes), giving the whole thing an urgent and very real tone. It doesn’t look or feel like standard Hollywood fare, making this a welcome, punk-rock addition to the summer blockbuster season. We’re in good hands with storytellers like Boyle and Garland and I can’t wait to see where the next chapters take us to, especially after that ending. So, thumbs up, go see it, it’s one of the best of the year so far, but I want to end this review spotlighting Jodie Comer. She plays Isla, Spike’s mother, and I’ve been a fan of hers for years from Killing Eve to the criminally underseen The Last Duel. There’s enough evidence now to say she is one of the greats – it’s undeniable. Her power on screen has few rivals, and I can’t take my eyes off her when she’s acting. Trust me when I say her towering performance is worth the ticket price alone (along with the arrows through heads, the ripping out of spinal cords, and giant zombie dongs). Comments are closed.
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