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Date: 3/30/2022
On Hulu: Deep Water
Director Adrian Lyne essentially quit making movies 20 years ago. For whatever reason, he decided to return with this erotic thriller that bypassed theaters and went straight to Hulu.
Some people have called this film “Hitchcockian,” an adjective that to me is completely undeserved. Not every film Alfred Hitchcock made was a classic, but this confused and almost aimless film about a couple with some pretty big issues is much worse than Hitchcock’s most insignificant effort.
Ben Affleck plays Vic, a man who is very rich thanks to a microchip he developed. He is married to Melinda, (Ana de Armis) a beautiful woman considerably younger than him. They live in a supposed idyllic life in Louisiana where they attend and throw parties for their equally privileged friends.
For hobbies, Vic rides his mountain bike, edits a magazine he owns and raises snails – not to eat but … well, we don’t know. I guess he just likes snails.
Melinda, who is apparently a full-time mom, likes to publicly cheat on her husband. That is her hobby.
Okay, from a thriller perspective, we know early on that Melinda strays. What we don’t know is what Vic thinks of this activity and whether or not he does anything in response.
When the suitors wind up dead, though, we suspect that we are seeing Vic’s response.
Most thrillers hint at something, and then put the audiences through their paces with misdirection and surprises. The intent is to lead us to a conclusion that reveals a big secret.
The trouble is by the time we wind up at the end there is really very little to reveal. What makes it worse is the film’s ending is not conclusive and the audiences has no closure to the story.
Affleck plays the emotionally confused husband with the stoicism he has used in other roles, but the poor writing doesn’t support him. Why does he want to stay in the marriage? de Armis fares no better as there is no explanation why her character behaves as she does or why she elects to stay with her husband.
The story is very muddled to say the least and that is what defeats this film.
Lyne is no stranger to making good films. Among his efforts are “Flashdance,” “9 1/2 Weeks,” “Indecent Proposal,” “Fatal Attraction” and “Jacob’s Ladder.” Several of those titles address tortured relationships and Lyne does know his way around the thriller genre.
Well, we all have projects that go sideways and “Deep Water” is certainly one of those.
On Netflix: The Cuphead Show
I’m not much for video games, so I was only vaguely aware of this property until it was adapted into a series of cartoons on Netflix. I was hooked after I watched the first one as the show is an unabashed homage to the cartoons made by the Fleischer Studio back in the 1930s.
Anyone who knows me well I can’t resist that.
The show revolves around Cuphead and his brother Mugman, two young brothers who live on Inkwell Isle and have adventures. Like the early Fleischer Betty Boop shorts, there are anthropomorphized animals and household items also living there.
Many of the shorts have a common storyline of Cuphead trying to keep the devil from stealing his soul. The devil character is modeled after the devils in the Betty Boop short “Red Hot Mama.”
The producers of the series even use the effect invented by Max Fleischer that places the animate characters in three-dimensional sets.
I loved this show not just because it is a homage, but that it has a smart tone that reminded me of the best shows Nickelodeon produced in the 1990s. I’ll be watching the second series when it is released.