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SUNDAY, APRIL 12, 2020
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Ann Hornaday
THE WASHINGTON POST - Begin-
ning with her hilarious, gloriously
self-assured debut in the criminally
under-seen rom-com
Music and
Lyrics
, Haley Bennett has enjoyed a
career that, while steady, has been
devoid of the breakout role she's
long deserved.
Until now.
In
Swallow
, Bennett inally
comes into her own as the kind
of leading lady who is more than
just a pretty face, and can occupy
the screen and hold it, with
commanding authority.
In a supremely cannymove, Ben-
nett produced this unnerving, creep-
ily atmospheric thriller, in which she
plays a wealthy, somewhat abstract-
ed housewife making a perverse bid
for self-determination.
Bennett claims her own form
of autonomy with the movie itself,
which could be read as an actress'
decision to stop hoping for good
scripts to arrive over the transom
and make her own luck.
Bennett plays Hunter, a meek,
carefully coifed newlywed who
has just moved into a posh Hudson
Valley aerie with her husband,
Richie (Austin Stowell). Drifting and
dreaming in mid-century luxury,
Hunter is a cipher: Her past as a
designer is hinted at (she tries to
draw at one point, to no avail), and
it becomes clear that the privilege
that surrounds her is a function of
her in-laws' largesse.
For her part, she wears wealth
uneasily, if gratefully, not least be-
cause her chief duty in the division
of labour is... labour, that is, getting
pregnant as soon as possible.
Perhaps it's because Hunter
feels lost or undervalued, or per-
haps it's because she's just bored,
but she discovers a way to create
feelings of self-worth and privacy
by engaging in a secret act that be-
comes more perilous as she pushes
her body beyond its healthy limits.
In the tradition of Todd Haynes's
Safe
, with a dash of horror ilms like
The Stepford Wives
and
The Perfec-
tion
thrown in for chilly measure,
Swallow
is the hushed, methodical
chronicle of a woman's descent into
ever more self-harming extremes,
a journey that, in this case, has its
roots in patriarchy at its most con-
trolling and violent.
Written and directed by Carlo
Mirabella-Davis, who makes an as-
sured iction feature debut here,
Swallow
isn't entirely convincing
when it comes to the most trou-
On her own unapologetic terms
In the psychological thriller Swallow, Haley Bennett inds her breakout role
Haley Bennett in a scene from the movie Swallow. PHOTO: THE WASHINGTON POST
bling psychological roots of Hunt-
er's afliction.
But the ilmmaker's tonal con-
trol, and Bennett's conident grasp
of the material, make for a compel-
ling portrait of emerging conscious-
ness and, ultimately, liberation. (Her
inest scene comes late in the ilm,
opposite the always terriic Denis
O'Hare.) Equal parts quiet and dis-
quieting, Bennett's performance in
Swallow
should put Hollywood on
notice that she's a force to be reck-
oned with, on her own unapologet-
ic terms.
Michael O'Sullivan
THE WASHINGTON POST - The
fact that the horror ilm
The Lodge
comes from Veronika Franz and
Severin Fiala, the Austrian duo who
made the stylishly unsettling
Good-
night Mommy
in 2014, is enough to
recommend it.
True to form, the aunt-and-
nephew ilmmakers, who share
directing duties - and the writing,
here, with Sergio Casci - imbue
even the ordinary with a sense of
delicious dread.
Not that there is much ordinary
about the setup in Franz and Fia-
la's irst English-language release.
Richard (Richard Armitage) is a
journalist pushing 50, who has an-
nounced to his wife and the moth-
er of their two kids (Alicia Silver-
stone) his intention to divorce her
in favour of a 30-year-old named
Grace (Riley Keough).
So far, so ordinary, in the world
in which we live. Except that before
the movie has taken two steps, we
see Mom put a gun in her mouth
and blow her brains out, followed
by the revelation that Grace once
belonged to a suicide cult on
which Richard had reported, and
where, as a teenager, she was the
sole survivor.
That explains the irst few im-
ages in the ilm, which include a
loaded revolver. But it doesn't ex-
plain everything, in a ilm that then
jumps six months forward to the
main story - one that, despite a sat-
isfyingly slow-burn pace that keeps
you guessing about what exactly is
going on, contains a few holes.
It also ends in a fairly conven-
tional way - a bit of a disappoint-
ment considering Franz's and Fiala's
Horror flick The Lodge is slow-burning - but lacks any real payoff
unconventional storytelling aesthe-
tic, which unspools its chills, spar-
ingly, in a way that may frustrate
some fans of mainstream horror.
That story takes place at Richard's
secluded mountain cabin. There,
over a snowbound break, Richard
decides to leave his son Aidan (Jae-
den Lieberher) and daughter Mia (Lia
McHugh) alone to get to knowGrace,
who, although she's about to marry
Richard, is still hiding things from
him. Sounds like a pleasant enough
holiday, especially as the kids blame
Grace for their mother's suicide, and
Aidan refers to his new stepmom as
a "psychopath".
What could go wrong?
Thismiddle sectionof
The Lodge
delivers the greatest pleasure, as
the relationship between Grace and
the children gradually deteriorates,
leaving us to wonder about who
is more to blame. As damaged as
Grace may be, Aidan and Mia are no
picnic, and their acting out at times
is less suggestive of real children
than stock characters in a horror
lick. There's some nice ambiguity
at play here - just not enough of it.
Franz and Fiala seem as interest-
ed in the fallout of religious zealotry
as they are in standard genre thrills,
and they ply this theme well, if at
times with a heavy hand. That makes
for a mostly smart tale, even when
some moments feel under-thought.
During a power outage at the cab-
in, for instance, Aidan appears to have
designed and printed something out,
mysteriously, on a computer. And
there are recurrent shots of creepy
dollhouse dio-ramas that feel like gra-
tuitous nods to
Hereditary
.
Nominated for a handful of
awards at niche festivals, includ-
ing the Fantasia Festival, and one of
the few movies to stand out in Sun-
dance's Midnight section this year,
The Lodge
isn't a perfect treat. But
for those who like their movies dark
and disturbing, it does the trick.
FROM LEFT: Riley Keough, Jaeden Lieberher and Lia McHugh in The Lodge. PHOTOS: THE WASHINGTON POST
The Lodge is a smart tale, even when some moments feel under-thought