I cannot objectively tell you that Death Note is a good movie. If I give Adam Wingard's latest a full-blown endorsement, you'll probably come back and ask me if we watched the same film. The highly controversial adaptation of the classic Japanese anime has been the subject of much discussion and debate since its announcement, viewed by many as a misguided attempt at appropriating a Japanese cultural touchstone. And in the end, I'm not sure if all the hand-wringing was worth it- this movie is really just a high quality piece of shiny, exploitative trash. Oh, but this trash is so entertaining. Death Note may not ever rise to the heights of some of Wingard's earlier work, such as The Guest or even the finale of last year's Blair Witch, but it has this supremely goofy quality that cannot be denied, a sense of bloody fun that carries it through its most absurd moments. It's the best kind of mess, a tonally jarring slice of pulp that engages and thrills all the way to its preposterous climax, while also having just enough food for thought to satisfy. It's no masterpiece, but I can't deny that I love Wingard's work even at its most flawed.
Light Turner (Nat Wolff) is just your average high school loner- highly intelligent, kinda awkward, pines for the girls that he thinks he'll never get. He's also pretty angry about the death of his mother, which went unpunished thanks to the power of the mobster who killed her. Light's whole life changes with the discovery of a mysterious book entitled Death Note, and the arrival of a frightening demon known as Ryuk (Willem Dafoe). The book enables its master to kill whoever they wish, as long as they know their desired victim's name and can picture a specific face in their mind. At first Light is skeptical, but after he murders the school bully in a horrific decapitation scenario, the teen realizes that he now wields an awesome kind of power.
Enter Mia Sutton (The Nice Guys' Margaret Qualley). She's the girl of Light's dreams, and one day she begins to chat him up. Hoping to impress her, Light shows her just he can do by killing a man who is holding a woman hostage. Shocked and enamored by this enticing display of violence, Mia comes to realize that great things can be done with the book. Criminals and murderers who would escape the law can now be exterminated, and the world can become a better place. Light and Mia become known as "Kira," which quickly evolves into a symbol of vigilante justice. But there's only one man standing in their way- L (Lakeith Stanfield), a complex and wildly determined FBI Task Force leader who will stop at nothing to end Kira's reign of terror. Working with Light's policeman father (Shea Wigham), L engages in an intense cat-and-mouse game with the young killer, creeping closer to the truth every step of the way.
Judging by the material in this film, there's certainly plenty of room for social commentary and thematic resonance in the Death Note series. Having not seen the original anime, I can't comment on how that show deals with these messy ideas and issues. But Wingard's film seems to tiptoe around the themes at times, offering up a vision that almost feels like a metaphor for the modern surveillance state and execution by drone. Death Note undoubtedly deals with the tricky morals of vigilante justice, but I'd be lying if I said that the film pulled this off with any sense of grace or skill. From the very first murder, a Tarantino-esque display of outrageously gory bloodshed, the director announces that this is a grindhouse film through and through. There may be a hint or two of something deeper bubbling below the surface, but Death Note is mainly an exercise in ultra-slick style.
But Wingard's embrace of this trashy approach and his steadfast devotion to keeping the film's narrative chugging right along allows the audience to enter the film's world, no matter how ridiculous things may get. Death Note never reaches a level of transcendent high art, but I don't think Wingard was ever striving for that benchmark. Even in his best film, 2014's Carpenter-inspired The Guest, Wingard has always been a director who emphasized thundering techno music and uber-cool visuals over dynamic ideas and true substance. He's making carnival funhouse rides with an impeccable sense of genre craftsmanship, a concept that is perhaps no better exemplified than by the terrifying climax of last year's Blair Witch, a wild and genuinely gripping ending. Death Note is a midnight movie all the way to its gruesome core, and while it's easy to see why so many people are dismissing it, I can't deny that I'm a sucker for this kind of supersized stylistic insanity. And I have a feeling that I'm gonna love Wingard's take on Kong vs. Godzilla.
The cast is decidedly a bit of a mixed bag. For many in my generation, Nat Wolff is known as one half of Nickelodeon's Naked Brothers Band, a show that I made fun of even at the young age of 8. Wolff isn't a particularly strong actor, and I can't help but feel that this whole thing would have been slightly more compelling with a better lead. But the supporting crew picks up the slack, especially the one-two punch of Margaret Qualley and Lakeith Stanfield. Qualley burst onto the scene in last year's The Nice Guys, and she continues to impress me. She has this wide-eyed innocence that fits the role perfectly, and the devil-may-care attitude of Mia is both charming and dangerously seductive. Meanwhile, Stanfield shows once again why he's one of the most promising actors working right now, giving us perhaps the film's most fascinating character with L. Manic and mannered, it's impossible to take your eyes off L, and Stanfield delivers the only nuanced moments that stick with you. And of course, Willem Dafoe is expertly creepy as Ryuk, despite the shoddy visual effects that the filmmakers try to avoid by constantly placing the character beyond thick layers of shadows.
But for all of the things that make Death Note a deliciously silly bit of lurid entertainment, I cannot deny that there are some aspects that will make many groan. The opening is almost astoundingly bad, and even as someone who didn't watch the show, the whole thing felt like an overblown fan film. The ending features some moments that are pure 80s cheese, slow motion dramatic crescendos set to pop songs that feel so totally out of sync with the rest of the film that it's somewhat stunning. And seriously, why can't directors make convincing teenage movies anymore? As someone who lived through that whole thing very recently, I feel like it's worth noting that this film's portrayal of high school could not be further from the truth. Death Note is nothing if not immensely messy, a tonal jumble that doesn't always work.
But with low expectations and a general unfamiliarity with the source, I had a shockingly good time with this gleefully stupid film. It's a wild ride of murder and mayhem, and it's so effortlessly cool at times that you can't help but get sucked into the neon-infused universe. Special props to Atticus and Leopold Ross for the music, which helps drive the movie during some of the more intense moments, and to cinematographer David Tattersall, who captures everything with a subtle sense of pizzazz. As a fan of Wingard's work, this gory roller-coaster hit the spot. I can't promise you'll love it, but there's fun to be had with this crazy, cheesy work of glossy genre cinema.
THE FINAL GRADE: B (7.3/10)
Images courtesy of Netflix
Light Turner (Nat Wolff) is just your average high school loner- highly intelligent, kinda awkward, pines for the girls that he thinks he'll never get. He's also pretty angry about the death of his mother, which went unpunished thanks to the power of the mobster who killed her. Light's whole life changes with the discovery of a mysterious book entitled Death Note, and the arrival of a frightening demon known as Ryuk (Willem Dafoe). The book enables its master to kill whoever they wish, as long as they know their desired victim's name and can picture a specific face in their mind. At first Light is skeptical, but after he murders the school bully in a horrific decapitation scenario, the teen realizes that he now wields an awesome kind of power.
Enter Mia Sutton (The Nice Guys' Margaret Qualley). She's the girl of Light's dreams, and one day she begins to chat him up. Hoping to impress her, Light shows her just he can do by killing a man who is holding a woman hostage. Shocked and enamored by this enticing display of violence, Mia comes to realize that great things can be done with the book. Criminals and murderers who would escape the law can now be exterminated, and the world can become a better place. Light and Mia become known as "Kira," which quickly evolves into a symbol of vigilante justice. But there's only one man standing in their way- L (Lakeith Stanfield), a complex and wildly determined FBI Task Force leader who will stop at nothing to end Kira's reign of terror. Working with Light's policeman father (Shea Wigham), L engages in an intense cat-and-mouse game with the young killer, creeping closer to the truth every step of the way.
Judging by the material in this film, there's certainly plenty of room for social commentary and thematic resonance in the Death Note series. Having not seen the original anime, I can't comment on how that show deals with these messy ideas and issues. But Wingard's film seems to tiptoe around the themes at times, offering up a vision that almost feels like a metaphor for the modern surveillance state and execution by drone. Death Note undoubtedly deals with the tricky morals of vigilante justice, but I'd be lying if I said that the film pulled this off with any sense of grace or skill. From the very first murder, a Tarantino-esque display of outrageously gory bloodshed, the director announces that this is a grindhouse film through and through. There may be a hint or two of something deeper bubbling below the surface, but Death Note is mainly an exercise in ultra-slick style.
But Wingard's embrace of this trashy approach and his steadfast devotion to keeping the film's narrative chugging right along allows the audience to enter the film's world, no matter how ridiculous things may get. Death Note never reaches a level of transcendent high art, but I don't think Wingard was ever striving for that benchmark. Even in his best film, 2014's Carpenter-inspired The Guest, Wingard has always been a director who emphasized thundering techno music and uber-cool visuals over dynamic ideas and true substance. He's making carnival funhouse rides with an impeccable sense of genre craftsmanship, a concept that is perhaps no better exemplified than by the terrifying climax of last year's Blair Witch, a wild and genuinely gripping ending. Death Note is a midnight movie all the way to its gruesome core, and while it's easy to see why so many people are dismissing it, I can't deny that I'm a sucker for this kind of supersized stylistic insanity. And I have a feeling that I'm gonna love Wingard's take on Kong vs. Godzilla.
The cast is decidedly a bit of a mixed bag. For many in my generation, Nat Wolff is known as one half of Nickelodeon's Naked Brothers Band, a show that I made fun of even at the young age of 8. Wolff isn't a particularly strong actor, and I can't help but feel that this whole thing would have been slightly more compelling with a better lead. But the supporting crew picks up the slack, especially the one-two punch of Margaret Qualley and Lakeith Stanfield. Qualley burst onto the scene in last year's The Nice Guys, and she continues to impress me. She has this wide-eyed innocence that fits the role perfectly, and the devil-may-care attitude of Mia is both charming and dangerously seductive. Meanwhile, Stanfield shows once again why he's one of the most promising actors working right now, giving us perhaps the film's most fascinating character with L. Manic and mannered, it's impossible to take your eyes off L, and Stanfield delivers the only nuanced moments that stick with you. And of course, Willem Dafoe is expertly creepy as Ryuk, despite the shoddy visual effects that the filmmakers try to avoid by constantly placing the character beyond thick layers of shadows.
But for all of the things that make Death Note a deliciously silly bit of lurid entertainment, I cannot deny that there are some aspects that will make many groan. The opening is almost astoundingly bad, and even as someone who didn't watch the show, the whole thing felt like an overblown fan film. The ending features some moments that are pure 80s cheese, slow motion dramatic crescendos set to pop songs that feel so totally out of sync with the rest of the film that it's somewhat stunning. And seriously, why can't directors make convincing teenage movies anymore? As someone who lived through that whole thing very recently, I feel like it's worth noting that this film's portrayal of high school could not be further from the truth. Death Note is nothing if not immensely messy, a tonal jumble that doesn't always work.
But with low expectations and a general unfamiliarity with the source, I had a shockingly good time with this gleefully stupid film. It's a wild ride of murder and mayhem, and it's so effortlessly cool at times that you can't help but get sucked into the neon-infused universe. Special props to Atticus and Leopold Ross for the music, which helps drive the movie during some of the more intense moments, and to cinematographer David Tattersall, who captures everything with a subtle sense of pizzazz. As a fan of Wingard's work, this gory roller-coaster hit the spot. I can't promise you'll love it, but there's fun to be had with this crazy, cheesy work of glossy genre cinema.
THE FINAL GRADE: B (7.3/10)
Images courtesy of Netflix
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