Microreview — A Quiet Place: Day One

If you like jump scares, cats, and and ground-zero dystopias, you're contractually obligated to see A Quiet Place: Day One. (No spoilers)

I enjoyed the first two A Quiet Places as decent scary movies that do interesting things with sound design. I also like them because for 90-ish minutes I have a barrage of thoughts like "what if you snore?" or "how do you deal with children?" in a world where the slightest sound attracts blind monsters from space that are waiting to devour you.

Day One is, as the name states, a prequel that's set on the day of the invasion in New York City, one of the world's loudest cities (a drastic departure from the earlier films set in rural cornfields). Our framework for processing everything is through the eyes of Sam (Lupita Nyong'o). Though young, Sam is in hospice, and her facility has taken a group of folks into Manhattan to see a puppet show. With her is her emotional support cat, Frodo, who will 100% steal any scene he's in.

As all hell breaks loose, Sam displays a sort of determined cynicism that only someone who's already dying can have. There's not a ton of plot to spoil, so I can't go into too much detail, but her reaction to everything is absolutely fascinating to watch. Her eyes alone deserve an Oscar for best performance. Instead of trying to evacuate the city on ferries (the aliens can't swim), she chooses to head to Harlem to have one last slice of pizza at her favorite place, Patsy's. Honestly, if the world was coming to an end, I'd do the same and head toward Athens, Georgia and hit up Taco Stand for one last burrito.

The monsters look better than ever, and the film looks sleek and stylized—apparently the director was inspired by the look and feel of fellow dystopian thriller Children of Men. Action-wise, there are some excruciatingly close calls for Sam, Frodo, and eventually Eric (played by Joseph Quinn, who I knew I recognized from somewhere but only after leaving the theatre did I realize it's Eddie from Stranger Things).

Sam and Eric are an unlikely pair to navigate the apocalypse, but their friendship is extraordinarily touching. Did this movie make me tear up a little in appreciation of the goodwill each showed each other? Maybe. There are so many little nuggets of humanity scattered throughout the brutal action scenes that it helps to ground everything. You never forget that there are real people dealing with Lovecraftian horror all over the five boroughs.

As a cat lover, I spent the entire movie worrying about Frodo, too. At various times, he's stuffed into a bag, swimming underwear, and running through the streets dodging aliens. This I will spoil for everyone's well-being: Frodo makes it through okay.

It's hard to explain exactly why this movie is so good, as not much happens. But it's thrilling, sweet, and a great popcorn movie for summer aliens. Go see it. 

The Math

Baseline score: 8/10

Bonuses: Lupita Nyong'o gives an incredible performance; so does the Shnitzel the acting cat; it's a horror movie that actually has great acting.

POSTED BY: Haley Zapal, new NoaF contributor and lawyer-turned-copywriter living in Atlanta, Georgia. A co-host of Hugo Award-winning podcast Hugo, Girl!, she posts on Instagram as @cestlahaley. She loves nautical fiction, Vidalia onions, and growing corn and giving them pun names like Anacorn Skywalker.

Holiday Gift Guide: TV and Movies

Welcome to the final instalment of the annual Holiday Gift Guide where the flock takes a break from talking about all the awesome and not so awesome things to, well, talk about some more of the awesome things that you might want to consider for your Holiday shopping this year. Today, it's movies and TV!

A Quiet Place (recommended by Joe)

Maybe I just watch fewer movies than I used to now that I have two small kids, but A Quiet Place was genuinely unsettling and frightening. If you're not aware, it's the story of a family navigating some post apocalyptic future where making noise is a near immediate death sentence. The need for real silence makes any rustle, any deviance from otherwise excessive precautions a moment of terror. How do you raise children in that situation? How is it even possible? One of the best movies of 2018.

A Netflix Subscription specifically to watch the Dragon Prince (recommended by Adri)

So, obviously there are quite a few reasons one might give the gift of bottomless on-demand TV this holiday season, but I'm here to recommend what could be an impersonal gift for a very specific purpose: introducing your loved one to the magic of The Dragon Prince. This show, created by some of the writing team that brought us Avatar: The Last Airbender, delivers the same sense magic and adventure to a fantasy world that's more western in its sensibilities but still provides plenty of nuance and diversity. We follow Callum, step-son to the King, and his half brother Ezran, as they encounter an elf assassin named Rayla and get sucked in to a quest to save both their own kingdom and that of the dragons and elves from endless war. Throw in some entertaining critters and a complex, funny set of antagonists with realistic motivations, and you've got a recipe for immense success. There's only 13 episodes so far, making it perfect for an evening marathon, and while there's lots of plot threads left to explore by the end, at least you've got the entire of Netflix to follow up with (starting with She-ra!)

Avatar: the Last Airbender Blu-Ray (Recommended by Paul)

Perhaps this happened to you, it happened to me. When the first DVD sets of the MG/YA groundbreaking series Avatar: The Last Airbender came out, there were numerous complaints of bad pressings of DVDs, DVDs that would not work, and a general lack of good quality in the set. The blurry line problem annoyed me no end, even on a small television. For an amazing series with strong story and characters that introduced anime concepts to many views of all ages, it was a disappointing production.

Gleefully, now, A:TLA is now on Blu-Ray, and the production here is top-notch. No issues with physical or image quality now. The series holds up still as one of the best SFF series of any type, animation or otherwise. Like Harry Potter, the series does start and is primarily oriented toward MG and YA readers, but the deeper themes and ideas emerge as the series progresses and grows. Watch it.

Annihilation (recommended by brian)

When I consider gifts of films, I often lean on films that provoke discussion. Annihilation will provoke discussion. It’s full of mysteries, incomplete answers, and unsettling scenes. So many unsettling scenes. Whether you read the novel it’s based off of (closer to “inspired by”, really) or not, I can safely recommend Annihilation because it’s weird and unsettling without taking the unpleasant but all too frequent route of using sexualized violence to provoke a reaction. It’s closer to body horror, but it’s not that either. It’s poking on bits of your brain that expect things to look and act a certain way, but they don’t. Even if you don’t find it as unsettling as I did, there’s enough to talk about in the film that it makes a great gift.

Black Panther (recommended by Adri)

February 2018 might feel like it was fifty years ago, but I have it on good authority (i.e. the laws of time and space) that its been less than one solar orbit since Marvel's big-screen Wakandan adventure helped put Afrofuturism on the cultural radar of a whole lot of new people. Smart, visually stunning and totally rewatchable (seriously, this is the only movie of 2018 that I've watched more than once), Prince T'Challa's rise to become king and see off an external challenger who threatens the integrity of his ultra-high-tech, secretive African nation is the very definition of unmissable. Hopefully it will be shaping the direction of superhero and science fictional aesthetics - and Hollywood's opinion of what stories are worth telling - for years to come.

The Expanse Season 3 (recommended by Adri)

"We set out to #savetheexpanse. And it has been saved - but not for me..." Such is the experience of every Earther outside the select regions of the planet blessed with the original broadcast of The Expanse Season 3, which never found its way to TV or Netflix before the show switched over to Amazon Prime. If you're feeling lucky, however, the Blu-ray of this season is now available and reports suggest it's actually region free, making this dramatisation of the tail end of Caliban's War and opening of Abaddon's Gate just that little bit more accessible to anyone who hasn't seen it. In its book form, the Expanse has grown into one of my favourite science fiction series, and the first two seasons of the dramatisation brought the crew of the Rocinante and the wider solar system to life brilliantly with a perfect cast and strong adaptation. Despite being one of those aformentioned geographically unlucky fans, I've heard nothing but good things from season 3 as well, and I'm happy to recommend it for others to enjoy before I finally get my hands on it some time next year.

POSTED BY: Adri is a semi-aquatic migratory mammal most often found in the UK. She has many opinions about SFF books, and is also partial to gaming, baking, interacting with dogs, and Asian-style karaoke. Find her on Twitter at @adrijjy.