#mollnerwalk

let's get the good down first.

acting - phenomenal. could definitely see some nominations rolling in for these boys. every single one was a firecracker. for such an odd project these guys really gave it their all. Judy Greer was also fantastic.

cinematography - when the camera wasn't hovering inches from cooper hoffman's face, we got some nice scenery. enjoyed small moments of sweeping wide shots and portraits of onlookers.

that's it. that's all I enjoyed.

JT Mollner's Strange Darlings hinted at his amateurish, clumsy wheel-spinning attempts at screenwriting (in spite of a concept that could have been interesting, if he just had a little more skill to back it up). I was hopeful that maybe an adaptation would be a bit of a better project for him since the text of King's novel already had some bones to work from.

I was wrong. although there are stretches of dialogue that are fun, and some humorous additions - for the most part, JT makes mashed gunk out of the whole thing. it's meandering, too simplistic in parts, too confused in others.

and I don't mean the literal mashing of characters. I did expect some of them to be cut, and others combined. his decisions completely baffled me (scramm/stebbins??) but for the most part, I could accept that this was going to be a new version of the story, and I could still enjoy it, so long as the core messaging stays intact.

and then he completely missed the point.

and i know how that sounds. "hey - the book is dystopian fiction about a crumbling society that kills off contestants in a death march, and the movie is a dystopian fiction about a crumbling society that kills off contestants in a death march." what more am i asking for? technically yes, okay, this is exactly what was advertised. the book was adapted. I know what I am about to say sounds nitpicky and butthurt. but I really feel this was a HUGE miss. let me explain:

From the very beginning of the book, all of the boys have lost. They are about to embark on a torturous, nationally-broadcast defeat, where they are picked off one by one in front of millions. There is no hope. There is nothing that they can do. It is the last gasping breaths of 100 contestants being slowly crushed to death by a machine. THIS is what the Walk is.

Ray Garraty doesn't know why he chose to be there. But he's pretty sure he's lost his mind. Many of them are suicidal and know what's coming. The others who believe they're going to win The Prize are being swindled. Everyone loses everything.

The only good that can be found, and the only reason it's worth pushing on, are the relationships the boys build with each other. That's life under late-stage capitalism. We are being pressed to death until there's nothing left. The only thing we can do is reach out, hold the hand of someone near us, and say, "I see you."

And JT seems to be grasping at this. There are some speeches from McVries that really make you want to believe he's got it, he's almost there - and then McVries points at a rainbow and says "this is what makes it all worth it." Or the sky, or the trees. He sounds like a Suicide Hotline Operator on his first day, and he's not saving anyone with that shit.

We get snatches of some dreariness, and boy, isn't it so sad that these boys are dying? All that blood? And doesn't Judy Greer look pained as hell? etc, etc. surface-level tragedy. But overall, JT really fails to capture that necessary, suffocating hopelessness, and the way it wraps around King's narrative like a dangerously soft blanket.

Mollner's Ray Garraty, instead, is a character who really wants that win. He's powering through on the fumes of pure vengeance. The quiet, gentle acceptance Book Garraty has of his own death has been swapped out for boring overplayed righteousness - all because his dad let him read The Stranger and listened to AC/DC or something. No, actually.

The one flashback we get is of John - sorry, William Garraty being dragged out of his home, onto his knees in the middle of the street, and forced to pledge allegiance to the flag by the Major himself. "Don't do it!" Garraty and his mother yell. "No, I can't." says William Garraty. And he gets shot.

"My dad was the best person who ever lived," Garraty says, and I guess we're supposed to believe him, or something, even though his dad pretty clearly would rather get shot in front of his own family than say "Yeah, alright" when the Major tells him to just say he Loves America or something and to never read George Orwell again.

There are an extraordinary amount of cringe-worthy lines that are meant to carry a devastating amount of weight, I'm sure. Things like "Remember who you are, Garraty" and "This is for Ray!" and other such insulting swill. Everything else is too casual - motherfucker this, fucker that. Blah blah blah. Nothing like the melodious triumph of King's ethiopian jug-rammer. C'mon, JT. He's done all the work for you.

The one thing I think fans of the book will cheer for (although maybe those who gave it a shallow read) will be Ray's passionate declaration "I love you, Pete! I love you!" But instead of the real ways Garraty and McVries are there for each other in the text, JT fills that space with: stories about being down and out, funny little jabs at their pals, giggling and throwing a baseball around, sleeping against each other, The War, whispered chittering about revenge, why you shouldn't kill people (gasp!), and about a big ole fight McVries got in with a mean nasty guy (RIP Priscilla). Even if Ray eventually does come to the realization that his revenge plot is bullshit - you spend all that time feeling like they could actually do something, or some good might be on the other end. It's wasted time. Mollner's McVries saves Garraty, over and over, but you feel he has to. That's what friends are for! You know they're going to be the last two, because they care about each other, more than anyone else does!

In the book, McVries saving Garraty is loudly hated by the other contestants of the walk. It's a betrayal of the objective - this is an elimination contest. Not to mention a betrayal of McVries's clearly stated goal, which is to die. He eventually keeps going for Garraty. He saves Garraty in spite of what he wants, not because two main characters are just naturally supposed to look out for one another. The movie's "I love you, Pete!" is an empty victory for fans. Mollner's Garraty just loves McVries because he's a swell guy and he was nice to talk to.

Bizarrely, Garraty's revenge is still carried out by McVries, who is the winner. Apparently nobody has ever thought to kill the Major at all, ever. It's unclear if this has done anything at all - what effect this will have on future walks, or...anything. There's even a shot of Garraty's dead body while the nearby crowd sings "My Country Tis Of Thee" or The Star-Spangled Banner or some shit. I don't know what I'm supposed to make of this ending.

Basically, JT's movie is a bunch of patchwork elements combined to make a beginning, middle, and end, but without any real themes or underlying reasoning. They all believe they can win. They all die horribly, sometimes randomly. McVries and Garraty form a bond of some kind, one that is so special, they are the only characters allowed to live, per the rules of the script. Even Stebbins just gives it up because Garraty and McVries are the bestest of friends, and he can't compete with that, I guess. The final two argue about who gets the trophy until Garraty pulls a fast one on McVries. Then McVries gets to pull the trigger on the Major. All of this, and I don't see what the point is at all. Sorry that happened, or congratulations, I guess.

This isn't even getting into the minute bullshit about the other characters, because, overall, whatever - I think they were fine. They existed well enough for the story. I wish we had Book Stebbins, but I liked Film Barkovitch. I wish we had Book Baker, but I liked Film Parker. There was a trading of traits here that was so chaotic that it all just washed out into gray anyway. The real problem here was that in spite of the actors taking everything very seriously, and looking like real, deep characters, the screenplay had nothing for them to do but die. There wasn't any impact that any of them had besides just blood and guts. Meanwhile, I know for a fact people can point to some particular death in the book and say "This hurt me in a way I won't ever recover from."