February has been a mellow month for movies so far, with studios frontloading theaters with the midsize movies they don’t have a ton of faith will gain box office momentum. This is pretty normal, as the studios usually wait until after the Oscars to start leaning into the films they’re excited about, so February historically brings some stinkers or maybe even a hidden gem or two. Being that I spent an entire day free this week, I caught four movies of varying quality and differing genres: three were romantic—is Valentine’s season after all—but wildly disparate, and one was about emo sheep ranchers. I regret nothing.
The first movie, Companion, was so undermined by its own marketing that the filmmaker should sue the entire department. The second trailer gave away so much of the plot, which unfolds with one jaw-dropping twist after another, that I’m genuinely disappointed I didn’t go into it blind. All viewers need to know is this: A couple, played by the perfectly cast Sophie Thatcher and Jack Quaid, goes on a weekend trip to meet friends at a cabin in the woods and things go poorly. Bloodily so.
The film approaches thematic ideas like consent, toxic masculinity and the sometimes-transactional nature of relationships with humor and intelligence in much the same way that The Substance did. But it trades the gratuitously extravagant maximalism for a gently cynical look at romance that plays perfectly as a poison-tipped subversion of cupid’s arrow and the typical Valentine’s Day offerings we’re subjected to as an audience. Fun, smart, perfectly acted and exciting in equal measures, I really hope Quaid and Thatcher reach bonafide movie stardom after this. Grade: B+
The next film, Love Hurts, features the first big leading role from Ke Huy Quan since his career-defining performance in Everything Everywhere All at Once. He plays Marvin Gable, a real estate agent who used to be a hitman for his brother, Knuckles, an underworld boss. Before retiring, Gable was supposed to kill Rose (Ariana DeBose), but fell in love and let her go instead. Now Knuckles and his henchmen want revenge, and the entire movie is basically mild-mannered Marvin learning to kick ass all over again.
This movie exists as a vehicle for a very specific kind of actor: One who can play an everyman, but also be badass at the same time. In the 1980s this would have been a Stallone movie, in the ’90s a Jackie Chan flick, in the ’00s a Jason Statham feature, in the ’10s a Liam Neeson pic, in the ’20s it would have starred Keanu Reeves and so on.
In fact, 87North, the same production company that puts out the John Wick movies, produced Love Hurts. So the emphasis on the action scenes—most of which are just fine—becomes problematic in that the heart of the movie supposedly revolves around the romance between Quan and DeBose, neither of whom possess even a twinkle of chemistry with the other.
DeBose, after winning an Oscar for West Side Story, followed that up with Argylle, Kraven the Hunter and now this, which makes me think she needs a new agent immediately. While quick and entertaining at points, Love Hurts’ dialogue, script and direction are so slapdash that the movie’s not remotely worthy of the work put in by Quan and DeBose. Grade: C-
The next movie, Heart Eyes, is a Valentine’s Day-themed slasher movie that manages to walk the line between romantic comedy and horror pretty perfectly—until it becomes enthralled with its own lore, focusing on ridiculous exposition dumps and ignoring what made the first two-thirds of the movie a low-key charmer.
The central couple, played by the magnetic coupling of Olivia Holt and Mason Gooding, has charisma and chemistry to burn, genuinely making the audience care about their new romance and hoping they survive the Heart Eyes Killer, who only targets couples leading up to Valentine’s Day. It’s a perfect date movie, especially for teenagers, and for those not hung up on the ridiculous plotting, a perfectly diverting 90 minutes of bloody entertaining horror. It’s very dumb, but somehow that’s not a total dealbreaker. Grade: B-
Finally, we have Bring Them Down, a revenge thriller starring Christopher Abbott and Barry Keoghan as neighboring sheep farmers feuding over a pair of stolen rams. Debut feature filmmaker Christopher Andrews crafts such an intense and mesmerizing look at warring families in the hills of Ireland that I felt like a fly on the wall, watching the inescapable disintegration of broken people breaking things.
Keoghan brings the innate shiftiness that he brings to everything I’ve seen him play, and deploys it perfectly. Abbott once again weaponizes that stillness he contains, creating a character that feels as real as a member of any family.
Bring Them Down is Irish Shepherd Neo-Noir, which I’m pretty sure is an entirely new genre, so good for Andrews and team for creating a world unlike anything I’ve seen before. The film ratchets up tension so quietly that viewers won’t realize they’re death-gripping the arm rests until their hands begin to ache. Grade: A-
Bring Them Down was easily the highlight of these four movies for me, but each film offers a little something depending on what the viewer wants from a movie. I can’t say Love Hurts is a good movie, but anyone wanting a villain who murders people with a damn boba straw will love it. Companion offers twists and turns; Heart Eyes, goofy, glossy horror; and Bring Them Down, anxiety. Moviegoers can choose their own adventure.
