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HE WENT THAT WAY

There is some cheapness in saying that not every true story needs a film adaptation, but sometimes yea that is the case. Especially when your true story is built on a crazy journey that loses all excitement on the big screen. HE WENT THAT WAY may be a road trip movie featuring three eccentric beings but you learn quickly on that the film has little handle on its tonal shifts and instead misses nearly every mark. The film is not a total disaster but when something leaves you dumbfounded about the story it is trying to tell it becomes hard to see it as anything else.

Bobby (Jacob Elordi) is stranded and when that happens to you in the 60’s on Route 66 you never know who you’ll end up meeting. For Bobby this means meeting quiet and reserved Jim (Zachary Quinto) who is travelling in his van to Chicago but just happens to be the main trainer for an infamous Chimpanzee named Spanky. Normally that is where the lunacy begins but Jim quickly learns that Bobby is a violent and dangerous renegade. A man so dangerous that we learn in awkward flashbacks that he has killed several people usually getting a high out of killing those of color. But this script by Evan M. Wiener and directed by the late Jeffrey Darling wants to focus on the relationship these two strange and uncomfortable men create. The only issue is Quinto and Elordi have zero chemistry leaving Spanky (performed by Terry Notary) to be the only glue binding them. Quinto and Elordi are in two separate films, both widely separated from the other. Quinto as Jim is reserved, unsure and playing into a not so subtle queer subtext of the many men who had to stay closeted to protect themselves and their livelihood. Elordi on the other hand is going for it at every corner channeling what so many young male actors try to do but fail at, Heath Ledger’s Joker portrayal. Elordi who is best known for playing high school psychopath Nate Jacobs feels restrained to yet another serial manipulator role. He bounces around on screen laughing at every kill he performs and even giving the whole “my father use to beat me up” speech that it never evokes fear or madness but rather boredom. We’ve been here before and while familiar isn’t necessarily the killer of scripts it never chooses to develop beyond surface level but only for allowing fan accounts to make fan cams of Elordi.

Even as the film begs us to recognize the crazy and once in a lifetime relationship these two men have you find yourself asking, “where exactly was that moment?” It certainly didn’t exist in any scene prior where Jim and Bobby continuously throw out the same fears followed by the same threats. For a film about the violent open road of the 1960’s this feels all tamed down that it more exists as a cautionary tale of never pick up a hitchhiker rather than a complicated look at supposedly two complicated men. HE WENT THAT WAY exists in realm of believing its concept can carry its intentions. Instead it never rises above anything outside of mediocre bar story that sounded a lot more interesting when you’re local drunk started telling it. If it relates anywhere in its attempt at 60’s style filmmaking, it is more in a deep track jukebox song you heard once but still found yourself drifting away waiting for it to end.

D

HE WENT THAT WAY PREMIERED AT THE 2023 TRIBECA FILM FESTIVAL. IT IS CURRENTLY SEEKING DISTRIBUTION

THE LINE

Toppling an empire is a near impossible task, especially when it can always be saved by hiding behind tradition. THE LINE directed by Ethan Berger may bring us into familiar territory with his college fraternity film, but very few have been this unforgiving and sincere. A film that is not just a look at the extreme male depravity that exists during your four years at college, but also a complete look at knowing your future can be driven by the same mentality that allows so many of these young men to not only never grow up but continue to rule the world.

Tom Backster (Alex Wolff) can’t wait to get back to school. So much so that he has no problem telling his mom that he hates living with her in Florida and prefers his life at a mega deep south college. Tom with his now fake southern accent belongs to KNA the top fraternity (so they claim) where stereotypes not only fly high, but they are also created here. His roommate Mitch Miller (Bo Mitchell) practically lives in American flag pants, beer in hand and racist comment in the other. Led by President Todd Stevens (Lewis Pullman) this frat lives by the fact that they get to welcome new pledges and put them through the same rituals they once went through as Freshman. Berger with a script by himself, Zack Purdo and Alex Russek avoid the cliches of most welcome to college films by avoiding the freshman year introduction of its lead. Instead Tom carries the fun memories of his first year in everything he does. He knows these are his brothers and he believes in the bond they have formed. So when newcomer pledge Gettys O’ Brien (Austin Abrams) and an outsider student Annabelle (Halle Bailey) come into play Tom learns that there can be questioning of the system. But before you roll your eyes and see this as a good guy changes his way film, Berger has intense ways of reminding us that these fraternities seek to avoid punishment for a reason.

One of the scariest elements is that unlike most college films the “brothers” don’t just choose to live in the moment. They know their time eventually ends but that doesn’t mean any of their behavior or good times has to. Here are men protected by their parents who range from politicians to CEOs and them themselves know that is the same path they are headed towards. What starts as humorous moments of the boys knowing they can avoid responsibility morph into deeper realizations that they want the world because they have never been promised anything less. Alex Wolff as Tom continues to show why he is one of the best young actors working today even as someone who may not come from the same promised privilege as his peers still believes the invincibility that has been given to him. When he and Todd meet with the new head of activities they know that he isn’t going to be the same guy who let them get away with everything, but what the script does so well is clearly allow for the subtle to be obvious without hammering you over the head. The boys are not just mad that they are being watched more carefully, they are mad that the man doing so is Black. Set in 2014 the blatant racism that exists is at full force for these boys as they deny pledges for being “too dark,” mock Tom’s friendship with Annabelle for hanging out with a “black lesbian” and even down to the music they listen to the quick comments and the overarching feel that they know who they believe should be in charge.

Berger isn’t yelling at the current social status the way other (and lesser) filmmakers have done lately, but there is such a resentment towards these traditions that you yourself are enraged the whole time, while understanding the wall that stands in your way from speaking out. The film takes this head on when the situations go from bad to severely dangerous. There is never the feeling of a whiplash tonal shift but rather this was the only way this was going to end. But where THE LINE holds its biggest reveal is not a shock but rather the realization of what it has been telling us all along. The film set in 2014 means one thing, most of these boys will be out in the world in a few years when America is about to be run by the ultimate dangerous frat boy. A being that will always have the back of these young men who have no intentions of slowing down. Berger and his team are not saying things can never change, but rather showing us that it is hard to see something fall when the masses continue to stand by it whether it be in full force or blindly. THE LINE knows the evils of tradition but wants to be one major bump in the road that hopefully forces the direction to go in a way that brings some form of change even if it has to be one frat house at a time.

A-

THE LINE PREMIERED AT THE 2023 TRIBECA FILM FESTIVAL. IT IS CURRENTLY SEEKING DISTRIBUTION