This week Sam reviews Netflix's latest release as Chris Hemsworth teams up with director Joseph Kosinski (Top Gun: Maverick) for Spiderhead.
Watch Sam's Take here:
The story takes place in Spiderhead Penitentiary, where inmates like Jeff (Miles Teller) are testing state-of-the-art pharmaceuticals overseen by Steve Abnesti (Chris Hemsworth). Jeff grapples with both the effects of the drugs and his conscience, while discovering there is more to Steve than his hospitable nature."
I'll start by saying I'm not entirely sure what this movie is trying to say or get at. I feel like it's trying to be some metaphor for redemption or want for control but just doesn't quite get there.
It's based on a book "Escape from Spiderhead" by George Saunders, book adaptions in my opinion are extremely hard to get right. There's only so much you can put in and portray as the essence of a book is subtext, inner monologue and description.
All things that are portrayed in different ways in film. There's also a possibility that the book is hot garbage but either way.
In terms of performances, Hemsworth plays the cold, sociopath of Steve with a calculated calmness. It's a welcome display of his range. And Steve's reasoning for conducting the experimental program provides an interesting twist that pulled me in a lot but it just comes a little too late in the story.
There's also a few reveals of exposition and information about Steve. The first one is supposed to come across as sinister and surprising but it's not.
He is built up to be this nice guy who's just being controlled by a corporation but it's not terribly believable, and maybe that's the point.
But the form around which this reveal takes place makes it seem like it's meant to be surprising when it's pretty obvious that Steve is a bad dude.
The protagonist of Jeff is fine. Miles Teller isn't doing anything prolific, but I don't think that's necessarily his fault, more a result of the unfolding events around him that lack intensity. Some horrific things have happened to Jeff but I just didn't get enough emotion for Teller to convey the impact.
But also maybe his lack of emotional reaction about it is his emotional reaction, given he would probably be in shock. Either way, just a bit of a run of the mill character for a protagonist.
The story sort of meanders through events that are ticking boxes before anything of substance happens.
A lot of these events I understand are necessary to give pay off to later reveals but it's just not really that engaging. It feels like the important bits could have happened earlier or that they just have no weight or creativity.
Again this could be a result of how it plays out in the book or an inadequate adaption but not that engaging nonetheless.
I did enjoy the role music and song plays in the film. Steve uses song to set mood and theme for various experiments, and it was interesting to see how the song choice linked to the events taking place.
But unfortunately the sound design for the dialogue is very quiet and makes it hard to hear anything.
Overall an interesting performance by Chris Hemsworth gets a bit lost in the weeds of a lacklustre story. As I said, the message or theme was a bit lost on me but a somewhat thought provoking concept on control and capitalism's role in it. A good effort from Joseph Kosinski who's other 2022 release Top Gun: Maverick will be the more remembered of the two.
