Movie Review

Anna Kendrick ably directs creepy serial killer film Woman of the Hour

Tony Hale and Anna Kendrick in Woman of the Hour.

Photo by Leah Gallo/Netflix

America has a seemingly never-ending fascination with serial killers, with multiple movies, TV shows, books, and podcasts dedicated to their murderous exploits. The glut of content has become so much that it’s difficult to stand out from the pack, something that the new Netflix film Woman of the Hour attempts to do.

It helps that the movie — which is about famed real-life "Dating Game Killer" Rodney Alcala, whose crimes have already been the subject of several documentaries, podcasts, and TV shows — features Anna Kendrick, who both stars in the film and makes her directorial debut. Kendrick plays Sheryl, a struggling actress in the late 1970s who, in lieu of other work, takes a gig as a contestant on The Dating Game. One of the three bachelors is Alcala (Daniel Zovatto), who — unbeknownst to anyone at the show — had already committed a number of murders.

Utilizing scenes featuring The Dating Game as a grounding point, Kendrick and writer Ian McDonald take the audience back-and-forth in time throughout the film, showing how Alcala lured in several of his victims. Typically using his camera and flattery to convince women to let him do a photoshoot in a remote location, Alcala preyed on people throughout California in the ‘70s.

Because the film has scenes at multiple points in time, it allows Kendrick to play around with the chronology of events. The first victim shown is in 1977, but others come in 1971, 1978, and 1979, and the mixing up of their scenes is both an indication of how long Alcala operated, as well as the haphazard nature of his crimes.

It also goes a long way toward establishing the type of person that Alcala was. While it’s easy to demonize a serial killer, and this film certainly does, Kendrick and McDonald find the nuances in the character. His ability to go between being utterly charming and supremely creepy are on display throughout, and demonstrate why he was able to convince so many different people to go along with what he wanted.

The Dating Game portion of the film is a distillation of all of Alcala’s other encounters into one distinct period. Even though the show doesn’t allow Cheryl to see any of the contestants, she too becomes charmed by Alcala, only to get creeped out by his advances after the taping. Cheryl’s interactions with Alcala take on an enhanced tenor given everything else the film shows, and keep the viewer on edge.

The structure of the film is such that, even though Kendrick is the headliner, she’s not really the star. Instead, she serves as the entry point into the story, and keeps the story flowing when it returns to her character’s storyline. Zovatto is the true lead, and he plays all parts of Alcala extremely well. He makes him into a person to be feared without ever becoming an over-the-top villain.

Other versions of the serial killer story may delve deeper into the psychology of the person committing the murders, but Woman of the Hour is still a solid story told with verve by Kendrick. Even though there is little mystery to it, the film contains plenty of drama and suspense, making it a memorable entry into the ever-growing serial killer genre.

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Woman of the Hour is now streaming on Netflix.

Movie Review

Sonic the Hedgehog 3 really knows its audience: fans of the game

Photo courtesy of Paramount Pictures

Sonic the Hedgehog (Ben Schwartz) in Sonic the Hedgehog 3

The first Sonic the Hedgehog movie in 2020 was one of the few video game adaptations that managed to appeal to both fans of the Sega game and those who just want to watch a fun movie. As the series moved into a second and now third film, though, it’s become increasingly reliant on giving the video game fans what they want, with not as much attention paid toward simply telling a good story.

In Sonic the Hedgehog 3, Sonic (voiced by Ben Schwartz) continues to live with human friends Tom (James Marsden) and Maddie (Tika Sumpter), as well as Tails (Colleen O’Shaughnessey) and Knuckles (Idris Elba), who stuck around after the events of the second film. Dispensing with any kind of narrative coherence, the trio is called away by an undefined military force to help with the escape of Shadow (Keanu Reeves), another alien hedgehog who has been locked away off the coast of Japan for many years.

Suffice it to say that the trio does not initially fare well against the powerful Shadow, forcing Sonic to do the unthinkable: Ask his nemesis, Dr. Ivo Robotnik (Jim Carrey), for help. What Sonic doesn’t anticipate is that Shadow has a history that left him with a grudge against most of human society, and he’s intent on using his powers — with a little help from his former mentor, Gerald Robotnik (also Carrey) — to exact his plans for revenge.

Made by the same team of director Jeff Fowler and writers Pat Casey, Josh Miller, and John Whittington from Sonic the Hedgehog 2, the film is a combination of manic action, jokey sequences, and a dash of heart. The addition of Shadow ups the mayhem considerably, and the filmmakers rarely slow things down (although, oddly, the super-speed of Sonic and company feels lessened this time around).

The initial casting of Carrey gave the comic actor permission to indulge in whatever wackiness he could imagine, and giving him two roles in this film means double the nonsense. Ivo and Gerald (who’s Ivo’s grandfather, for the record) face off in a number of silly scenes, none more absurd than a dance sequence aboard a space station threatening to explode Earth (yeah, this movie is a lot).

Does the plot make a lick of sense? Absolutely not, but the filmmakers seem to acknowledge that fact, throwing anything and everything at the screen to try to entertain kids and/or fans of the video game series. It should come as no surprise that the end credits tease yet more characters from the video games joining the franchise, making it abundantly clear who is expected to get the most enjoyment out of the series going forward.

In addition to Carrey, the voice actors continue to make the characters fun. Schwartz and O’Shaughnessey provide the cartoon-style acting, while Elba and now Reeves give a nice counterbalance with their deep and serious voices. Marsden and Sumpter aren’t given much to do this time around, and Krysten Ritter shows up as Director Rockwell, a character who’s mostly there to move what little plot there is further along.

A four-quadrant movie is one that appeals to all ages and genders; Sonic the Hedgehog 3 is a one or maybe two-quadrant movie at most. But it’s more fun than the other family-friendly offering this Christmas season, and fans of the video game will likely love the depiction of their favorite characters on screen, so it’s doing something right.

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Sonic the Hedgehog 3 is now playing in theaters.

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