Guy Pearce Re-Watch: Horror and Sci-Fi

 

Horror and Science Fiction Fare from the Guy Pearce Career Re-Watch! 😱

Those who follow my Twitter account @ThereforeReview know that I have spent these pandemic years perusing through a Guy Pearce Career Re-Watch. I retreated to this happy place because Pearce can always be depended upon to turn in a great performance in often exceptional films.

In interviews, Guy Pearce has claimed horror and genre films aren't his forte, yet over his career, Pearce has nonetheless provided audiences with several entertaining, polarizing, and thrilling genre bending performances. 

Please click through to previously written reviews and videos at I Think, Therefore I Review, InSession Film or with the Women InSession Podcast, and Keith Loves Movies for more in depth analysis along with these quick commentaries and countdowns.

Bad Bonus: The Seventh Day

8. Prometheus – Looking at this 2012 Alien prequel purely from a Guy Pearce standpoint can be somewhat depressing when you think of what his superior Ted Talks 2023 short as Peter Weyland promised compared to the not so secret old man holograms, arrogant foolishness, and god-complex folly the film gave us. We are ripe for a Weyland TV show right now, but the less said of Alien: Covenant, the better. I would have watched a movie with Michael Fassbender (Hunger) and Guy Pearce waxing existential in a white room instead of the movie we got.

7. Sunrise – Director Andrew Baird opens this 2024 horror drama with warnings of sacrificial appeasement to The Red Coat as a Chinese American family takes in a drifter asking for fresh blood. The horror keeps restarting amid reports of dead animals and rah rah racist speeches, and the narrative is crowded with multiple immigrant struggles and horror vengeance that each deserved more time. We inexplicably never really get to know the “you people” being terrorized by Guy Pearce's pulpit spewing hooligan, and viewers wonder whether this should have been a straightforward drama told in order rather than a piecemeal supernatural tale with flashbacks. Fortunately, Pearce embodies the bloody commentary with his perceived superiority – oozing demented slurs, vile insults, and deep seeded ease. Though uneven and not as cohesive as it could be, Pearce's despicably effortless characterization and the gory consequences are worth seeing. 

6. The Time Machine – This 2002 H.G. Wells remake starts great with groundbreaking visuals, Victorian charm, and a steampunk backstory for Pearce's Alexander Hartdegen. Our desperate traveler asks what if he could go back in time to save his late fiancee, but halfway thru the narrative, however, we're thrust into a contrived white savior action hero movie. The injured professor Alex is suddenly scaling towers and jungle cliffs for a new cause that has nothing to do with his original motivation. Though entertaining with choice moments from Pearce, that what if potential isn't fully achieved. (Just like writer John Logan's Catriona Hartdegen in Penny Dreadful – but that is separate ponderance.) 

5. Equals – Guy Pearce and Jackie Weaver (Animal Kingdom) aide forbidden young lovers Kristen Stewart (Underwater) and Nicholas Holt (X-Men: First Class) in director Drake Dormeus' 2015 dystopian, emotionless future. The austere architecture, nondescript clothing, anonymous SF conformity, and regimented jobs establish this tranquil world well. However we learn nothing about how or why this Collective came to be, and the slow, easy to zone out pacing and often chilly, arms length storytelling imitate the society herein perhaps too well with an overlong, numb mood. Simple names like “Switched-on Syndrome” that would have been cool in the nineties are too bland and derivative of the superior Equilibrium despite up close, intimate filming and improvised scenes. The stolen touches and secret trysts lead to a desire to escape, and the elder allies risk their own hidden emotional selves in a well done finale for fans of the cast – and there is a bonus David Selby (Dark Shadows)! 

4. Zone 414 – The superficial, first draft, rushed retreads in this 2021 SF thriller from director Andrew Baird (One Way) try to do too much and will disappoint viewers expecting a tighter sociological examination. Retro futuristic, gritty nineties tech jars with the modern surveillance camera splices; the supporting ensemble is underutilized and the missing girl mystery is a MacGuffin detracting from Matilda Lutz's (Revenge) emotional android Jane. Guy Pearce's detective with a shady past coldly shoots a pleading android and disassembles it's brain core, claiming he's above the Zone depravity but taking this case solely for the paycheck. Scheduling issues forced Pearce and Travis Fimmel (Vikings) to switch their original roles, and although I can see Pearce hamming it up as our megalomaniac robot creator, his David is older, jaded, and rolling his eyes. The best moments here are the existential one-on-ones between David and Jane debating who is the prisoner or the prison, and their introspective point of view should have been the film's focus. Fortunately, interesting possibilities on control, vice, and ubiquitous machines that see and hear our depraved secrets lead to disturbing culprits, blowtorches, and choice demented moments. Standard model female robots are recirculated to creeps who pay not to hurt them...much. Although the sci-fi potential feels incomplete unless you watch this more than once, I like the intriguing nuggets here. 

3. Don't Be Afraid of the Dark – Writer Guillermo Del Toro (Crimson Peak) provides a perfectly freaky old house with lots of spooky trappings and an ominous basement for snobby architect Guy Pearce alongside Katie Holmes (Batman Begins) and Bailee Madison (Good Witch) in this atmospheric 2011 remake. The obnoxious adults don't believe the depressed child's creepy encounters, leaving wise viewers with should have done, shout at the TV moments and obviously ignored evidence. There are some typical, tiresome horror clichés, and pat explanations, too; showing the malevolent tooth fairies completely too soon takes away from the monster mystery and otherwise finely done suspense, darkness, and fear. Fortunately, smart uses of shadow, flashlights, and good old fashioned if implausible Polaroids keep up the brooding scares and somber pace as the family dynamics fracture over the increasing horror violence. The very eerie little voices accent some disturbing child in peril scenes – leading to a bone cracking finale. 

2. Ravenous

1. Brimstone

It's The Guy Pearce Re-Watch!

 

Welcome to the Great Guy Pearce Career Re-Watch at I Think, Therefore I Review! 🤣

(Jack Irish invites you in for a coffee...)

Those who follow my Twitter account @ThereforeReview know that I have spent these pandemic years perusing through a Guy Pearce Career Re-Watch. I retreated to this happy place because Pearce can always be depended upon to turn in a great performance in often exceptional films.

Naturally, with such extensive credits over the decades, there are certainly some hiccups, but I watched as much of Pearce's filmography as available via streaming, my faithful physical media collection, the Netflix DVD queue before its imminent demise, and lastly resorting to VHS and the Internet Archive for international obscurities.

Along the way there were new to me surprises, television series marathons, bemusingly questionable “divorce” films, and of course those landmark favorites that keep me returning to Pearce's body of work. So now it's time to assess almost everything from my favorite contemporary actor's oeuvre – Horror and Science Fiction, Disappointments, Even the Bad, Supporting Grace, Hidden Gems, Television Charm, Music, Must Sees.

(Consider yourself warned!)

I hope you enjoy these monthly-ish posts with plenty of further click through material to previously written reviews and videos at I Think, Therefore I Review, InSession Film or with the Women InSessionPodcast, and Keith Loves Movies for more in depth analysis along with these quick commentaries and countdowns.

When We Rise

 

Why No One Saw When We Rise (and Why You Should)

by Kristin Battestella

Despite a worthy ensemble including Guy Pearce, Mary-Louise Parker (Weeds), and Rachel Griffiths (The Hard Word) with appearances by Whoopi Goldberg (Ghost), Rosie O'Donnell (A League of Their Own), and more; the 2017 LGBT+ docudrama series from Dustin Lance Black (Milk) and Gus Van Sant (My Own Private Idaho) When We Rise came and went quickly on ABC.

In chronicling the history of the Gay Rights movement and AIDS epidemic from the seventies to the present, When We Rise takes on a bit more than it can chew thanks to faulty framework and unbalanced story telling. Hulu even originally listed the episodes as four “Night I-IV” two-hour parts before changing it to eight forty-four minute parts confusingly billed as “Episode Three Night II Part 1” and online episode guides likewise list both formats. Younger players shrewdly address the racism and sexism in the 1972 start before the elder ensemble tackles marriage equality and all the wonderful performances look the period part. However, this should have been two seasons worth with an episode each per character, and it almost feels like When We Rise may have been cut down from ten or twelve episodes – rushing over critical moments across the nation and the decades. Cheap sound alike cover songs likewise punctuate both unequal make out romps for the rebellious titillation and heavy handed declarations on lesbianism, women's rights, homosexuality as mental illness, and religion both as a solace or harsh master. Archive footage and famous cameos pepper the San Francisco oasis, sailors down low, underground clubs, and protests; but the disjointed montages deflate the impactful moments.

Every story in When We Rise has necessary weight and we are emotionally moved by the personal tenderness when we have a chance to breathe. Unfortunately, the magnitudes are uneven – deaths, interrogations, ostracizing, assaults, and speeches crowd together rather than giving the front line lovers or coming out to parents their full attention. We unfairly hurry through Vietnam, feminism, legislation fights, and violence just so every scene has one stern look from an angry lesbian or powerful words from a gay rebel that instantly, conveniently change some nonbeliever's mind. Lovers, friends, and enemies come and go amid raids, sanctioned hate crimes, and assassinations as Transgender activists and Rainbow Flag creators are glossed over and lost in the busy storytelling. Personal struggles on cruising gone wrong or fears of losing jobs if found out are used to string along the bigger revolution with platitudes and voiceover speeches instead of conversations – compromising intimate reflections on poverty, prostitution, idealism versus action, and who we love. Narrations and letters mean our characters aren't talking to each other, and it's lovely when our separate activists do finally meet during interracial relationships, cover marriages, not being able to inherit or adopt, bath houses, drugs, and increasing illness. Today this past and present would be edited as concurrent rather than chronological – negating the individual stories even further – and When We Rise is noticeably better once the voiceover montages stop and the drama is allowed to play out amid eighties neon, roller skating, and the healthcare crisis of what was then called GRID. Gay backlash, panic, the government's blind eye, and candle vigils need no hyperbole because the viewer realizes almost all the men depicted in When We Rise have died. Moving into the new millennium, unfortunately, loses steam again by falling back on voiceover catch ups and divided storytelling.

Although now understandably persona non grata, Jonathan Majors (Loki) is impressive before the subsequent Michael K. Williams (The Wire) as Ken Jones' self medicating drink and drugs remains largely separate from the rest of our leaders. A daughter of lesbian parents clearly assaulted is also inexplicably never addressed as again When We Rise's uneven structure does a disservice to the younger performers. Thankfully, lovely interview montages of symptoms, fatalities, and fears of being alone and forgotten are well done in the second half before strides in the nineties with the AIDS quilt giving the elder stars more to do. Much more time is spent in the final episodes on the medical give and take and more recent legislation than the initial protests and gay liberation – scripting issues which perhaps stem from Cleve Jones' memoirs as the series' primary source. Pearce's portrayal as Jones is very different than his over the top turn in The Adventures of Priscilla Queen of the Desert, petite and effeminate yet with an emotional strength to match the sassy sage for the next generation of activists. There's a tenderness to his hobnobbing for presidential acknowledgment alongside sad adoption attempts and wonderful scenes with David Hyde Pierce (Frasier) as Jones' unwavering, considering electroshock therapy psychologist father. Generations clash amid legal achievements and setbacks before contemporary marital laws come round to embracing the blended nontraditional family.

When We Rise is moving to watch and remember what it was like then. However it's also especially emotional re-watching When We Rise after the not so dissimilar COVID pandemic. To think we only went through a few months of willful spread, misinformation, and turmoil before the expedited COVID vaccine while AIDS victims died en masse in slow, painful decades before the right medical cocktail was available and HIV no longer became a death sentence. Seeing such sociological and scientific parallels only makes me more angry at contemporary bigots and misled anti-vaxxers who are so ungrateful about the privileges we have today – voluntarily ignorant of the high price others have paid to achieve our supposedly better living. Busy, preempted Network television seven years ago at the beginning of the woeful Trump presidency was also not the place for When We Rise and its overdue representation. Although I would buy the video and G-rated Disney parent of ABC could delete your digital purchase at any time, When We Rise is not available on DVD and not always free streaming on Hulu. If it weren't so tough to find, I believe a re-released edition of When We Rise would probably be well received now – a relatable parable since we must fight yet again for women, minorities, and LGBTQIA+ rights in America. When We Rise is a sad, uneasy watch. However despite its structural flaws, this is a necessary historical overview, educational experience, and essential conversation starter.