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Episode 705 - The Rhythm Section (2020)
Hi everyone!
Welcome back for another Matinee Monday. This week, I had the pleasure of taking in Blake Lively’s latest film, THE RHYTHM SECTION, especially after seeing her performance alongside Anna Kendrick in 2018’s stylish daytime noir, A SIMPLE FAVOR (Episode #274). I’m sure raising children, including adult man-child Ryan Reynolds, takes a great deal of time. Does THE RHYTHM SECTION continue to expand the range of a post-Gossip Girl Blake Lively? You’ll find out in a moment.
Before the review, we’ll have a brand new promo from our good friends at The VHS Strikes Back podcast. Every week, Dave and Chris blow the dust off an actual VHS cassette, then watch and discuss the film. You can find out more on Twitter @vhsstrikesback or on Facebook and Instagram by searching for The VHS Strikes Back podcast. Don’t miss their two guest episodes during last year’s Reign of Terror 2019, with reviews for ALIEN VS PREDATOR (Episode #605) and 30 DAYS OF NIGHT (Episode #626). And don’t miss their upcoming guest review as Comics in Motion for BIRDS OF PREY later in February!
Subscribe to stay current with the latest releases.
Contribute at Patreon for exclusive content.
Connect with us over social media to continue the conversation.
Here we go!
/////
>
/////
Today’s movie is THE RHYTHM SECTION(2020), the art-house action film directed by Reed Morano and written for the screen by Mark Burnell, based on his novel of the same name. The film centers around Stephanie Patrick (Blake Lively), a young woman who has given up on life after her family died in a plane crash three years ago. After meeting a journalist who has evidence the plane crash was actually triggered by a bomb, she seeks out the mysterious B (Jude Law) to help her get revenge.
No spoilers.
We’ve seen an explosion in female-led thrillers in the past few years. We’ve also covered quite a few of them on the podcast, including ATOMIC BLONDE (Episode #324), MARIA (Episode #514), and TOMB RAIDER (Episode #358). In fact, 2018 was littered with female-led thrillers, including Jennifer Lawrence’s RED SPARROW; Jennifer Garner’s PEPPERMINT; and Taraji P. Henson’s PROUD MARY. With the exception of ATOMIC BLONDE (and a soft spot in my heart for TOMB RAIDER), the latest crop of female-led action thrillers have all been just so-so. I’m going to say up front that I am delighted to see the number of female-led action thrillers hitting the big and small screens, and despite the problems with some of those films, it’s great to see the film industry finding gender parity. It also stands to reason that because of this explosion, we’re also going to see a lot of mediocre female-led action thrillers, based purely on the law of averages.
This is absolutely not because women are in the lead roles, or because these stories seem unrealistic, or because of any number of thinly-veiled sexist arguments. In nearly all of the above cases, it wasn’t the women in the lead roles which were the problem, but the characters they were asked to inhabit and the story being told around them. Blake Lively is easily one of the highlights of the film, despite playing one of the more challenging roles in this budding genre. Without spoiling the story for anyone, Stephanie Patrick has a very troubled life prior to seeking revenge, and Blake Lively carries the character down the path, for better or worse. I have no doubt she could carry this franchise forward, and would love to see a Stephanie Patrick with a lot more confidence taking on another mission. But I do think it will need some retooling, because THE RHYTHM SECTION falls firmly into the mediocre range.
THE RHYTHM SECTION is visually beautiful, which is to be expected from director Reed Morano. She was best known as a cinematographer for the first part of her career, working on a ton of projects you can peruse at her IMDb page. She also helped produce and direct the first three episodes of “The Handmaid’s Tale”, the stunning adaptation of Margaret Atwood’s dystopian novel. THE RHYTHM SECTION has a number of beautiful shots, moving between London, Scotland, Madrid, and Tangier, among other locations. Great framing is paired with great costumes, all matching each scene’s color palette. I felt the action scenes were great, especially a long-take car chase that reminded me a great deal of the Uncharted video game series.
I also felt that Morano struggled with pacing while trying to capture those same beautiful shots. Taken apart, every scene or sequence looks technically amazing, but when they are placed in sequence, they can also linger just a little too long, and sometimes way too long. It creates a weird effect where the film’s parts are actually greater than their sum, which is one of the more difficult knots to untangle, especially given the film’s translation to the screen.
It’s the story where I have a great number of problems. Mark Burnell is the author of the Stephanie Patrick book series, and wrote the screenplay for the film. I have not read the novel, although I and One Movie Spouse are looking forward to checking them out, especially as fans of the Lisbeth Salander series. (Shoot, forgot to mention those movies earlier as well!) However, you can tell there’s a lot of story missing, which ends up being told in montages and soft-focus flashbacks, but likely helped flesh out Stephanie’s character. And you can tell that what we are seeing feels very rushed, because the scope of the story is quite large, once things get going. Stephanie has to track down a number of people to extract her revenge, but after a long setup and training sequence, we end up speeding through the food chain towards the hidden mastermind. You can tell a meandering story in a novel as opportunities and ideas arise. But you can’t always fit that story into a feature film, not without feeling short-changed.
I saw the same difference between reading Robert Ludlum’s original Jason Bourne novels and seeing the feature film adaptations in the 2000s. Each novel tells a wide and sweeping story, delving into details and characters, and exploring the lore behind the story, especially Treadstone. The movies, however, don’t even try to capture that same level of immersion, and distilled the stories down to their barest elements, mostly focused on action for better or worse. I think the only two ways THE RHYTHM SECTION works on the screen, to capture the full story, would be to either play it as a limited-series, so we can grow with Stephanie as a character, with time to marinate between segments, or distill it down into action and intrigue that keeps a good pace, similar to the aforementioned ATOMIC BLONDE. In today’s film, it feels like Burnell falls into a common adaptation trap, trying to keep all the important scenes from the book even if they may not be important scenes for an effective film.
THE RHYTHM SECTION is an adaptation of Mark Burnell’s novel of the same name, written for the screen by Burnell and brought to life between Reed Morano’s beautiful cinematography and Blake Lively’s effective performance. However, the film suffers in its adaptation for the screen, trying to tell too large of a story in too short a time. Action and espionage fans should definitely check out this film, despite its adaptation issues. Everyone else should keep in mind this film deals with some very difficult subject material, right from the start, and throughout the film, in addition to a standard revenge tale.
Rotten Tomatoes: 33%
Metacritic: 44
One Movie Punch: 6.0/10
THE RHYTHM SECTION (2020) is rated R and is currently playing in theaters.
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By Joseph Dobzynski, Jr.
5
2121 ratings
Hi everyone!
Welcome back for another Matinee Monday. This week, I had the pleasure of taking in Blake Lively’s latest film, THE RHYTHM SECTION, especially after seeing her performance alongside Anna Kendrick in 2018’s stylish daytime noir, A SIMPLE FAVOR (Episode #274). I’m sure raising children, including adult man-child Ryan Reynolds, takes a great deal of time. Does THE RHYTHM SECTION continue to expand the range of a post-Gossip Girl Blake Lively? You’ll find out in a moment.
Before the review, we’ll have a brand new promo from our good friends at The VHS Strikes Back podcast. Every week, Dave and Chris blow the dust off an actual VHS cassette, then watch and discuss the film. You can find out more on Twitter @vhsstrikesback or on Facebook and Instagram by searching for The VHS Strikes Back podcast. Don’t miss their two guest episodes during last year’s Reign of Terror 2019, with reviews for ALIEN VS PREDATOR (Episode #605) and 30 DAYS OF NIGHT (Episode #626). And don’t miss their upcoming guest review as Comics in Motion for BIRDS OF PREY later in February!
Subscribe to stay current with the latest releases.
Contribute at Patreon for exclusive content.
Connect with us over social media to continue the conversation.
Here we go!
/////
>
/////
Today’s movie is THE RHYTHM SECTION(2020), the art-house action film directed by Reed Morano and written for the screen by Mark Burnell, based on his novel of the same name. The film centers around Stephanie Patrick (Blake Lively), a young woman who has given up on life after her family died in a plane crash three years ago. After meeting a journalist who has evidence the plane crash was actually triggered by a bomb, she seeks out the mysterious B (Jude Law) to help her get revenge.
No spoilers.
We’ve seen an explosion in female-led thrillers in the past few years. We’ve also covered quite a few of them on the podcast, including ATOMIC BLONDE (Episode #324), MARIA (Episode #514), and TOMB RAIDER (Episode #358). In fact, 2018 was littered with female-led thrillers, including Jennifer Lawrence’s RED SPARROW; Jennifer Garner’s PEPPERMINT; and Taraji P. Henson’s PROUD MARY. With the exception of ATOMIC BLONDE (and a soft spot in my heart for TOMB RAIDER), the latest crop of female-led action thrillers have all been just so-so. I’m going to say up front that I am delighted to see the number of female-led action thrillers hitting the big and small screens, and despite the problems with some of those films, it’s great to see the film industry finding gender parity. It also stands to reason that because of this explosion, we’re also going to see a lot of mediocre female-led action thrillers, based purely on the law of averages.
This is absolutely not because women are in the lead roles, or because these stories seem unrealistic, or because of any number of thinly-veiled sexist arguments. In nearly all of the above cases, it wasn’t the women in the lead roles which were the problem, but the characters they were asked to inhabit and the story being told around them. Blake Lively is easily one of the highlights of the film, despite playing one of the more challenging roles in this budding genre. Without spoiling the story for anyone, Stephanie Patrick has a very troubled life prior to seeking revenge, and Blake Lively carries the character down the path, for better or worse. I have no doubt she could carry this franchise forward, and would love to see a Stephanie Patrick with a lot more confidence taking on another mission. But I do think it will need some retooling, because THE RHYTHM SECTION falls firmly into the mediocre range.
THE RHYTHM SECTION is visually beautiful, which is to be expected from director Reed Morano. She was best known as a cinematographer for the first part of her career, working on a ton of projects you can peruse at her IMDb page. She also helped produce and direct the first three episodes of “The Handmaid’s Tale”, the stunning adaptation of Margaret Atwood’s dystopian novel. THE RHYTHM SECTION has a number of beautiful shots, moving between London, Scotland, Madrid, and Tangier, among other locations. Great framing is paired with great costumes, all matching each scene’s color palette. I felt the action scenes were great, especially a long-take car chase that reminded me a great deal of the Uncharted video game series.
I also felt that Morano struggled with pacing while trying to capture those same beautiful shots. Taken apart, every scene or sequence looks technically amazing, but when they are placed in sequence, they can also linger just a little too long, and sometimes way too long. It creates a weird effect where the film’s parts are actually greater than their sum, which is one of the more difficult knots to untangle, especially given the film’s translation to the screen.
It’s the story where I have a great number of problems. Mark Burnell is the author of the Stephanie Patrick book series, and wrote the screenplay for the film. I have not read the novel, although I and One Movie Spouse are looking forward to checking them out, especially as fans of the Lisbeth Salander series. (Shoot, forgot to mention those movies earlier as well!) However, you can tell there’s a lot of story missing, which ends up being told in montages and soft-focus flashbacks, but likely helped flesh out Stephanie’s character. And you can tell that what we are seeing feels very rushed, because the scope of the story is quite large, once things get going. Stephanie has to track down a number of people to extract her revenge, but after a long setup and training sequence, we end up speeding through the food chain towards the hidden mastermind. You can tell a meandering story in a novel as opportunities and ideas arise. But you can’t always fit that story into a feature film, not without feeling short-changed.
I saw the same difference between reading Robert Ludlum’s original Jason Bourne novels and seeing the feature film adaptations in the 2000s. Each novel tells a wide and sweeping story, delving into details and characters, and exploring the lore behind the story, especially Treadstone. The movies, however, don’t even try to capture that same level of immersion, and distilled the stories down to their barest elements, mostly focused on action for better or worse. I think the only two ways THE RHYTHM SECTION works on the screen, to capture the full story, would be to either play it as a limited-series, so we can grow with Stephanie as a character, with time to marinate between segments, or distill it down into action and intrigue that keeps a good pace, similar to the aforementioned ATOMIC BLONDE. In today’s film, it feels like Burnell falls into a common adaptation trap, trying to keep all the important scenes from the book even if they may not be important scenes for an effective film.
THE RHYTHM SECTION is an adaptation of Mark Burnell’s novel of the same name, written for the screen by Burnell and brought to life between Reed Morano’s beautiful cinematography and Blake Lively’s effective performance. However, the film suffers in its adaptation for the screen, trying to tell too large of a story in too short a time. Action and espionage fans should definitely check out this film, despite its adaptation issues. Everyone else should keep in mind this film deals with some very difficult subject material, right from the start, and throughout the film, in addition to a standard revenge tale.
Rotten Tomatoes: 33%
Metacritic: 44
One Movie Punch: 6.0/10
THE RHYTHM SECTION (2020) is rated R and is currently playing in theaters.