McDaniel
All the noise, noise, noise noise!
New York City — the city that never sleeps — is a loud and populated spot, ideal for the chaos of sound-seeking aliens in “A Quiet Place: Day One.”
It’s the third installment in the film series, and the first without John Krasinski and Emily Blunt on camera. But the novelty hasn’t worn off.
And there are plenty of jump scares that might make you spill that quiet sip you were sneaking during a character’s cautious tiptoe (ask my middle child).
Audiences are likely familiar with the aliens by now, and it’s a delicate balance to show just how many of these killers are invading the Big Apple, without so much visibility that the awe dissipates.
But the creatures are deadlier than ever. What this film possesses that the previous two didn’t is scale — destruction sweeping across massive NYC.
Yet, it’s surprisingly slow at times. That tempered pace might frustrate those looking for that of a standard monster movie. But I don’t think it’s a bad thing, because long after the credits rolled, it’s the phenomenal acting that I remember more than the monsters.
It manages to feel as intimate as ever, emphasizing humanity’s reaction to suddenly not being atop the food chain.
Being a movie with little dialogue, it’s smartly cast. Both leads have the gift of being able to say so much with their eyes.
Lupita Nyong’o (“12 Years a Slave,” “Us”) plays Sam, a terminally ill woman who is on a field trip away from her hospice when the uninvited guests land. Nyong’o was already a star, winning an Oscar in her debut film “12 Years a Slave” back in 2014, and she is special as Sam, demonstrating an impressive range of deep emotion with no words.
Even before the invasion, she knew she didn’t have long before cancer took her. All she wanted before it did was a good slice of New York pizza. And when the world starts to crumble around, her goal remains the same.
It’s Sam’s cat Frodo who finds Eric (Joseph Quinn of “Stranger Things”) struggling to survive. With panicked eyes resembling Robert Downey Jr.’s (does anybody else see it?), Quinn is absorbing on the big screen.
Eric joins Sam on the pizza quest, not out of any overdone Hollywood romantic trope, but simply because what else do you do when the world is ending?
This film artfully balances the cacophony of an apocalyptic New York with the profound silence of human connection, making it worth seeing for both horror fans and cinephiles alike.
4/5
Scott McDaniel is an assistant professor of journalism at Franklin College. He lives in Bargersville with his wife and three kids.
