Watch The Bad Batch on Netflix
Written by: Ana Lily Amirpour
Directed by: Ana Lily Amirpour
Starring: Suki Waterhouse, Jason Momoa, Jayda Fink, Keanu Reeves, Jim Carrey, Giovanni Ribisi
Rating: PG-13
Plot
A run in with a group of cannibals leaves Arlen short an arm and a leg, but that isn't the last time she'll see them.
Verdict
While I would disagree, the lack of dialog will cause people to call this boring. Those periods of silence bolster the mood and provide time to reflect on what this movie means. It's teeming with potential interpretations, though this movie implies a lot without expounding on it. It's got body building obsessed cannibals, Jim Carrey, amputations, and a bunny. I like this movie, but I know I'll be in the minority.
Watch it.
Review
I wasn't sure if this was set in the real world or an alternate reality. Arlen is labeled "bad batch" with a serial number tattooed behind her ear and kicked out of the U.S. into the Mexico desert. There are various tribes living in the desert that somehow thrive despite an ostensible lack of resources. I don't know how these places were built or exist. My recurring question was how these settlements get resources. The Dream's settlement has enough electricity to power a DJ booth and neon signs. The movie is uninterested in these technical details, focusing on the story.
The only dialog we hear in the first hour are a couple of people pleading. I dig the mood, and the lack of dialog makes this all the more brutal as our imagination fills in the gaps. Within the first ten minutes we get an amputation by a strange body building cannibal group. I could try to ascribe some meaning to it, how the flesh feeds their narcissism, but I don't know if this movie is meant to have that deep of a meaning.
Jason Momoa, better known as Khal Drogo from Game of Thrones, is Miami Man. We know this because it's tattooed across his chest. He's hunting down his abducted daughter. This movie also has Jim Carrey as a drifter who speaks no lines and helps both main characters. Keanu Reeves plays "The Dream," a harem leading playboy. Is it some kind of metaphor? Arlen escapes from the cannibals to reside in The Dreams's village.
It's the kind of movie that's so sparse you begin to think there has to be something more to this. Signs urge the characters, or maybe us, to follow the dream with one billboard stating "It's all a dream." That's the beauty of this movie, it's so vague you can ascribe many meanings to this. This vast waste land could be life. Arlen overcomes despite her setbacks. She escapes the cannibals, but then chooses to return because 'the dream' pacifies and incapacitates while taking advantage. Everyone in this world, except for The Dream, is just trying to survive as they claw through trash. Who knows.
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