by Victoria Alexander
I must urge the Academy Awards to make a new category: Best Performance by an Animal. This is a category that has been sadly ignored. There are a lot of working animals who deserve recognition for helping assist a star build their character.
John Krasinski's 2018 A QUIET PLACE had a major flaw we all ignored: The birth of a baby at an underground bunker in silence and the infant not crying. We let that go and continued on to the 2021 sequel, A QUIET PLACE PART ll. A QUIET PLACE began on day 89 of the alien attack. No one knew what had happened. The only information that has filtered through the world is that the big bugs hunt on noise. That is all everyone knew: Just keep silent.
What the hell happened? A QUIET PLACE: DAY ONE doesn’t answer the question but does tell us what happened on Day 1 in New York City from the moment the sky is infested with flying, hungry alien bugs.
I lived in Manhattan and I am surprised by the reaction shown here. As a jaded New Yorker, I would have duct taped my mouth closed, gone directly to Saks Fifth Avenue and helped myself to a few mink coats for New York can get cold – I’d leave an I.O.U., of course - and then head to the Costco Superstore on 117th Street. Do you know a better place to hunker down?
On DAY ONE no one went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art for a few masterpieces to bring along on the boat trip out of town. The officials know one other thing about the alien bugs – they cannot swim.
Samira (Lupita Nyong'o) is not the best person to focus on. She is just an ordinary New Yorker empty of feelings staying in a hospice outside the city suffering from a terminal cancer. A nurse, Reuben (Alex Wolff), encourages Samira to take an outing to a New York theater. Knowing full well the glory of New York pizza, I understand Samira’s demand they stop for pizza or she will not go. Samira does bring her service cat Frodo who also loves pizza.
I must urge the Academy Awards to make a new category: Best Performance by an Animal. This is a category that has been sadly ignored. There are a lot of working animals who deserve recognition for helping assist a star to build their character.
The marionette show is interrupted by a siren announcing a citywide emergency. Seems a meteor shower has brought an army of big bugs who cannot see but follow noise. New York City is noisy, though not as noisy as Iquitos, Peru. The bugs are starving. Like every catastrophe in movies, people abandon their cars by leaving the driver’s door open. So no one even hopes they can return to retrieve their car. Why not just stay in the car? That is why I always have a bug-out bag in my car.
The hell with going to the South Street Seaport and fighting to get on one of the ferries out of the city. New Yorkers can be bloodthirsty and one would be risking life by trying to get on a boat. Can you imagine what a seat on that ferry would cost? It would challenge being a U.S. citizen during the Fall of Saigon trying to get on the rescue helicopters.
We can’t have Samira wandering around New York alone with the chaos, the destruction of buildings and people being eaten right on the streets. Frodo, making his mark as a scene-stealing actor, finds Eric (Joseph Quinn) cowering and crying and guides him to Samira. Eric is from England and is in the city preparing for a law degree. But he is a mess and needs the stoic Samira, as she seems immune to fearing the alien creatures.
Samaria tells him to head for the ferry. Eric, scared and confused – it must be his first hour in New York – keeps following Samira around. Thankfully, a thunderstorm allows some conversation. Most important, Samira is going to Harlem for her favorite slice of pizza.
For Nyong’o, Samira is a rough role. She is a fatalist, so nothing bothers her, especially a young man following her around trying to make her his savior. He is interfering with her agenda – even if it means day-old burnt pizza. The outcome is predictable, but they do find Samira’s favorite pizza place.
I doubt Krasinski planned THE QUIET PLACE immense success which will have a final movie. I think a Broadway musical and books are in development. The evolution of the films does have some controversy. Scott Beck and Bryan Woods wrote A QUIET PLACE based on a concept they conceived in college. Krasinski rewrote the script and directed the first movie.
A QUIET PLACE: DAY ONE’s original writer and director was Jeff Nichols with a story from Krasinski. But Nichols stepped away from directing citing “creative differences.” Michael Sarnoski signed on as director and writer. Sarnoski and his team did a terrific job making the horror real, but my complaint is the character of Eric being such a whiner.
The ALL is Mind; The Universe is Mental.”
Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer Critic. For a complete list of Victoria Alexander's movie reviews on Rotten Tomatoes go to:
Contributing to: FilmsInReview: http://www.filmsinreview.com
Member of Las Vegas Film Critics Society
Personal email: victoria.alexander.lv@gmail.com