Tag: Juno Temple

Netflix’s Swapped Shows Who Is More of A Strange Animal

Rather than saying, “You’re a Strange Animal,” maybe the creators of Swapped were humming along to Gowan’s song when world-building a mystical realm where safety must come first rather than mixed breeding through magic.

Swapped Movie PosterNow streaming on Netflix

Netflix’s Swapped feels familiar. While it differs from Pixar’s Hoppers, where a human can masquerade as a beaver through technology and must walk a mile in another’s shoes, what’s presented here concerns a secret valley that is far more mystical than grounded in reality. This tale follows Ollie (Michael B. Jordan), a Pookoo, a groundhog-like creature, who meets Ivy (Juno Temple), a strangely Big Bird-like animal. The pair must work together if they are to thwart a looming threat.

There’s an angry Firewolf (Tracy Morgan) who has grown jealous of the peace bestowed upon the valley by enormous elephantine trees known as the Dzo. From that point on, I could swear I was watching a film that leaned heavily on the imagination of Jim Henson back when he conceived The Dark Crystal. While Swapped is brighter and more naturalistic, favouring cheerful colours and innocent charm, the similarities do not end there.

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No Horns are Locked Here, a Movie Review

But even as a standalone product, Horns does a good job at highlighting the career path Radcliffe has chosen for himself. With challenging products, he’s shedding that image from the previous decade easily.

horns_ver3_xlgSome fans of Daniel Radcliffe who still love him as Harry Potter may say he finally gets his chance to become Voldemort, even though this actor is certainly distancing himself from this character he helped bring into mainstream culture. In the movie Horns, he’s become a man of influence (which includes handling snakes). For some unknown reason, Iggy (Radcliffe) woke up to find devilish horns slowly growing out of him. Is that a result of a curse? That’s unknown, and there’s a mystery afoot at the same time. He’s been accused of the rape and murder of his girlfriend, Merrin Williams (Juno Temple), which has ostracized him in the town he lives in.

This supernatural black comedy is not without some allusions to the nature of what the Devil’s purpose truly is. It’s not because of the fact this figure can goad and cajole people into doing unspeakable acts, but rather in how influential it can be in people’s lives. That includes just walking into the room only to have some revealing their darkest thoughts like wishing a young girl will just simply shut up and accusing a mother for not doing her parental duty. That moment is not without some sardonic laughs. Radcliffe even pulls off some amusing reactions to everyone wanting to tell him their secrets.

When contrasted with flashback moments that reveals how Ig and Merrin became a couple in the midst of friends who also longed for her, there’s a decent whodunit to figure out who actually killed her. The surprise is not necessarily with who the person is but in who originally crafted this tale. Not many people will know that Joe Hill is the son of one of literary horror masters, Stephen King. This movie feels more like a summary of the book, and it’s condensed plotting is curious enough to have some people wanting to seek out the original treatment where its epilogue is different.

But even as a standalone product, Horns does a good job at highlighting the career path Radcliffe has chosen for himself. With challenging products, he’s shedding that image from the previous decade easily. He should keep those antlers on. The look suits him should he decide play a bad guy in any future films to come.

3½ Stars out of 5