Review of The Black Phone (2022) by Mystichydra — 26 Jun 2023

I'm really tired of being disappointed from the majority of recent films I've seen. But that's certainly the feeling I have after sitting through Black Phone. While I appreciate its attempt at being cerebral and stylistic as compared to gory and riddled with jump scares, this film seems like they made a really cool mask and then decided to film a movie around it.

It's incredibly underdeveloped. Frustratingly so, as absolutely nothing gets answered. Nothing. No understanding of motivation, from frankly any of the characters. Not even just Ethan Hawke, but the kids father too.

That actor is normally at least decent, but he was miscast here, and thst character was an utter caricature of an alcoholic father anyway. Which btw, wtf - why did the writers make these children's life the way they did? Dysfunctional even after traumatic dysfunction, from the fate of their mother, to the immediate fistfights from peers over things like pinball.

.. It's just absurdly unrealistic. And there's just a weirdly conspicuous windowless van driving everywhere around late 70's Denver, and the cops can't make heads or tails of the case so they go to the only natural lead - a little girls dreams.

That actress bothered me, she was really bad. And she had a ton of screen time. Plus, calling her prophetic dreams or whatever cliche feels like such a redundancy. But honestly, redundant is a great word to describe this film.