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Episode 694 - Wounds (2019)

Episode 694 - Wounds (2019)

Released Thursday, 23rd January 2020
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Episode 694 - Wounds (2019)

Episode 694 - Wounds (2019)

Episode 694 - Wounds (2019)

Episode 694 - Wounds (2019)

Thursday, 23rd January 2020
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Hi everyone!

We are legally obligated to welcome back Shane Hyde to the podcast, a condition of the One Movie Punch Secret Volcano Lair Accords signed last year in the wake of Reign of Terror 2019. If you want the full details, be sure to check out last year’s month-long event, beginning with One Movie Spouse’s review for CAN YOU EVER FORGIVE ME? (Episode #594), and continuing all through October 2019. A month worth of Shane’s sultry voice, and secret machinations. He’ll be up for a Hulu Original film, at least in the United States, and apparently Netflix everywhere else. Strange times we live in!

Before the review, we’ll have a promo from our friends at the Pop Pour Review podcast! Every week, the PPR crew review a film, then craft a cocktail based on the movie. I don’t drink myself, but I know a few people that do, and every recipe fits in surprising ways. You can find them on Twitter and Instagram @poppourreview, or by searching for Pop! Pour! Review Podcast on Facebook. Thanks for all your support last year!

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Here we go!

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<< POP POUR REVIEW PROMO >>

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Kia ora!

I’m Shane Hyde, a Kiwi living in Australia. Everything down here is currently on fire, so I’m staying inside and reviewing movies. Today I’m reviewing 2019’s WOUNDS. Let’s go.

Today’s movie is WOUNDS(2019), directed and written for the screen by Babak Anvari. This movie stars Armie Hammer, Zazie Beetz, Karl Glusman, Christine Rankins, all putting in great turns with regards to the acting. First up, WOUNDS is the story of Will (Armie Hammer), he’s a barkeep on the late shift, who breaks up a fight, finds a cellphone, and then finds things starting to spiral out of control.

No spoilers! No spoilers! You’re the spoilers!

I gotta admit my joyous surprise with WOUNDS. As I feel it's not the film it advertises itself as. In the first act, it feels a bit like standard fare, you know, a number of relationships and conflicts (shall we say 'wounds'?). These are established, dominos set in place, and then the finding of a lost cellphone that sets everything off - and what a crazy ride WOUNDS is to its endings, both literal and figurative.

WOUNDS is based on a novel The Visible Filth by Nathan Ballingrud. WOUNDS has a similar world-building feel to RESOLUTION or THE ENDLESS (Episode #273). As our protagonist Will investigates the lost cellphone, we see and feel The True World unfold around him in unanticipated and unexpected ways. And I gotta try real hard NOT to spoil stuff here, because our protagonist was living a shallow and selfish life, but as he dives deeper into his entanglements, he becomes unstrung, and we feel that confusion along with him, such is the world building.

Director Babak Anvari rose to prominence with an Iranian horror film: UNDER THE SHADOW (2016). Now, that was a chilling and complex horror story set in war-torn Tehran in the 1980s. WOUNDS is an impressive successor to that. It’s low budget but filled with talent in front of and behind the camera. Both films mark Babak Anvari as a 'director of choice' - somebody whose career I'll be following with some joy and anticipation.

And in this, there are echoes of Koji Shiraishi's NOROI: THE CURSE (2005). We are as lost as our protagonist as he tries to get to the bottom of things. His understanding only coming when he eventually gives in to everything that he's struggled against. And for all of this, WOUNDS avoids  a lot of the tropes that you might expect.

WOUNDS touts itself as a psychological horror, and for three quarters of the film that's about right. For the last quarter... well, I’ll leave you to make up your own mind about that one. WOUNDS is the rug pulled out from under your feet. Existential nightmare dressed as psychological thriller.

Rotten Tomatoes: 53% 

Metacritic: 51 

One Movie Punch: 8.0/10

WOUNDS (2019) is rated R and is currently playing on Netflix.

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