‘The Rip’ & ‘Bugonia’ Showcase Skilled Collaborators: At The Movies With Kasey
Sometimes, if the movie you really want to see (for example, The Testament of Ann Lee) is still in limited release, you have to settle for a new action movie on Netflix. The Rip caught my attention because it is the first in the genre costarring besties and frequent collaborators Matt Damon and Ben Affleck.
The pair play Miami cops Lieutenant Dane Dumars (Damon) and Detective Sergeant J.D. Byrne (Affleck) who, in the aftermath of their coworker’s murder, “rip” a stash of cash suspected to have cartel ties. The money is stashed in a house occupied by Desi Lopez Molina (Sasha Calle), who denies any knowledge of it. When their crew—including Detective Mike Ro (Steven Yeun), Detective Numa Baptiste (Teyana Taylor), and Detective Lolo Salazar (Catalina Sandino Moreno)—arrives, they find that the cash is far more money than their Crime Stoppers tip indicated. As Dane panics, Byrne starts wondering if he should call in his brother, FBI Agent Del Byrne (Scott Adkins), or a tough-guy DEA Agent Mateo Nix (Kyle Chandler) to help them.
In the promotion of The Rip, Damon and Affleck seemed to spill the beans on Netflix’s “storytelling rules.” As many have long suspected, the studio wants the films produced for an audience who is second-screening. The screenplay is supposed to have over-exposition in order to make sense for someone who is not fully paying attention. Plus, action movies need to start with a big bang to keep the audience’s attention. I watched The Rip with these tactics in mind and, honestly, it was still better than many other Netflix action films.
The premise of The Rip is interesting. It does start with an extra bang to get your attention, but the stakes of the story ratchet up consistently, and the banter between members of the team is fun. Somewhere in the middle, the story loses its way. There are so many twists and double crosses that by the end, I am not sure I uncrossed them all. The character development is also lacking. There are hints at the grief Dane and J.D. feel, but between flat performances and underdeveloped writing, the feelings do not really hit. Kyle Chandler is playing such a stock character for him that his presence is practically a spoiler.
I always find it fun to watch Damon and Affleck together, but the ladies in this film steal the show. As Desi, Sasha Calle kept me guessing about her culpability throughout, and Catalina Sandino Moreno and Teyana Taylor have so much chemistry as buddy cops that I want a movie about them.
Damon and Affleck reportedly want to do more movies together, but we all know they can make better films than this one. The Rip is watchable enough, but it takes an intriguing premise and delivers mediocre returns.
The Rip was directed by Joe Carnahan, who wrote the screenplay with Michael McGrale. It runs 113 minutes and is rated R.
In another partnership with more inventive results, Emma Stone, Jesse Plemons, and director Yorgos Lanthimos teamed back up for Bugonia, a bizarre sci-fi/horror/comedy that explores the dangers of both online radicalization and corporate secrecy.
In the film, a disturbed man, Teddy (Jesse Plemons), and his cousin Don (Aidan Delbis), kidnap a powerful pharmaceutical executive, Michelle (Emma Stone), because they believe she is from an alien race destroying the world. Teddy’s mother, Sandy (Alicia Silverstone), was also a victim of a failed clinical trial, and it gets murky how much Teddy’s insistence that Michelle is poisoning the world stands in for him believing she ruined his life.
Bugonia was nominated for four Oscars, including nods for Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Actress, and Best Original Score. Emma Stone is fantastic in a physically demanding and often surprising role, but, seriously, how is Jesse Plemons not racking up nominations? His performance is essential to the success of Will Tracy’s captivating screenplay. Teddy is menacing and deranged, but also pathetic. Plemons’s trademark mixture of evil and that everyman quality carries the themes about online radicalization while keeping the narrative tense as well.
Bugonia is more violent than I expected and, although I saw the ending coming, I was still delighted by how the story came together. The characters are complicated, and the way they interact with each other, often hurting when they’re trying to help, provides rich emotional material for the strong performances. Yorgos Lanthimos’s movies are always strange, but the gritty, dilapidated, sunbleached texture of this film grounds the bizarre plot in real-life stakes that make it almost feel plausible. Bugonia is not an easy watch, but it is skillfully made and surprising.
Bugonia was directed by Yorgos Lanthimos and written by Will Tracy and Jang Joon-hwan. It runs 118 minutes and is rated R. It is currently streaming On Demand or via Peacock.
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