🍿#12: A Quiet Place Part II
Subscriber nominated trailers, SP grows wings and a feature review of A Quiet Place Part II (and how it could be better 🤫)
“My advice to you, Chef, if you want to live a long life, eat your own tongue.”
~ Burnt, 2015
Fly my pretties!
That’s what tweets do right? Fly?
Well, Salty Popcorn will be flying all over the place soon as we’re now on Twitter, making it even easier for you to engage and interact with SP. So if you’re scrolling through your feed and you see a trailer or some great movie trivia, you can send it in by tweeting @_SaltyPopcorn.
If and when your submission is published in Salty Popcorn, we’ll give you full credit and link your Twitter profile in the newsletter so that other readers can congratulate you on your discerning taste for film and facts.
Speaking of submissions, some of this week’s trailers have been sent in by your fellow subscribers. Old was nominated for inclusion by major supporter Sal (who isn’t on Twitter) and Shiva Baby was suggested by SP’s biggest fan (and unofficial sub-editor) Mia, which will be the feature review in the next issue.
Thanks for your suggestions and, as always, thanks for reading.
Have you seen any fantastic trailers recently? Let me know in the comments below.
Upcoming Releases
Old
UK: 23 July // USA: 23 July
Writer and director M. Night Shyamalan (The Sixth Sense, Split, Signs) is back, this time with a bone-chilling thriller about a family that age rapidly while spending time on a secluded beach. As it’s Shyamalan, expect a twist.
Lansky
UK: 25 June // USA: 25 June
Starring Harvey Keitel as the infamous Meyer Lansky, who, in this story, spins a dizzying tale, revealing the untold truth about his life as the notorious boss of Murder Inc. Yes, that is what his organisation was really called!
Fact of the week
There are just 25 lines of spoken dialogue in A Quiet Place, the rest is all American Sign Language (ASL).
Originally, the ASL was intended to be un-subtitled, with the belief that the audience would understand the context of what was going on. However, as it was decided that a scene where Regan (Millicent Simmonds) argues with her father (John Krasinski) should be subtitled, the filmmakers thought it would be best to include subtitles throughout.
Review: A Quiet Place Part II
Star rating:
3.5 (out of 5)
Worth a watch?
Yes
Where to watch:
USA: Paramount+ (12 July)
UK: Cinemas (3 June)
Blurb:
Following the fatal events at the farm, Evelyn (Emily Blunt) and her children Regan (Millicent Simmonds) & Marcus (Noah Jupe) face the terrors of the outside world as they fight for survival in silence.
As a side note, I think the trailer below gives too much away, be warned.
The review (NO spoilers):
I went to see a back-to-back showing of both A Quiet Place & A Quiet Place Part II, and you know what? It was fantastic. Seeing the first film again got me pumped for the sequel. Despite the 50-minute(!) intermission, I daresay that cinematic double bills may well be the way forward.
Talking about the film now, A Quiet Place Part II is a brilliant sequel. It’s well-paced, it’s well-shot, it’s got the same eerie score from the first film and it’s got plenty of tension to keep you on the edge of your seat.
Despite all the praise, it’s not one of those sequels that’s better than the original film (shout out to Terminator 2: Judgement Day and The Godfather Part II). It’s good but it’s much more typical of a blockbuster horror and more reliant on spoken dialogue.
Of course, this is fine if that’s what you’re into but for me, the overall lack of ingenuity proved to be the film’s downfall, as it’s the originality of the first film that makes it so good.
Writing for Roger Ebert, Nick Allen said: “If you were more scared of the monsters from the first movie than you were the visceral challenge of complete silence, A Quiet Place Part II is especially for you.”1 I couldn’t have put it better myself.
Nevertheless, it was thoroughly entertaining and when it finished I would have happily sat through another 50-minute intermission to watch Part III, which John Krasinski has already alluded to.
There is, however, one thing in particular that I think could have been done better in this film. If you want to know what that is, scroll down to the Critic’s Cut - but beware of spoilers.
If you liked A Quiet Place Part II…
The Girl with All the Gifts
2016 | UK: Amazon Prime (£3.49) // US: HBO Max
One of several children immune to a mutated fungal disease that has turned humanity into cannibalistic zombies, a young girl (Sennia Nanua) escapes the safety of a special school and helps guide mankind's survival.
In the next issue:
Shiva Baby
UK: 4 June // USA: 2 April | Watch the Trailer
The Critic’s Cut 🚨SPOILER ALERT🚨:
Do you know what I would’ve really liked to see in A Quiet Place Part II? More Emmet (Cillian Murphy) because I don’t think we got enough of his story.
Here we have a morally ambiguous character, whose potential for depth goes to waste. Sure, we get hints of what he’s been through and the effect it’s had on him but so much more could have been done to develop his character.
For example, the fact that he couldn’t bear to bury his dead wife is a testament to his pain and it’s a shame this wasn’t explored further. As the whole film is just 97 minutes long, there is certainly time to play with considering most new releases are at least 120 minutes.
If I’d written the script, it would have started with a short recap of the first 472 days from the perspective of Emmett and his family. Not just to strengthen the audience’s ties with his story, but to create an inner-desperation to know what happened to the Abbotts.
This would have been doubly effective, as we would have been left wanting more of Emmet when the film inevitably went back to focusing on the Abbotts…
@John Krasinski, if you’re reading this hit me up for Part III 😉
Do you know someone who’d like a taste of Salty Popcorn? Feel free to send this issue on.
I’ve paraphrased Nick’s wording slightly and notified him of the change.