Movie reviews: The hellishly dull experience of watching 'The Exorcist: Believer'

THE EXORCIST: BELIEVER: 2 STARS

Fifty years after its release, William Friedkin’s horror classic “The Exorcist” is still scary enough to frighten the twists out of your Twizzlers. The story of a 12-year-old girl, possessed by the Devil, and her mother Chris MacNeil's attempt to rescue her through an exorcism, inspired nightmares and even reports of audiences becoming physically ill at screenings.

The four sequels spawned by the success of the original, not so much.

Coming back for another shout at the Devil is “The Exorcist: Believer,” the sixth installment in “The Exorcist” franchise.

The spirited new film, a direct sequel to the original, sees single father Victor Fielding (Tony winner and Oscar nominee Leslie Odom, Jr) raising daughter, Angela (Lidya Jewett) after the death of his pregnant wife in a Haitian earthquake 12 years ago.

When Angela and her friend Katherine (Olivia Marcum) disappear for three days, they come back changed, with no memory of what happened to them.

“Wherever those girls went,” says Katherine’s father Tony (Norbert Leo Butz), “they brought back something with them.”

Victor believes they are possessed by the Devil, and, in desperation, seeks help from someone who has been there, done that.

“You have some experience with possession?” Chris MacNeil (Ellen Burstyn), the mother who battled the Devil in the original film, is asked.

“Yes,” she replies, “more than I’d like.”

MacNeil understands the devilish happenings, and thinks she knows how to help.

“Exorcism is a ritual,” she says. “Every culture, every religion, they all use different methods. It’s going to take all of them.”

Did the Devil make director David Gordon Green do this? That might be the only way to explain the hellishly dull experience of watching “The Exorcist: Believer.”

The movie begins with promise as Green sets up the story and a sense of foreboding, only to have it go all to heck once Angela and Katherine come back from the woods worse for the wear and tear.

From that point on, “The Exorcist: Believer” is a soulless collection of William Friedkin’s greatest hits. The inverted crosses, bloated faces, waggling tongues and spinning heads had real shock value 50 years ago when “The Exorcist” traumatized a generation of moviegoers, but today they are cliches with the shock value of a AAA battery.

So, instead of terror, we’re given jump scares. Instead of the ultimate good vs. evil showdown, we’re treated to a mish mash of overlapping theological blather that makes very little sense. The Devil, Green seems to suggest, can be defeated by community but the exploration of faith that made Friedkin’s film a classic is nowhere to be seen.

Burstyn provides franchise continuity, but little else. She’s brought in as an expert of exorcisms, but isn’t given much to do other than serve as a touchstone to a different, better film.

If you go see “The Exorcist: Believer” you may have a hard time believing what a mess they made of it.

THE ROYAL HOTEL: 4 STARS

Edgy and tense, “The Royal Hotel” is a slow burn about sexual violence and intimidation, power dynamics and revenge, wrapped up in a story about two young women on a work/travel visit to Australia.

Julia Garner and Jessica Henwick play Hanna and Liv, American backpackers, who claim to be Canadian when asked—“Everybody loves Canadians,” Hannah says—on a work and travel program in an Australian city. The free-spirited Liv has burned through her cash, forcing the pair to apply for work at a job agency.

They are placed as bartenders in a hotel pub, but the gig comes with words of caution.

“It’s good money,” they’re told, “the only thing that makes it bothersome is the remoteness of the location. It’s a mining town, so you’ll have to get used to the male attention.”

“Will there be kangaroos?” Liv asks naively.

There are kangaroos, but they’re in the minority. The anything-but-regal Royal Hotel offers up a mostly male clientele, unused to the niceties of polite society. Add to that a drunken, gruff owner (Hugo Weaving) who is more concerned with selling booze than policing the behavior of his customers.

“If I banned everyone who does bad stuff,” he says, “I’d be out of business.”

Their first night behind the bar is marked by a sign out front that reads “Fresh Meat.”

Inside, the bar is filled with predatory customers who make lewd remarks and repeatedly encourage the stern Hannah to lean in while she serves them and to “smile more.”

People are strange, when you’re a stranger.

The longer they stay, and the more drinks they serve, the worse their customers behave. Hannah wants out, but, despite the menace, the adventurous Liv wants to stay.

“You’re strong,” Liv says to Hannah. “No, I’m not,” Hannah says. “I’m weak and I’m scared and I want to go home!”

“The Royal Hotel” isn’t a travelogue or a “Shirley Valentine”-style journey of self-discovery. What begins as a lark, an adventure in Australia, soon turns into a cabin-in-the-woods style horror movie, where the boogeyman is toxic male behavior.

Director Kitty Green expertly ratches up the tension, allowing the sense of unease to simmer for much of the film until reaching full boil. Something is going to happen, but we’re never quite sure what, and by the time Green stages her cathartic climax, it’s a welcome release from the pent up anxiety felt by Hanna and Liv and the audience.

Garner and Henwick are both great, both steely and vulnerable, but the real star here is Green, whose examination of gender politics is provocative and unsettling.

FAIR PLAY: 3 ½ STARS

A throwback to the erotic thrillers of the 1980s, “Fair Play,” a blistering exploration of workplace gender dynamics, now streaming on Netflix, is a smart, sexy and sharp story of sabotage.

When we first meet Emily and Luke, played by Phoebe Dynevor and Alden Ehrenreich, they are a young couple, very much in love. By night they are a lovey-dovey pair on the verge of getting married.

“I wish we could tell the world,” Luke says.

But they can’t, because by day they work at an aggressive Wall Street financial firm with a strict no fraternization policy. That means all business, no flirting, no batting of eyes, just head-down business analysis.

When a project manager gets fired and escorted out of the building, rumour has it that Luke will take over and get the corner office, and Emily is thrilled for him.

But when the unexpected happens, and Emily is offered the job—“You made half the big calls this quarter alone,” her boss says.—Luke congratulates her but his true feelings are betrayed by the hurt behind his eyes.

Relationship power dynamics shifted, Luke becomes sullen and unpredictable as Emily becomes more powerful and confident. As their relationship erodes, worn away by jealousy, a bruised ego and anger, Luke’s performance at work falters.

“Why is it so hard to accept that I deserve the job?” Emily asks.

“Because I never got the shot,” Luke snorts.

In its examination of the cutthroat world of finance, “Fair Play” treads similar ground as movies like “The Wolf of Wall Street” and “Boiler Room,” but does so from a different perspective. This movie is about the personal toll success can exact when ego, economics and gender dynamics collide.

In her big screen debut director Chloe Domont creates a tense two-hander, an edgy movie that transforms from sweet to sour as its provocative story nears the end credits. There are a handful of other characters, most notably Eddie Marsan as the reptilian big boss at the firm, but this is all about the intense performances from Dynevor and Ehrenreich.

“Bridgerton’s” Dynevor plays Emily, an Ivy Leaguer from humble Long Island beginnings, as a person who has fought her way to success. Her weapons against sexism and office politics are instinct, drive and a work ethic that places her a step ahead of the competition. In a breakout role, Dynevor hands in the film’s most subtle performance, capturing the character’s inner reserve of strength necessary to keep her grounded as Luke’s behavior grows more erratic.

Ehrenreich, best known for play Han Solo in “Solo: A Star Wars Story,” has the showier part. He plays Luke as an entitled guy who hasn’t been told “no” enough in his life. As Emily’s star rises at work, his man-child masculinity is threatened, manifesting itself in impotency, anger and finally, violence as he hopscotches through the stages of grief over the shoddy state of his career. Ehrenreich is as outward in his performance as Dynevor is introspective, and is an interesting, if one note, villain.

“Fair Play” is an effective, if slightly overlong, acidic relationship drama, a kind of “Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” set among the world of high finance and insecure men.

RELAX, I’M FROM THE FUTURE: 3 STARS

“Relax, I’m From the Future” is remarkably thoughtful for a movie that bills itself as a "dirtbag time travel comedy.” The low-budget sci-fi flick plays like an absurdist riff on “The Terminator” or maybe a more serious “Sleeper.”

Rhys Darby is Casper, a time traveler who crash lands in the present-day Canadian suburbs. “I thought it would be cool to come to the twenty-first century,” he says. “Not as cool as the twentieth, but… I found a portal. Accidentally. Instead of reporting it, I did some prep and I went through.”

He is a fish out of water, a man out of time, with a hope to ensure a bright future for the world. Trouble is, he doesn’t really have a plan or a place to stay.

His fortunes change when he meets Holly (Gabrielle Graham). At first the cynical former activist doesn’t believe he’s from the future, but when he correctly predicts random, upcoming events, she buys in. Using his knowledge of the future, they make money on the lottery and betting on sports, enough for him to rent a dingy bunker from Chuck (Zachary Bennett).

“I’ve got money now,” he says. “I can buy a hot dog whenever I like.”

He collects artefacts from present day, what he calls forgotten art, introduces Holly to Percy (Julian Richings), a fast-food clerk whose political cartoons will one day change the world, until the arrival of Doris (Janine Theriault), a ruthless bounty hunter from the future.

“Relax, I’m From the Future” is a quickly-paced slice of silly speculative fiction that appears written as a showcase for the energetically off-kilter comedy stylings of New Zealand actor and comedian Darby. He’s an edgy Mork from Ork, an otherworldly being, charmingly childlike but not above doing the drugs Holly offers him.

He’s nicely paired with Graham who is as grounded as Darby is whimsical. They are an interesting odd couple, keeping our interest as the movie rushes through a bunch of third reel plot additions and story twists that slow the movie’s momentum.

But despite an overstuffed final 20 minutes or so, “Relax, I’m From the Future” is a bit of fun that might actually make you think about the possibility of an individual’s impact on the world, the search for meaning and the repercussions of an overly optimistic attitude. It’s pop psychology, and ultimately succumbs to a preventing-the-end-of-the-world twist, but writer/director Luke Higginson manages something unique with the doomsday/time travel genre.