Jason says:
“Three years ago, I raved about Jordan Galland’s superhero comedy ALTER EGOS
in part out of surprise; it worked its alternate Earth scenario better
than a lot of films of its sort and built a remarkably solid cast of
characters for a sort of spoof movie. With AVA’S POSSESSIONS, he does
the same thing with the demonic possession genre and turns another high
concept into a pretty charming comedy.
“It starts where a lot of these movies end, with Ava (Louisa Krause)
having ‘Naphula the Anointed’ exorcised from her after being possessed
for twenty-eight days. On the one hand, that’s great; on the other, her
boyfriend has left her, it’s not as if Naphula called into work, and he
committed a whole bunch of crimes in her body that she’ll be
accountable for if she doesn’t join Spiritual Possession Anonymous,
make amends to those she has wronged, and learn how to defend herself
from future attacks. It will be tough – group leader Tony (Wass
Stevens) is a taskmaster, the new friend she meets there (Annabelle
Dexter-Jones) is kind of infatuated with her demon, and maybe it’s just
them having been there for the exorcism, but her parents (William
Sadler & Deborah Rush), sister (Whitney Able), and sister’s
fiancé
(Zachary Booth) seem to be hiding something from her.
“Galland has a skill that is perhaps under-appreciated in that he’s
able to build a story out of jokes. Especially early on, most scenes in
AVA’S POSSESSIONS are a sort of gag on how someone who has been through
this would have trouble dealing with the fallout and re-inserting
herself into society, and they’re good jokes, but they also move things
forward a bit. Where a lot of comedies that sort of poke at genre
staples tend to have jokes that are dismissive in some way, this one
uses them to construct both a world that makes a certain level of sense
and a mystery within it, while also giving the audience a chance to get
to know and like most of its characters. It’s a real movie that has fun
with its subject matter.
“It’s got a rather appealing cast, too, led by Louisa Krause, who
doesn’t necessarily have a lot of jokes of her own – her job is often
to give a straight-faced, attempting-to-be-reasonable reaction to the
weird way that people around her act, and Galland is stingy with
flashbacks of Naphula in Ava’s body – but does have a funny way of
playing exasperation and confusion toward this month that just doesn’t
exist for her. She plays Ava as being the sort of trendy, occasionally
petulant girl in her twenties who has settled in a Brooklyn loft
without seeming abrasive or close to stupid. She anchors the comedy
without being totally serious herself.
“She’s surrounded by a well-above-average ensemble cast to play off,
one that’s good enough that the viewer may wish that just about
everybody had more to do. Take her family, for instance – there doesn’t
seem to be nearly enough of Deborah Rush or William Sadler in this
movie even if they are mostly adapting parental fretting to demonic
possession, Whitney Able is solid and Zachary Booth always brings a
chuckle as the white bread boyfriend really anxious to be part of the
group. I was kind of rooting for the formerly-possessed character
played by Tarik Lowe to be boyfriend material because his part of any
scene he’s in is always funny, more so that Lou Taylor Pucci, whose
role is more plot-centric than funny. Annabelle Dexter-Jones takes the
character who misses her spirit and runs with it, turning in one of the
most entertaining performances of the group. Dan Fogler, Carol Kane,
and John Ventimiglia make their parts entertaining but also make sure
they fit into the story.
“Eventually, Ava’s got a mystery to solve and a demon to overcome,
which inevitably pushes the later scenes away from comedy and more
toward story. It happens naturally, thankfully, and not in a way that
keeps the world from feeling odd but familiar. Galland and his crew
wind up putting a nifty-looking movie together throughout – it has a
classic sort of New York indie feel to it and never feels like it’s
constrained to locations for budget reasons, and the effects work that
occasionally pops in is slick enough to convince but odd enough to feel
appropriately weird.
“If I don’t love AVA’S POSSESSIONS quite as much as ALTER EGOS”, it may
just be because demonic possession is much less my thing than
superheroes; it’s still an uncommonly well-built genre comedy. I
recommend it highly, whether you’re a fan of horror or deadpan takes on
weird situations. 4.25 cats
“Seen 31 July 2015 in Theatre Hall Concordia (Fantasia International
Film Festival, DCP)” |
