I just got back from seeing Heart Eyes 😍😍 and let me tell you… it was Eye-mazing ❤️👁️❤️👁️😂
The trailers show this to be a sort of more straightforward slasher flick with some comedy, but this is more like a meta-movie. The same Scream was a meta-movie about horror films, Unforgiven was a meta-film about westerns, and all Shane Black films, but especially Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, are meta-buddy films/detective noir. Heart Eyes is a meta-deconstruction and then affirmation of classic 1930s and screwball comedies and many other tropes within the romantic genre, but it also mixes that with horror that it uses to highlight certain tropes in the romance genre.
Olivia Holt is so vulnerable and funny, and Mason Gooding could very easily become the next Cary Grant or Michael B. Jordan because that kid is so smooth. I wouldn’t be surprised if it was made of butter lol.
I really like the slasher Heart Eyes; this dude is prepared and methodical. If Art the Clown is this generation's Freddy Krueger, then I think Heart Eyes might be this generation's Jason Voorhees… That’s a pretty big claim, but these filmmakers know Friday the 13th well and how to recreate them. There was one scene I’ve always wanted to be done in a Friday the 13th film, and they kind of did it here, so maybe it’s just a personal bias, but I think these filmmakers should be given a Friday the 13th film because they know their stuff.
The cinematographer got to do a lot; some scenes look like a modern romantic comedy, and some scenes look straight out of a Scooby-Doo episode. It’s like Nora F. Bomb directed S Nightmare on Elm Street movie… It would be called "Nightmare in Seattle," lol. But seriously, the way they fused the two genres of romance and horror so that they’re almost indistinguishable at certain points was very interesting.
Speaking of sharp, I really want to read the script to this movie for creative help and influence, but I’m afraid I’ll get a paper cut because this dialogue is really sharp with the jokes; not all of it works, like there are some dudes in there, and to preview my thoughts on the third act… It gets rather all over the place, but when the land is like Babe Ruth nailing a home run, it’s just out-of-the-park fantastic.
There were some interesting surprises in this movie. The lady who plays Ally’s boss (Michaela Watkins) I thought was another actress who I really like, who I was happy to see because I haven’t seen her in a while, but her humor was still as sharp… So to find out it was someone else was an interesting surprise; this lady has some serious comedy talent.
Devon Sawa is having a bit of a career resurgence thanks to the Chucky TV series, which allowed him to really stretch his acting ability, so I’m glad he’s getting more work out of it because he’s really good at taking what is on paper to be a very cliché part and bringing a lot of character to it through acting choices.
Jordana Brewster plays Devon Sawa's partner, and I also really enjoyed her in this; she was a fun surprise; it was cool getting to see her do comedy. In fact, there were even some small actors who were only on screen for a few seconds but were funny and gave memorable performances, so it’s cool every actor in this gets their little moment to shine.
I think my favorite character is Ally’s best friend Monica, the character brings a lot of sassy but fun and sweet engery to the role which felt fresh.
The directors (Josh Ruben's) direction in this is really good, like he knows when to just let the camera roll and let the actors act because they’re so solid at it, and he knows how to do creative and action thrill shots to get people's hearts going and not only suspense and comedy separately but even mixes the two in exciting ways.
It isn’t a perfect movie: the second act sort of drags, and there’s sort of a reason for it, but they try and make you think they’re going to pull a switcheroo, but obviously it can’t be true because we definitively know the truth, so it’s hard to buy what they’re selling when we know the truth.
The movie also suffers from one of my least favorite movie tropes… Really DUMB cop characters… it’s one of those things that if the cops were any smarter, the movie plot wouldn’t continue so they kinda have to be dumb, but I feel like they could’ve come up with maybe another way for things to get to where they wanted them to go without sacrificing character intelligence, especially from police to have to be smart. They make Barney Fife look like Robocop lol
I’m not going to spoil anything, but let me just say… That’s not how glass works.
The climax has its ups and downs; there’s another sort of switcheroo that happens that honestly… If the remixing of genre tropes was spinning plates on sticks, then the third act got pretty wobbly… They did manage to stick the landing, but the two genres didn’t feel as mixed and more of well. Here’s this one, and then here’s this one.
Plus, boy oh boy, does it go to some silly places. I’m talking like full “Daytime Soap Opera—Telenovela” levels of ridiculousness, like I’m expecting the bad guy to be revealed to be the main character Ally’s evil eyepatch-wearing twin she forgot about when she was in a coma lol
However, despite its leaps and logic, the third act is still entertaining on a pure fun level. Plus, it does have the best kill in the movie, which I have to give a tip of my hat to because… Creative lol
I will say there is a subtle joke that is set up at the beginning but then eventually pays off at the end that I don’t know. A lot of people are going to catch, but if you do… That was some good setup right there.
Heart Eyes definitely has its fumbles. I may like this movie, but I have to admit there are moments that took me out of it. But like I just said, I overall really do enjoy this movie, the way it meshed ideas between genres; everyone gave top-notch performances and direction. Clever and funny dialogue and situations that switch with the genre cliché and make the story feel fresh; this is a really entertaining and original film that I hope a lot of couples get to see because I think it’ll be a fun film for both chick flick lovers and horror hounds.
If I’m being super objective, it’s really a four star movie, But since I had so much fun watching it, and I am a sucker for good comedies, I give it a low five stars… Actually, a very low “just squeaking over the finish line” five hearts ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
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