Firestarter (R)
Things get toasty when a young girl gets angry in Firestarter, a new adaptation of the Stephen King novel.
Based on some light Wikipedia-ing, this does seem to be an entirely new riff on the book and not some universe-continuation something with the 1984 Drew Barrymore version. There is an early 1980s vibe attached to this movie, even though the first date we see on the screen is from footage of college students Vicky (Sydney Lemmon) and Andy (Zac Efron) being interviewed on some scratchy video from way back in technologically primitive, er, 2008? Also, when we meet little girl Charlie (Ryan Kiera Armstrong), she may be pouty about not having wi-fi and smart phones but her clothes seem straight out of the E.T. wardrobe department, which adds to the movie’s overall out-of-time feel.
Vicky and Andy are technology-eschewing parents living in a small Maine town who disagree about whether their middle-school-ish daughter Charlie needs to “push it down and bury it” (Andy’s point of view) or “learn to control it” (Vicky’s preference). The “it” is the catchall for Charlie’s abilities, the most worrisome of which is her ability to start fires with her mind. Or rather, her not-quite-controllable tendency to start fires when she gets really mad. I guess she had been “pushing it down” but lately she finds that peer bullying about her weirdness is getting to her, leading to a little explosion in the school bathroom.
As Vicky and Andy had always feared, this incident puts Charlie on the radar of the government agency that had a hand in the college experiment that gave Vicky and Andy their powers (or heightened preexisting powers or something). Vicky had simply stopped using her telekinesis but Andy had used his ability to psychically “push” people to give people hypnotism-like smoking cessation treatments (but for cash only, one of his many “stay off the grid” procedures). The parents worry that Charlie’s abilities, with her since birth, will make her a test subject (and maybe worse) for the government that will hold her hostage for the rest of her life. They intend to take off, running and disappearing as they always have, but they are not quick enough to escape Rainbird (Michael Greyeyes), another person with superhuman abilities sent by the shady Captain Hollister (Gloria Reuben) to bring in Charlie and her parents.
Most of the powers of the people here are activated via staring — there’s a lot of close-ups on eyes, a lot of times we see Charlie squint or glare before something explodes. If a staring-heavy movie is playing it straight (which this movie is), there isn’t going to be a lot of room for deep character insights and subtle performances. Everybody here is basically fine, giving it their mostly-all. Reuben is an entertaining villain-in-a-suit; Efron brings the slightest whiff of humanity to “dad of main character.”
“Low-fi” is the description that settled into my brain about this movie, from the score that had occasional Casio-like notes to the opening credits that gave very Halloween-movies-remake vibes to the wardrobe choices to the pacing to the, well, everything. Perhaps for that reason, the movie never felt like it was asking all that much of me nor did I find myself expecting all that much from it. Slightly above average pizza, $12 per bottle red wine and this movie all feel like they are operating on the same level — sort of comfortable and enjoyable without being in any way stand-out — and feel like they create the natural combination for how this movie is best viewed. You need to watch something/eat something/drink something effort-free after a long week and this movie needs you to be not super picky about plot or acting expectations. C+
Rated R for violent content, according to the MPA on filmratings.com. Directed by Keith Thomas with a screenplay by Scott Teems, Firestarter is an hour and 34 minutes long and distributed by Universal Studios in theaters and via Peacock.
Featured photo: Firestarter.
