Deadpool (2016)

Spiderhead (2022) is Netflix's latest high-concept Sci-fi offering in the acts of Chris Hemsworth, Miles Teller, Jurnee Smollett, and Mark Paguio. The film is based on George Saunders' Escape from Spiderhead, which is a short story published in The New Yorker in 2010. It was also directed by Joseph Kosinski (Oblivion, Top Gun: Maverick) and written by Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, the minds behind Deadpool (2016), and Zombieland (2009). With this tremendous cast and crew, Netflix's budget, and a plot reminiscent of Black Mirror, needless to say, people were excited. However, given the exciting premise, I felt that the movie could've done much more and been much more thrilling.

Spiderhead is a Netflix original that was just released on June 11th. The film takes us through the journey of a prisoner inside Spiderhead, a state-of-the-art penitentiary. However, this isn't just any prison, this place boasts itself as being a research facility for human emotions, using the prisoners as lab rats. Chris Hemsworth stars as Steve Abnesti, the pharmacologist behind it all. He injects prisoners with serums designed to make you sad, angry, in love, and more. Miles Teller plays Jeff, the man who wants to learn what's really happening to him. This dystopian/lab research style isn't the first of its kind, but it's a concept that people often find very engaging... and initially, it was.

The movie throws you directly into it and begins experimenting on the protagonist. If you've watched many movies, especially dystopian ones, the plot and setup are pretty standard. By now, we're used to the genre, it's not new like Brave New World or 1984, so to be a great film, it really depends on the characters. And that, one of the most (if not the most) important aspects of the film is where this movie falls flat.

The main point about each character is their past. Jeff killed his friends while driving drunk, Lizzy accidentally killed her baby, and Steve was abandoned as a child. Although, Lizzy and Steve's backstories are told through about one line and Jeff's is through flashbacks, that doesn't tell me nearly enough about how close everyone was. Aside from their past, the film is emotionless for much of the time as the prisoners need to be controlled in order to research emotions one at a time. Sadly, this results in a pretty boring time. That's not to say that Jeff and Lizzy's characters are uninteresting, but it's kind of an issue when your snarky, sly villain is hogging the limelight. (I mean, it's Chris Hemsworth, so it's expected of a big star.)

Spoilers ahead for Free Guy

Free Guy, Disney’s new movie about a video game NPC who realizes he’s living in a video game, is a treat! Its base is classic Disney — a white heteronormative love story. But its toppings — Ryan Reynolds’ unique brand of adult humor, a commitment to exploring modern day video game culture, and tons of star cameos — make this movie fun to watch! 

Free Guy’s main protagonists are all white, heteronormative characters, per usual. This story could have had so much potential for great representation if even one of the leads had been non-white. Yet again, POC are relegated to supporting roles. Guy’s best friend is Buddy (Lil Rey Howery), a fearful security guard. Howery is hilarious here, playing a very similar character to his role in Get Out. While he is great as comic relief, he also has one of the most touching moments in the movie when he gives a speech to Guy about how, even if they are fake, the moments they share together are real. Buddy should have been given more to do than serve as Guy’s motivator and fall into the black best friend trope. 

Mouser (Utkarsh Ambudkar) is another comedic character and the friend to Keys (Joe Keery). Guy and Buddy and Keys and Mouser are meant to be parallels of each other since Keys himself created Guy, so that means we get two sets of white male protagonists and their POC best friends! However, Mouser seems much less like a best friend than Buddy. But Ambudkar does amazing in this role, and it was great to see him so soon after finishing season 2 of Never Have I Ever where he played the cool teacher. He also should have been given more to do than act as Antoine’s lackey and Keys’ friend. We don’t even see too much of him being Keys’ friend anyway, making his line “Keys is my boy,” feel a bit cheap, but the movie unfortunately isn’t interested in giving him much depth beyond that.