“Send Help”
Eyeballs are gouged, testicles put to a blade, and blood spurts in this Sam Rami film. It’s not quite as gory as Rami’s “Evil Dead” films, but it is not exactly shy. Rachel McAdams, dorked out with greasy hair and frumpy clothes, plays an office drone at some cutting-edge tech company. Linda Little is a numbers geek, apt to rise from her cubicle and chat up her bosses with tuna fish smeared to her upper lip. Bradley Preston (played by Dylan O’Brien of “Maze Runner”), becomes Linda’s new boss after his father dies (“Evil Dead”’s Bruce Campbell). Bradley, the jerk, welches on a promised promotion and relocates her to a new Bangkok office. Linda learns of the betrayal en route to Thailand with Bradley and his biz-school bros. The plane goes down, and Linda—a “Survivor” aficionado who has dreamed of a role on the show—suddenly becomes indispensable in hunting, kindling and scavenging. The sex-and-power reversal evokes Ruben Östlund’s darker “Triangle of Sadness” (2022). But “Send Help,” driven by flimsy pretexts for improbable hidden agendas, takes a softer bite of social commentary. The film has Linda and Bradley transitioning from uneasy codependency to something resembling “Lord of the Rings” without earning it. What begins as an empowerment fantasy grows banal. “Send Help” is whimsically entertaining. McAdams’s bravado carries the paunchy plot.
“Arco”
The eponymous hero of Ugo Bienvenu’s animated dystopia is a boy of ten. Arco lives in a near perfect society in the year 2932. Time travel is real, courtesy of a superhero suit. Two years too young to wear it, Arco can’t wait. He dons his sister’s for a joy ride to visit the dinosaurs. What could go wrong? Rematerializing in 2075, Arco befriends Iris (Romy Fay), whose parents (Mark Ruffalo and Natalie Portman) work round the clock. Mommy and daddy appear in spectral form as blue holograms. Mikki (also Ruffalo) the robot watches over her. All of them draw breath in an atmosphere congested by particles and threatened by constant wildfires. The longer Arco hangs around 2075, the more likely he messes with the temporal stability and unity of time itself. How so, and with what consequences, the film does not spell out. But think of Chris Markers’ “La Jetée” (1962) or “12 Monkeys” (1995)—or, for an extreme example, “The Terminator” (1984). The movie’s hand-drawn animation, enhanced by digital techniques, saturates the screen with warmth. The tender bond between Arco and Iris, two lonely kids centuries apart, longing for companionship, holds our attention against the environmental degradation.
“Arco” is voiced by Juliano Krue Valdi in the English dubbed version showing in U.S. theaters. In French or English, Bienven’s first movie is incomparably executed, deserving of its Oscar nomination.
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