ARCHENEMY Review – A Wild, Heartfelt Antihero Epic That Doesn’t Pack Enough Punch
Directed by Adam Egypt Mortimer
Written by Adam Egypt Mortimer
Starring Joe Manganiello, Skylan Brookes, Zolee Grigs, Amy Seimetz
In one of the year’s most inventive redemption stories, Archenemy is bubbling with imagination. For a cosmic tinged tale filled with so many grand ideas and infinite possibilities, there’s an indie ire and a strong beating heart to this intimate epic that imbues Adam Egypt Mortimer’s film with a generous spirit. That balance of big ideas and small scope doesn’t always pay off, interestingly, much like the grand delusions of antihero Max Fist (Manganiello) don’t necessarily come to fruition. At its core, Archenemy is about wanting to be special and, for the most part, the crazy energy of this tiny universe is enough to speed past some of the slower stretches.
Is Max Fist an extraterrestrial interloper from an alternate dimension or just an entertaining drunk that thinks his barstool should be a spaceship? Either Fist is crazy, lying, or telling the truth. Maybe he really is from the planet Chromium where he helped save a grateful populace with the help of his lover and partner Cleo (Seimetz) who eventually betrayed him. Maybe Cleo is also on Earth as well, heading up a drug empire with the help of The Manager (Howerton), a low level dealer lording over Max’s run-down neighborhood.
What’s important is that Max believes it and no one else does. With the help of a hustling teenager called Hamster (Brooks) looking for online content, Max becomes his new subject and winds up helping Hamster’s sister Indigo (Griggs) get out from under the heel of The Manager. Then, things get weird.
Originally considered for the role of Superman and Deadshot in Affleck’s Batman, Joe Manganiello was born to play Fist. Revealing a man who has been broken under the weight of past greatness, Fist is haunted as he stumbles through his nightmarish, waking life. Through a series of kenetic, animated flashbacks of his life back on Chromium, his fall from grace (or space) replays in his head.
Taking away the air of machismo and dismantling classic masculinity is something Mortimer has done before with Patrick Schwarzenegger in Daniel Isn’t Real, and Manganiello seems to relish going against type. When the chance to help save the neighborhood comes up, it’s glorious to see the spark begin to light again in Fist’s eyes. There are just not enough pure action set pieces to see Manganiello truly rise up. Without real proof of Fist’s powers, there’s a little too much talking when there should be more punching.
There may be lulls and a few missed chances to find out if Max really is who he says he is but, in the meantime, every other character carries the load and feels at home in Mortimer’s dynamite colored horror world. Skylan Brooks’ Hamster is the opportunist and the true believer; Indigo Zolee as Griggs is the true protector; Howerton’s The Manager is the seemingly unstoppable obstacle; and Amy Seimetz as Cleo is the heartbreak and the ‘what could have been?’ of Max’s life. If all that is true, then Paul Scheer as Tango is pure chaos. (There are many reasons to check out Archenemy but, please, just watch it for Tango if nothing else.)
Through the editing of first time collaborator Lana Wolverton and thematic and visual crossovers from Daniel Isn’t Real, all of the burgeoning callsigns of an Adam Egypt Mortimer movie are there. Even if Mortimer doesn’t always work with the same people, he wants Archenemy to exist in a kind of self created Mortimer multiverse. Although his 2015 comic Ballistic about a drug addicted talking gun has a lot in common with Archenemy, this is not a comic book movie and shouldn’t be sold as such.
This isn’t a superhero movie either. It’s not a deconstruction of the genre and it’s not interested in that kind of take-down commentary. Leave that for Hancock, Super, Watchmen and all the rest.
If it has any ties to that world, Archenemy is more of a What If? riff. What if Barfly was a savior in another realm, not a drunk? What if that homeless person you drive past really was a superhero from another planet? You can’t deny, however, that this is a team up movie where Hamster wants to make a better life in this world when Max Fist has essentially given up on all of us and himself. Really, Archenemy is a reminder of how you can be a hero in one life and a loser in the next. You can be a disheveled vagabond shouting at the sky or you can be a redeemed super man that kept the sky from falling.
RLJE Films will release the action/thriller Archenemy In Theaters, On Digital and On Demand December 11, 2020.
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ARCHENEMY
Summary
In one of the year’s most inventive redemption stories, Archenemy is bubbling with imagination.
