Movie Review: Mom and Dad

Mom and Dad *** / *****

Directed by: Brian Taylor.

Written by: Brian Taylor.

Starring: Nicolas Cage (Brent Ryan), Selma Blair (Kendall Ryan), Anne Winters (Carly Ryan), Zackary Arthur (Josh Ryan), Robert T. Cunningham (Damon Hall), Olivia Crocicchia (Riley), Lance Henriksen (Mel Ryan), Marilyn Dodds Frank (Barbara Ryan), Samantha Lemole (Jenna). 

 

There is a scene in Mom and Dad in which Nicolas Cage sings the Hokey Pokey, while destroying a pool table with a sledge hammer – and in the timeline of the movie, this is BEFORE he is infected with a strange virus that makes him – and every other parent – want to murder their children – preferably in some brutal and bloody fashion. Mom and Dad is some sort of strange mixture of satire, comedy and horror – and it the movie begins by being way over the top, and then just tries to top itself again and again and again. In Cage, the film found the only actor who could really pull this off. What’s odd about the film – what I think ultimately makes it work – is that every so often the movie does slow down, to show you another side of Cage’s Brent, and his wife Kendall (Selma Blair) – instead of being just a completely over-the-top bloodbath.

 

The film takes a little bit of time setting things up. Brent and Kendall are suburban parents to teenager Carly (Anne Winters) and 10 year old Josh (Zackary Arthur). Like all suburban parents in the movies, they aren’t really that happy – he trudges off to work at a job he doesn’t really like, she is dealing with the fact that her kids don’t need her as much anymore – and her daughter openly insults her. The movie doesn’t waste too much time before some sort of strange outbreak happens – which gives parents the uncontrollable urge to murder their children. Most of the movie happens at the family house – with the kids locked in the basement, and the parents trying inventive ways to get them – and a boyfriend of Carly who gets knocked out repeatedly, but regains consciousness at just the right moments.

 

The film takes more than a few missteps along the way – the biggest may well be in the character of the family maid – an Asian American woman, who is little more than a stereotype, used to add in a little more bloodshed. The film also seems to be hinting at bigger ideas at times, and then backs off to back to the looniness. It mainly works, but there are hints at a better movie than Mom and Dad ultimately ends up being.

 

The film was written and directed by Brian Taylor – one half of the Nelvedine and Taylor duo, whose films include the god-awful Crank films, offensive and violent films in which Jason Statham has to keep his heart rate up or else he’ll die. I hated the Crank films for their nihilism and misogyny – but you do have to admit that the films had energy. He brings that energy to parts of Mom and Dad as well – particularly in the back half of the film, as things spin wildly out of control, and they get some unexpected visitors that bring things up a notch.

 

The reason to see the film is mainly Cage and Blair. Cage can, and will, go wildly over-the-top at all times, and he does so here. But unlike many of his recent films, it works here – there is a reason for it, and the movie requires him to do so. Oddly though, it’s Blair who is more the center of the movie – she’s the one who keeps things grounded. Cage and Blair have a nice chemistry together – particularly in the more serious scenes – like right after Cage destroys that pool table, where the pair of them wonder what exactly happened to their life.

 

Mom and Dad is a demented satire – another look at suburban life, and home empty it can be. It doesn’t really add anything that Hitchcock, Lynch of Solondz hasn’t done – but it’s done it all in such a demented and over-the-top entertaining way that it should become a cult hit – particularly among parents with a black comedic streak. We may not actually want to kill our children, but we all relate to Cage’s final moment here.