Eat-the-rich satires return to the supposed dinosaur days of cinema, from Luis Buñuel to Jean Renoir, however they’re as in demand as ever because of the worlds, desperately populated by rich delusionals, created by Rian Johnson in his scalding and adored “Knives Out” motion pictures. That many up to date filmmakers are keen to leap on that custom because of the latter movies’ streaming (and now not particularly theatrical) success has led to outcomes each punching and efficient (“Prepared or Not”) and severely undercooked (“The Menu”).
Enter Alex Scharfman’s “Dying of a Unicorn” into that fray, an agonizingly unfunny send-up of massive pharma and “Jurassic Park”-scale tentpoles that has not one of the tooth or wit of any of the films I simply talked about.
Right here, en path to a weekend retreat in Canada to grow to be proxy to a pharmaceutical billionaire (Richard E. Grant), the feckless Elliot (Paul Rudd) and his Gen Z, internet-warrior-pilled daughter Ridley (Jenna Ortega) unintentionally hit and kill a unicorn with their rental automobile. However not earlier than Ridley will get the prospect to the touch its psychedelia-inducing horn, and kind psychically linked powers of her personal to the legendary creature.
The unicorn’s radiance has the ability to heal every little thing from Ridley’s teenage zits to Elliot’s poor-sightedness, which turns this unicorn into an inevitable potential money cow for pharma CEO Odell Leopold, his pleated-short-wearing son Shepard (Will Poulter), and freshly blown-out spouse Belina (Téa Leoni). This, and extra, they be taught upon arriving on the Leopolds’ many-acred property, the place firm lawyer Elliot is negotiating to take a major partnership within the enterprise as a result of Odell is dying of terminal most cancers.
However the unicorn inhabitants at massive operating concerning the wilds surrounding the Leopolds’ posh, secluded ranch compound is none too proud of the truth that certainly one of their brood has now died by oligarchical arms. And so an rebellion ensues the place the remainder of the unicorns assault and eradicate the Leopolds in grisly vogue, making for a confused mixture of horror and comedy, ever a tough knife’s edge (or unicorn’s tooth) upon which to bounce. Author/director Scharfman, whose characteristic directing debut groups him with, amongst different manufacturing corporations, Ari Aster’s Sq. Peg, gives a doubtlessly intriguing idea however one which solely scratches the floor of unicorn lore, or the characters inhabiting this movie, or the creature options this one needs to emulate.
Leoni appears to have enjoyable in a jumpsuit and bumped-up hairdo, doting on her son Shepard, who’s recovering from drug habit, as ever the prodigal youngsters of wealthy mother and father with nothing higher to do are. “Barry” breakout Anthony Carrigan will get nearly all of the most effective laughs within the movie, right here taking part in a put-upon butler who, when requested to unlock the Leopolds’ gate throughout a second of specific disaster, is informed by Belina, “Years of service, and we’ve requested nothing of you!” However the upstairs-downstairs satire solely goes about as deep as that, because the Leopolds get grasping concerning the unicorn’s potential to cease their patriarch’s most cancers, its blood one thing they will maybe peddle to the wealthy billionaires of the remainder of the world for a illness cure-all.
Ridley, traumatized by the most cancers loss of life of her mom and regarded largely a wastrel by these round her for pursuing a level within the dread-inducing main of artwork historical past, is aware of a factor or two concerning the mythology behind these kindly rainbow-spewing creatures. If solely anybody would hearken to her! It turns into all too late as soon as Shepard realizes {that a} fair-haired maiden comparable to Ridley may very well be the one to save lots of them, and the unicorns encircle the Leopolds’ residence and go in for a collection of “Closing Vacation spot”-level kills.
It’s onerous to inform if the shoddiness of the digital results is intentional, serving to remind that this can be a horror-comedy, not a horror film. There may be some hilarity to the kills, like when poor Dr. Bhatia (Sunita Mani) meets an surprising destiny. And maybe, even, some satisfaction as soon as the smugness of those folks is wiped proper off their faces and gutted from their insides. “Dying of a Unicorn” doesn’t low-cost out on intestines spilling out of our bodies or sudden impailings that immediately obliterate folks the film has skilled us to hate.
The lurching between genres, whether or not horror or comedy or heartfelt father-daughter film, turns into more and more clear and irritating because the film tries to win our hearts again over with sentimental weepie moments within the movie’s final act. The issue is we don’t actually care who lives or dies, until it’s, after all, these horrible wealthy folks getting stabbed to loss of life by unicorn horns.
The one entities this film makes you’re feeling for are its creatures, nevertheless unbelievably realized they’re. Was that the movie’s level? Scharfman may even see people as pitiful beings underneath a magnifying glass meant to be evaporated and punished for his or her hubris, however his viewpoint is much much less clear.
Grade: C-
“Dying of a Unicorn” premiered on the 2025 SXSW Movie & TV Pageant. A24 releases the movie in theaters on Friday, March 28.
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