Hi everyone!
Welcome back for another week of reviews. Believe it or not, we’re wrapping up on our third quarter cycle here at One Movie Punch. After this week and next week, we’ll be taking a two-week break, and then returning with our first ever Reign of Terror 2019 – 31 days of horror movie reviews and interviews from yours truly, our team of critics, and seventeen other guests. Every episode will open with an audio drama, and while we can’t give away any story details yet, I think we can safely say that Joseph will be perfectly fine, and nothing untoward will happen to him on a daily basis. Nothing untoward at all. Right.
So, this week we have one Certified Fresh film in theaters right now, and it is easily one of my favorite wedding movies. We’ll also have the return of the Moviedrone Podcast to Takeover Tuesday with a horror comedy gem. I’ll be covering two Certified Fresh documentaries available on streaming services, and we’ll close out the week with a Fantastic Fest review from Andrew Campbell and a Bollywood review from One Movie Spouse. A great week of content!
But wait, there’s more! Head on over to patreon.com/onemoviepunch where you can hear our fifth Patreon exclusive episode - part two of our interview with Kyle D. Hester, where we talk about “The Chair”, “Zombie with a Shotgun”, and “The Coop”.
Here’s just a taste of what you’ll be missing:
KYLE D. HESTER: “Actually, yeah! Actually, we’re just rolling into another film. It’s called ‘The Coop’ and it’s a modern western. It’s like ‘No Country For Old Men’ meets ‘Inglourious Basterds’ and we’re just now rolling that out. We’ve got a GoFundMe on there now. That’s what’s coming, so hopefully we’ll get the funding we need for that soon, and we’ll get to filming it, and have more good stuff for you.”
If you want to hear the whole interview, just head over to patreon.com/onemoviepunch and sign up to contribute monthly at any level. All sponsors get access to exclusive content and will have the opportunity to force me to review one movie of their choice, as long as we haven’t reviewed it, with just a few exceptions. Upcoming content includes the debut of an experimental segment called “One Movie Punch: Zero Percent”, where I’ll be reviewing a surprise film which received the lowest possible score at Rotten Tomatoes. And on a way more serious note, we’ll follow that with an interview with the filmmakers of “After 82”, a documentary covering the AIDS Crisis in the UK, along with much, much more. All contributions go to paying our expenses and growing with our audience.
When I was going through a particularly hard time in my life, a good friend of mine asked if I wanted to see “The Raid 2”. I said, “I’m not sure, how was the first one?”. It took a few minutes, but he picked his jaw up off the floor, and we headed back to his place to watch one of the best action films of all time, and my introduction to both Gareth Evans and Iko Uwais. We hit the theater after that to see “The Raid 2” and it was an absolute monster of a time. Four years later, Gareth Evans finally returned with “Apostle”, a Netflix Original film that was less action and more historical drama. After adjusting to the different setting and tone, I found I really enjoyed the film, even if others didn’t feel the same. “Apostle” currently has an 80% Certified Fresh rating at Rotten Tomatoes and a 62 at Metacritic. You can catch it streaming exclusively on Netflix. Beware as the review today does contain spoilers!
Before the review, we’ll have a promo from our friends at the DC High podcast. Every episode, D and C bring you a dose of educational comedy. Or maybe that’s a comedic education. Educomedy? Whatever. You can find them on Twitter and Facebook @DCHighpod, and you can subscribe to their podcast at dchigh.podbean.com. You’ll even hear our promo in Episode #20!
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Here we go!
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Today’s movie is “Apostle” (2018), the Netflix Original film written and directed by Gareth Evans, the driving force behind two of my favorite films, “The Raid: Redemption” and “The Raid 2”. The film follows Thomas Richardson (Dan Stevens), who returns to London in 1905 to discover his sister has been kidnapped by a religious cult. Now Thomas heads to their island to confront their leader Prophet Malcolm (Michael Sheen), and to free his sister from their grip.
Spoilers ahead.
If anyone was going into this film looking for “The Raid” in the early 1900s, they are going to be sorely disappointed. Sure, we get a few raw action moments from those angles that only Evans seems to be able to capture, but that’s all the look and feel we get from the previous franchise. Or is it? It’s easy to get blinded by the intense action of both “Raid” films, but beneath that action lies well-defined characters and tragic, almost impossible situations where “the right thing” is hard to discern. And “Apostle” has all those elements, transformed from modern Indonesia to early 20thcentury Britain, a time when Aleister Crowley was creating Thelema out of old occultist writings, and Lovecraft was just beginning his fiction, and all these dark elements begin to coalesce in a unique time, and it is here we meet Thomas Richardson.
One aspect of “Apostle” I really appreciate is that, similar to characters in “The Raid”, we’re only given as much information about the character as Evans allows, even as events are playing out before us. The trailer, thankfully, was pretty vague about anything but the initial premise, avoiding the depth of almost all the characters. And as we learn more about the environment, and each character’s backstory, and the mysterious secrets of the island, we begin to move away from a standard rescue story into much darker territory. We learn about Thomas’ backstory and realize that we’re no longer sure to whom the title “Apostle” actually refers to. And then things get really, really gnarly.
Because in addition to the rise of occultist writings, and alternative religious and economic ideas of the time, we also have the rise of scientific rationalism, and it is within Thomas Richardson that we see these two ideas go to war. He has clearly rejected all forms of religiosity from his personal experience, but he also comes face to face with something outside the realm of scientific rationalism. He is also up against brutal forms of punishment and control, as the serene idea of this religious community is underpinned by dark secrets and an ignorant populace. And ultimately, a failing community, as it begins to fall apart, and they start breaking out the much-hyped torture device, which while not having anything near the graphic layers of torture porn like “Saw” or “Hostel”, still packed just enough punch, and probably as tasteful as any cinematic depiction of medieval torture could be. Great script, great direction, really great cast and messaging, and to top it all off, simply awesome costumes, sets and effects, from beginning to end.
“Apostle” (2018) is a dark look into the nature of apostleship, as told through a rescue story in a remote religious community. Gareth Evans, while not bringing all the insane action of his previous films, does bring the same complex characters and difficult situations to a whole new genre. Fans of Gareth Evans’ work may not find exactly what they are looking for, but I believe will find something that helps expand our appreciation for Evans as a writer and director. And fans of occultist or alternative religious communities should definitely check out this film, as long as you don’t mind a little trepanning between community members.
