Mom and Dad

Ce serait dur pour ça aussi, Edgar Wright! Une comédie noire anarchiste anti-famille dans l'esprit de Snyder's Dawn of the Dead, où ce ne sont pas les zombies qui massacrent, mais les parents - leurs propres enfants. Et ceux-ci doivent se sauver des parents fous furieux, et nous les soutenons! Satire des banlieues américaines que les parents souhaiteraient parfois (désolé, les enfants !). Une bande-son super fonctionnelle, parfois parodique et familiale à la Spielberg, mais principalement électronique contemporaine, ambiante. Et des astuces de montage et de vidéoclip bien pensées. C'est idiot, mais admirablement fabriqué et surtout audacieux! [Sitges FF] (07/10/2017)

Avoir de tels sales gosses à la maison me donnerait aussi envie de les tuer. Malheureusement, Nicolas Cage en fait trop ; son personnage est nettement plus dérangé que nécessaire. J’étais assez curieux de voir son interaction avec Lance Henriksen, mais je suis resté sur ma faim. Quand on se dit que le film est enfin sur sa lancée, voilà qu’arrive le générique de fin ! Et pour couronner le tout, l’humour n’est pas au rendez-vous. Faiblard. (20/06/2018)

Let’s face it: children are simply evil. One minute, you’re enjoying life to the fullest and the next thing you know, you’re pushing a baby carriage and sacrificing your time, money and personal wellbeing for someone who has no consideration for you at all. As the years go passing by, it gets worse and you expect one jab after another until your investment in the perpetuation of the human race tells you to go to hell. But nature sees to it that the parental instinct overcomes even the biggest cheap shot in the end, so that we don’t murder the little bastards. But what would it be like if it were possible to switch off this natural and civilisational impulse? Director and screenwriter Brian Taylor used this obviously strongly introspective stream of thought as the initial premise of his likably rollicking variation on slaughter flicks. Years ago, Taylor gained cult fame in certain circles for his films made in creative tandem with Mark Neveldine. Their formally anarchistic, even avant-garde works such asthe diptych of Crank and Gamer polarised viewers with a cheeky cyberpunk mix of uncontrolled energy, an excessive juvenile fondness for shallowness and corporeality, andan exalted concentration of the multimedia chaos of the new millennium. But that was ten years ago. Though Taylor is miserly when it comes to disclosing details of his private life, his new work meaningfully fills a six-year gap in his filmography. Mom and Dad is thus not merely a hysterical acting performance by Nicolas Cage, but a sincere, unfiltered cry of a person whom the monsters he himself spawned daily attempt to take his life. (09/05/2018)

January is classically dead for horror movies and this new release, with Nicolas Cage and Selma Blair, doesn't impress much either. The idea is great, but very underutilized. All of a sudden the parents want to kill their children and an epidemic breaks out. Unfortunately the murders are out of frame, so once again a horror film without blood, which is a big thumbs down. The film also didn't have much humour and Cage overacted tragically, it's amazing how a once excellent actor has now fallen to an absolute acting low. Fortunately the film doesn't get significantly boring somehow and there is the occasional thrilling scene, but otherwise it’s pretty pointless for me. 55% (21/01/2018)

A brutal satire on family relationships, as a new variant of Covid forces parents to kill their children. The black-humored story, with a madcap Cage and a terrifying Selma Blair, works perfectly, not least because the children are killed off-screen. The upbeat electronic soundtrack also helps a lot. A suspenseful bloodbath with a nice final twist where parents cheer for parents and the childless cheer for children. (02/05/2023)