The Bad Batch is the second movie from director Ana Lily Amirpour who builds yet another world out of her own imagination with stark imagery that could possibly be best defined as 90’s trash raver after her debut in A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night. No one can deny that The Bad Batch has got style, that too a distinctive one. The movie stars Keanu Reeves, Suki Waterhouse, Jason Momoa and an incredibly unrecognizable Jim Carrey.
The film, which might become a cult classic some day down the line, remains a bit out of touch for our times. As ironic and nonsense 2017 might be, the storyline still beats it. With a run time of around two hours, the film has absolutely no dialogues for the first 19 minutes. Even after that, there are long gaps with absolute silence filled everywhere. However, it is in those moments of absence, that the film reaches out to you and creates something memorable – and when the characters start talking, stuff goes haywire.
The movie has Suki Waterhouse play Arlen, a woman with a half-baked Southern accent, in an America of near (or is it?) future. Now Arlen has been released in the desert by a government agency of future – and is picked up by cannibals, who in fact barbeque her arm and leg. She also somehow manages to run away from there and spends the next hour or so running away from here to there and then back. The utopian society called Comfort in the desert is ruled by none other than the ever handsome Keanu Reeves who distributes LSD to his followers, for a change, unlike real life politicians.
Also, out in the desert is the Miami Man (played by Jason Momoa), who is a sensitive cannibal with the heart of an artist. He also kills to feed his young daughter Honey. Momoa has proved his abilities to play a wordless brute, but here he has made an attempt at a Cuban accent. Mix that with Waterhouse’s southern one and the movie is sure to go downhill once dialogues come in. The film has also a romantic plot involving Momoa and Waterhouse, which is a play at the usual male protagonist – female love interest ploy of mainstream cinema.
The film should be watched for its background score as well as cinematography, however we are sure this might be the Pulp Fiction for the kids of 2035. Happy Watching!
