A mute drifter agrees to spend the night cleaning a disused theme park,
only to find himself battling sentient animatronics.
Review by
Eric Hillis
Directed by: Kevin Lewis
Starring: Nicolas Cage, Emily Tosta, Beth Grant, David Sheftell, Caylee Cowan
The Lumiere Brothers. DW Griffiths. Sergei Eisenstein. Colour
cinematography. Widescreen. Digital streaming platforms. It's all been
leading to delivering into our homes the sight of
Nicolas Cage curb-stomping an animatronic gorilla on a urinal.
That moment is one of the centre-pieces of director Kevin Lewis's
Willy's Wonderland, the latest in a series of increasingly bonkers movies starring the
prolific Cage (has anyone had so much fun paying off debt?).
Like the recent horror reworking of
The Banana Splits, Willy's Wonderland features animatronic puppets that become
sentient and unleash violence on anyone unfortunate enough to come into
contact with them. The title refers to an abandoned children's theme park
that houses eight evil animatronics, who have spent the past couple of
decades feasting on human sacrifices.
When his sports-car breaks down, a mysterious mute drifter (Cage, whose
character is credited simply as "The Janitor") is unable to pay the local
mechanic for the repairs, and so to work off the debt he accepts the gig of
spending the night cleaning up Willy's Wonderland. Fuelled by can after can
of his favourite energy drink, The Janitor sets about spit and polishing the
centre, only to find himself battling the animatronics. Also arriving on the
scene is a group of teens led by the spunky Liv (Emily Tosta), who
seems to have a personal reason behind wanting to destroy Willy's
Wonderland.
Over the past couple of decades, Cage has morphed from a genuine cult hero
to a bit of a sad figure, drifting from one straight to video title to
another in his quest to become debt free, having squandered over $150
million and being lax with his tax returns. But in recent years he seems to
have found a way to keep working while also taking the sort of roles you
imagine he might seek out regardless of whether he was desperate for a
payslip or not. Movies like
Mandy,
Color Out of Space, Jiu Jitsu and the upcoming
Prisoners of the Ghostland have seen him collaborate with cult
filmmakers like Panos Cosmatos, Richard Stanley and Sion Sono on movies that
boast the sort of psychotronic premises that the unconventional Cage has
long gravitated towards.
As far as high concept pitches go, Nic Cage using a broom handle to defend
himself from murderous, foul-mouthed theme park puppets is a winner from the
off. Of course, Willy's Wonderland never fully lives up to
that premise, thanks largely to director Lewis's slapdash staging and the
manic editing, which denies us to chance to truly revel in the onscreen
insanity. But there's enough here to satisfy fans of Cage's peculiar brand
of charisma.
Known for his shouty, over-the-top performances, Cage is cast against type
here as a mute, never uttering so much as a single word through the entire
movie. And it works. Cage's taciturn turn reminds us that behind the dialled
up to 11 scenery chewing is a genuinely magnetic screen presence. In a less
is more performance, Cage simply oozes cool. How many actors can make the
act of cleaning seem as cinematic as Cage makes it here? He spends a lot of
time polishing and rubbing away at grime, and it's as thrilling as any of
the film's action set-pieces.
While it never quite ascends into future cult status,
Willy's Wonderland succeeds because it's aware of its limited
appeal and keeps things simple. It never gets needlessly bogged down in
plot, and when the backstory is revealed, it's done so in an entertaining
flashback that doesn't slow down the action. Even if the execution renders
much of Willy's Wonderland a missed opportunity on the action
front, you certainly get what you pay for here, and the filmmakers should
thank their lucky stars they managed to get Cage onboard, as I can't think
of another living actor who could make this work.
