Becky
Director: Jonathan Milott, Cary Murnion
Writer: Nick Morris, Ruckus Skye, Lane Skye
Cast: Lulu Wilson, Kevin James, Joel McHale, Robert Maillet, Amanda Brugel, Isaiah Rockcliffe, Ryan McDonald, James McDougall
Part of: SLASH Filmfestival
Seen on: 27.9.2020
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Plot:
Jeff (Joel McHale) takes his daughter Becky (Lulu Wilson) and their dogs to their lake house where they used to spend all their holidays before Becky’s mother died. But Jeff has also invited his new girlfriend Kayla (Amanda Brugel) and her son Ty (Isaiah Rockcliffe) – much to Becky’s horror. She is not ready for her father to move on and prepares to make the stay at the house miserable for everyone. But everything changes when escaped convict Dominick (Kevin James) shows up at their house with his cronies, looking for something he left there many years earlier. When Dominick makes sure that everyone knows that his threats are for real, Becky takes up the fight.

Becky is basically Home Alone, but Home Alone with a whole lot of blood and violence. That is to say: it is a whole lot of fun and definitely not for kids. It was the last film of the 10-day festival for me, so I saw it when I was rather tired already, but it definitely managed to keep me engaged and entertained. Absolutely a nice ending of the festival.

When I say that Becky is fun, I absolutely mean it – it does have great energy that pulls you along. But at the same time, there is also a serious and very sad undertone here. Nothing is well, and when bad things happen, they truly are very bad.

Kevin James was very well cast against type here as the Nazi convict – and he (and the film) does a great job using his nice, fun image and contrasting it with Dominick’s villainy that always angles to be jovial, but can never get rid of the undercurrent of violence that is a constant presence. But the real highlight of the cast is Lulu Wilson. She is absolutely fantastic as Becky, anchoring the film emotionally and making it possible to believe Becky’s ruthlessness as well as her pain.

I was a little taken aback by the serious – and very open – ending (what’s with the key now? And what’s going to happen next for Becky?). But I can’t fault the film too much for that: It leaves all doors open for a sequel and I, for one, would be absolutely here for that. Another way this film was the perfect last movie for this year’s SLASH – looking forward to next year’s festival already.

Summarizing: Hell yes.