When the host is discovered dead, the guests hunt for the perpetrator.
Since the hurricane has cut them off from the outside world, the list of potential suspects is not long…
The ending of Bodies Bodies Bodies makes this movie.
That is the function of a good ending - it defines what the movie is ultimately about.
What starts out as a murder mystery ends as a statement about people’s inner lives, the lies we tell each other and ourselves, and what motivations ultimately drive our actions. It is also about how social media completely dominates our interpersonal relationships.
It is also a story about the narratives we build about ourselves (especially in terms of social media), and how we build stories out of incidents and people.
Ultimately its catalyst, what would be the set up to a million who-done-its, sets the stage for deeper revelations about its characters and their relationships to each other (magnified when they are forced to deal with each other without a wifi connection).
This is one of the running themes of detective fiction - in the pursuit of the mystery, secrets are uncovered, reputations destroyed and pretences exposed.
Bodies Bodies Bodies takes that idea and removes the murderer.
We are introduced to a group of characters who are familiar with each other, but there is an edge to their reunion.
For the most part, we are aligned with Bee’s (Maria Bakalova) perspective, as the outsider to the group.
There are various red herrings - mostly based on personal pressure points and sudden realisations that characters are so self-absorbed they have never bothered to learn about each other.
The cast (Amandla Stenberg, Bakalova, Myha'la Herrold, Chase Sui Wonders, and Rachel Sennott) are all terrific.
Sennott steals the show as Alice, the group’s loudest and least enlightened member.
Lee Pace plays Alice’s older and somewhat mysterious paramour, Greg.
Pete Davidson plays David, whose family owns the house and becomes the movie’s first body (body body). He leans into the character’s hollowness and self-loathing. He is hilariously awful.
Sometimes it is the little things that throw you off balance.
I really enjoyed this movie but I left with a nagging sense it was off.
There is a contrived quality to some of the interactions that feel less like characters than set ups for punchlines. The movie does have a running theme around language, and the kinds of words we use (sometimes incorrectly), but it felt a little on the nose at times.
I was ready to put that aside because even these pieces were working on me.
Sometimes being aware of the mechanics can work against a good viewing - sometimes it is part of the experience.
With Bodies Bodies Bodies, it felt a little rickety, but any quibbles I had were extinguished by the ending.
A fun movie that works great with an audience, Bodies Bodies Bodies is a good time.
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