What Comes Around movie storyline. A teenager and her cellphone. It’s a worrying combination for many parents, and when Anna (Grace Van Dien) tells her mother, Beth (Summer Phoenix), that she’s met a boy online, Beth goes on full alert. It turns out Anna’s new crush is not a boy but a man — 28 years old, and saying all the right things to a girl on the verge of 17 as she cradles her phone in her bedroom. Then, without invitation, there he is, on the family’s doorstep.
Amy Redford’s Roost has a terrific starting premise, drawn from the experiences and anxieties of so many families. But it twists beyond that to take the film into territory that’s both thriller and thoughtful moral drama. The familiar conflicts between a mother and her adolescent daughter get ever more complicated by the presence of Anna’s boyfriend Eric (Kyle Gallner), who seems nice but is disturbingly persistent. Beth, a single mother, may need to call on her fiancé, Tim (Jesse Garcia), a cop.
Van Dien (Chrissy in Season 4 of Stranger Things) is compelling as Anna, with both the openness and the ferocity the role demands. This is a leap forward in her growing stardom, as she shows an onscreen grit similar to that of her great-grandfather, Robert Mitchum. Phoenix, from another famous film family, plays Beth with depth and a necessary sense of mystery, revealing new sides to her character as the story takes turn after turn.
Redford, daughter of Robert, plays delightfully in Roost not just with genre, but with the traces of family legacy. One moment we think we know where these characters are going; the next, all we know for sure is that the intricacies of family often lie just out of reach.
This is a manipulative thriller
Amy Redford’s “Roost,” which plays a little like the 2022 Sundance drama “Palm Trees and Power Lines” but without the conviction of that film’s dramatic purpose. It’s a manipulative thriller with some interesting performances from young stars Grace Van Dien (who fans will remember from the fourth season premiere of “Stranger Things” as the doomed Chrissy) and the always-strong Kyle Gallner, but the script here just never rings true. It all feels manipulative, turning its characters into pawns for a game of sexual chess, and the film’s direction and style don’t have enough strength to overcome a truly weak script.
Van Dien plays Anna, an average girl who has been communicating online with an older boy named Eric (Gallner). Anna knows he’s older but doesn’t quite know that he’s actually 28. Anna is 17. When Eric shows up on their doorstep, Anna’s mom Beth (Summer Phoenix) understandably freaks out, and her cop fiancé Tim (Jesse Garcia) tries to put the brakes on potential disaster. However, there’s a major twist that comes a little before halfway through that turns everything on its head, recalibrating Eric’s motives and the entire thrust of the film.
Once that’s revealed, “Roost” has too few places to go and simply lacks momentum in the second half. Anna becomes too much of a background character in what should always stay her story (even with the twist that brings her mother into the narrative more) and too many scenes consist of on-the-nose, blunt dialogue. No one speaks like the characters in this movie, so often knowing exactly what to say and when to say it. The shame is that Van Dien and Gallner are clearly talented enough for something more subtle. If only “Roost” trusted them to make that movie.
What Comes Around (2023)
Directed by: Amy Redford
Starring: Summer Phoenix, Grace Van Dien, Kyle Gallner, Jesse Garcia, Reina Hardesty, Sierra Nicole Rose, Indiana Affleck, Paul Tew, Gabriel Monroe Eckert, Chase Voelker
Screenplay by: Scott Organ
Production Design by: Jonas Sappington
Cinematography by: Bobby Bukowski ASC
Film Editing by: Emelie Mahdavian
Costume Design by: Nancy Cannon
Set Decoration by: Camille Johnson
Art Direction by: Winslow Brown
Music by: Craig Wedren
MPAA Rating: None.
Distributed by: IFC Films
Release Date: August 4, 2023
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