I’ve been overjoyed with the Shyamalanaissance for years now. The guy has had a wild career, being launched into the stratosphere before crashing to earth again. He’s stepped back out of the crater of films like The Last Airbender and After Earth to create interesting, personal films that revolve around his Hitchcockian sensibilities. His recent success has been divisive, much like all of his films except for The Sixth Sense, but his devotees (myself among them) have really latched onto the things that make him so much fun to follow. Films like Old and Knock at the Cabin have marked a more self-aware turn from the filmmaker, utilizing his awkward dialogue and phenomenal camera work to pivot into something easy to connect to. Trap may be the apex of that, a film full of as many laughs as there are thrills with an incredible lead performance from Josh Hartnett to cap it all off. I love this thing, warts and all.
Adding to these strengths is his role as a dorky dad, which he seems to have embraced wholeheartedly. This year he produced Ishana Night Shyamalan’s The Watchers, a film that has his fingerprints all over it but that still feels separate from him. His other daughter, Saleka Shyamalan, has gone a different route and released her first album, “Seance,” last year. It’s a banger and may have helped inspire Trap, which revolves around Saleka as a pop princess with a massive world tour that is clearly inspired by Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour and Beyoncé’s Renaissance Tour. Serving mostly as a thriller, the film also features some incredible concert footage and a whopping fourteen new songs from Saleka, seemingly serving as her second album. It’s wall-to-wall bangers and may very well be the hit of the summer.
That impressive concert is the apex of young Riley’s life. Newcomer Ariel Donoghue is very much the apple of her father’s eye. Cooper (Hartnett) has rewarded her good grades with incredible floor seats for the Lady Raven (Saleka) Tour. Riley’s been having some issues with her friend group and just needs a win and her father is more than happy to step in and help make memories. What’s troubling is the amount of security at the show, from SWAT to the FBI and an army of police. While purchasing a concert tee from employee Jaime (Jonathan Langdon) he learns that the entire concert is a trap to catch The Butcher, a serial killer with eleven current victims that likes hacking the bodies up before displaying them.
Cooper’s in trouble because they’re looking for him.
What follows is a very tight and intense series of mishaps as the killer begins to look for ways out of the building, from scorching a concessions vendor with blazing hot oil to pushing a drunk woman down the stair. Each time he gets close to escape he’s headed off by FBI profiler Dr. Josephine Grant. Her advice to the police and concert employees is always on-point, leading to hijinks galore as Hartnett switches between his goofy dad and hardened killer personas. He’s smart, and it helps the audience feel smart to watch as he’s given new information and utilizes it in crazy ways.
Cinematographer Sayombhu Mukdeeprom (Challengers, Suspiria) and production designer Debbie DeVilla (The Hating Game) have gone all out to make this concert feel real onscreen. It’s a really stunning audience POV design that feels real, mostly because it was. Lady Raven’s onstage presence is wholesome, lovely, and has enough energy to tame even the most pop-averse in your friend group (there’s always at least one). It truly is a massive production that sold me on the idea of Saleka as a pop princess.
These three lead performances from Hartnett, Donoghue, and Saleka are the meat of the movie but so much of the comedic elements come from the supporting cast. Kid Cudi, playing a rapper known as The Thinker that looks like he just walked off the set of House of the Dragon, proves hilarious as the bitchy featured artist and it’s just a whole meal of ham and cheese. Likewise, Jonathan Langdon serves as a fun foil for Hartnett as the concert employee at the merch stand. The two are just an utter delight that allows their more character-actor performances to stand out. I’ve missed the days when we just have normal people in movies (not that Kid Cudi is just a day-player or anything) and we get that here. It’s fun to have them.
That’s actually the entire reason to watch this movie – it’s fun. Decent splashes of comedy, some truly wonderful performances from our lead three, and a script that stays on top despite getting a tad messy in the twisty final act all make for a hell of a time at the movies. If you’re not a Shyamalan devotee and just enjoy trash-talking him steer clear, but for those that are willing to meet his current output on the level it’s working at are going to have an absolute blast.
Trap is currently playing in theatres. Also, Saleka…where dat Lady Raven vinyl at?
WRITE DRUNK; EDIT DRUNK 