It can be easy to overstate the case of a movie like “Ready or Not.” It’s replete with ‘badass’ images of Grace in her wedding dress wearing post-"Kill Bill" swagger heading to do battle with the batty Le Domas progeny, covered in blood, sporting a bandolier, a half-baked quip, and a ripped wedding dress. It’s only when Emilie accidentally kills one of the family’s three maids that Grace fully understands that this isn’t just a game. Grace hides in a dumbwaiter for as long as she cares to, missing the sight of the entire Le Domas family arming themselves to the teeth before they begin to look for her. However when Tony explains the origin of the family fortune, how it was only after Great Grandfather Le Domas had chance encounter with a traveler that he made his millions, and Grace pulls "Hide And Seek" from the box of games, the entire family has a collective intake of breath and it’s clear something is off. They’re world renowned for their board and card games, so Grace takes the little moonlit challenge as a quirk because of their chosen industry. The Le Domas family name is in the world of the film, meant to be as ubiquitous as Parker Brothers or Milton Bradley. Alex neglected to mention that every time someone enters the Le Domas dominion, they have to play a game. With the ceremony out of the way, Grace starts to relax, but then Aunt Helene shows up unannounced in Alex’s bedroom to remind him that there’s one more ritual before the two can live happily ever after. ![]() They’re a bizarre bunch but Grace sees the light at the end of the tunnel now that they’ve all congregated at the Le Domas manor for the nuptials. Grace ( Samara Weaving) loves Alex Le Domas (Mark O’Brien) so much that she’s tolerated the hoops through which his family have made her jump: Alcoholic wastrel Daniel ( Adam Brody) hitting on her, mother Becky ( Andie MacDowell) being somewhat cagey about her approval, sister Emilie ( Melanie Scrofano) not even showing up in time for the ceremony, father Tony ( Henry Czerny) outright voicing his displeasure at the girl’s status and aunt Helene ( Nicky Guadagni) staring daggers at her from the moment they met. “Ready or Not” doesn’t wear its anti-capitalist bias proudly but you’d have to be blind to miss it. We can all be grateful then that no one had a hard look at “Ready Or Not,” a film implicitly as radical as "The Hunt." Which is to say neither film is going to change the way anyone votes, but they both posit a game in which the rich hunt the poor. ![]() ![]() If Republicans decide a movie is unfair (and a goodly sum of major studio product is politically to the left by default these days) all The President need do is tweet about it and that film will be shelved. What they’ve also done is set a dangerous precedent. By keeping the film from the public they’ve left it to our imagination exactly how anti-Trump the film is or isn’t. The problems with this are too numerous to explain in the preface to a film review but suffice it to say Universal made a bad call. ![]() The script for the film, about rich people who hunt poor people for sport, leaked and Trump supporters missed its subtext, calling it an invitation for blue state liberals to come after conservatives with guns. On August 10th, Universal Pictures cancelled the release of the Blumhouse production “The Hunt,” directed by Craig Zobel.
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