Do you know that you’re allowed to Barbenheimer anytime you want? That’s not a euphemism. Also, I haven’t checked the laws in every state. You may not be able to Barbenheimer in Utah. But assuming it is legal, watching two wholly unrelated, tonally disparate movies in a short period of time can be a real hoot.
Recently, I watched Redux Redux from writers/directors Kevin and Matthew McManus and I Live Here Now from writer/director Julie Pacino (yes, she is his daughter). These movies have nothing to do with one another. Sure, I could squint and come up with some loose thematic threads that bind them together. It would be pseudointellectual nonsense. I am not above that. But I am tired. Thus, this is just regular nonsense.
Up first, because I saw it every-so-slightly earlier, let’s talk talk Redux Redux, which is okay okay. The film sports a deceptive 97% Rotten Tomatoes score. I have not read all of the reviews, but I am willing to bet (exactly $0) that the vast majority of the 97% of those thumbs pointing upward are doing so somewhat unenthusiastically. This is less “everyone loves it” and more “everyone says that it is slightly better than bad.” To be fair, if the whole thing slapped as hard as it does for the first 10 minutes, I’d borrow an extra thumb to point upward.
Irene (Michaela McManus, sister of the directors) is a mother taking revenge on her daughter’s killer, Neville (Jeremy Holm). Again. Again and again. She uses a device to travel across the multiverse, seeking a reality in which her daughter lived. But she can’t find one. So instead, she settles for murdering the murderer ad nauseum.
During one of her outings, Irene finds a young girl named Mia (Stella Marcus), who is about to become one of Neville’s victims. Shenanigans lead to the pair having to get into Irene’s magic dimension-hopping box. What’s upsetting is that the movie leans away from its science-fiction conceit, the thing that made it unique, and instead steers toward an uninspired “I am full of vengeance but then meet an impressionable young person” story.
Nevertheless, props to the McManuses, or McManusii, whichever they prefer. The writing/directing brothers build a perfectly fine grumpy sci-fi-adjacent thriller, and their sister delivers a perfectly fine grumpy performance. If it had been more Primer or Looper than Logan or John Wick, I would have probably given this one its own review.
Now, onto I Live Here Now, which again, has absolutely nothing in common with Redux Redux. Don’t believe me? This one is an explicitly David Lynch—inspired quasi-horror flick about abortion, trauma, and dating Matt Rife (which can apparently lead to both). Rose (Lucy Fry) is a struggling actress who thought she couldn’t get pregnant because of a wildly upsetting thing that happened to her when she was young. That wildly upsetting thing is how the film opens, so buckle up.
Anyway, turns out she can get pregnant, because her loser boyfriend (Rife) achieves precisely that. When she goes to talk to him about whether she will keep the baby, his mom gets involved. Yikes! Wisely, Rose flees and goes to stay in a hotel while undergoing a medically induced abortion. That hotel is filled with a bunch of ladies who don’t seem to be actual people so much as weird dreamlike imitations of people that do things like eat glass.
Nothing that happens makes, you know, “sense.” That said, it is also inarguably engaging. Pacino seems quite talented, which is the best we can hope for while adrift in the endless seas of nepotism in which we swim. Fry correctly dials in her performance to match the surrealism and produces a truly A+ scream.
I Live Here Now was released by the same distributor as Jane Schoenbrun’s first film, We’re All Going to the World’s Fair. It shares some striking similarities, even if I can’t precisely articulate what those similarities are. If what Pacino does next is anywhere near the level of Schoenbrun’s sophomore effort, I Saw the TV Glow, I will retroactively claim to have liked I Live Here Now more than I actually did.
Thus concludes what I am going to guess is the only combo review for these two movies, both of which are available to stream through whatever video-on-demand site trips your trigger.
Grade for Redux Redux = C+
Grade for I Live Here Now = B-
Other Critical Voices to Consider
Samantha Nelson at Polygon says “Redux Redux demonstrates what makes multiverse stories so compelling. While the concept has become overused as a gimmick for comic book crossovers, it’s at its best in more personal, grounded tales about regretful people searching for better versions of their lives.”
Sarah G. Vincent says “Redux Redux is a solid entertaining movie that has heart, merciless violence, great acting, memorable, unique moments, and shots that capture the beauty of even the roughest landscape.”
Nadine Whiteny at the Alliance of Women Film Journalists says “I Live Here Now is an incredibly assured debut by Julie Pacino that disturbs and intrigues. It is a dark and majestic work of psychological and body horror that refuses to hold back on harm done. A twisted fairytale of courage and claimed selfhood.”
Sara Clements at Next Best Picture says of I Live Here Now “For viewers willing to descend into Rose’s inferno, it’s a must-watch, nightmarish journey through the female psyche in all its broken, blistering, and beautiful complexity. Julie Pacino’s voice arrives bold and unafraid.”