The latest film from the studio A24 delivers a fun mystery and more than a few laughs.
“Bodies Bodies Bodies” feels like the perfect example of a movie that can easily fly under the radar, sandwiched between the latest blockbusters. While that alone doesn’t necessarily make a film worth watching, this is definitely one you shouldn’t sleep on.
Directed by Halina Reijn and produced by A24 (the studio behind this spring’s runaway hit “Everything Everywhere All at Once”), “Bodies Bodies Bodies” follows a group of twenty-somethings who get together at their friend’s mansion to ride out an incoming hurricane. The night starts out with all the drug-fueled shenanigans you’d expect from a pack of reckless rich kids, but after one member of the group is found dead, the others begin to suspect a murderer is afoot.
I went into “Bodies Bodies Bodies” without watching a single trailer, and given how the film was marketed, that was definitely the right move. The trailers painted it as something of a slasher, but that really isn’t what this movie is at all. This a classic whodunit in the vein of “Knives Out” or “Clue.” Sure, every now and then you’ll get a scene with a mildly tense or eerie atmosphere, but unless you’re among the faintest of hearts, nothing here will elicit anything more than a minor startle.
However, when looking at this film purely for what it is, it’s a good time, and that’s largely thanks to a consistently funny cast of characters — nearly each of whom are callous and self-absorbed in their own special way. Playing a character who’s obnoxious to other characters but not to the viewers is a difficult line to tow, but just about every actor here manages to pull it off. Among the standouts is Rachel Sennott’s Alice, who delivers most of the film’s biggest laughs. There’s also Maria Bakalova’s Bee, the one character who actually isn’t the worst and has a very understable struggle of somebody from a modest background attempting to fit in with a crowd that comes from money. Even Pete Davidson, an actor I admittedly never found all that funny in the past, churns out a performance far more nuanced than his usual stoner-dude shtick.
The main hook of “Bodies,” though, is its surprisingly thoughtful satire of some of our generation’s worst impulses without ever delving into “old man yells at cloud” territory. All of the different social media platforms we have access to drastically alter the way we present ourselves and interact with others, and the characters here serve as an example of what happens when those kinds of behaviors bleed into real-life interactions.
Each and every character has a carefully crafted persona designed to mask their own shortcomings and insecurities, all of which begin to bubble to the surface as the plot progresses and the already fragile trust among the group rapidly erodes. They repeatedly engage in arguments that play out like heated Twitter threads rife with self-victimization, hollow virtue signaling and overused phrases like “toxic” and “gaslighting.” Finally, it all culminates in a twist ending that people will either applaud for its cleverness or slap their foreheads at. I, for one, happened to fall in the former camp.
“Bodies Bodies Bodies” might not be the flashiest or most original movie of the year, but it’s still a tightly paced murder mystery with more satircal bite than you would expect. Be sure to check it out once it’s available digitally.
Edited by Lucy Valeski | lvaleski@themaneater.com
Copy Editor — Sterling Sewell and Jacob Richey | Jrichey@themaneater.com