Weapons

Weapons has a good summer mystery/thriller premise—an entire class of third graders disappears individually from their homes one night—and thankfully the grating little-kid voiceover filling in the backstory gets out of the way soon enough. What follows is a master class in Magnolia-style nonlinear plotting, with a variety of character POVs across the same timeline unfolding one by one, each new angle making the mystery weirder, scarier, and—crucially—funnier.

As this is not some Lynchian scenario with the luxury of remaining an enigma, by the time its final chapters arrive, Weapons has a lot of explaining to do. And as with its director Zach Cregger’s debut, Barbarian, the answers it offers are a bit less novel than I’d prefer, and the exposition-heavy reveal takes some steam out of the proceedings. But it’s soon back in rhythm, delivering a gloriously madcap finale.

The whole thing was great fun to see with a crowd, and it might be the first mainstream horror movie with a distinctly 2020s sensibility that I’ve found genuinely satisfying (though I do think its visual style, while precise, would have benefitted from more flourish in the right moments).

Also, I don’t know when I last saw Amy Madigan in something new (I remember her best as John Candy’s girlfriend in Uncle Buck), and her memorable performance in Weapons is a fantastic reintroduction.