SmashandNasty

Stella (Haley Lu Richardson) is a teenager that spends most of her time in the hospital as a cystic fibrosis patient. Her life is full of routines and she has got everything figured out until she meets Will (Cole Sprouse), another teen with the same terminal and chronic illness. Flirtation quickly turns into broken rules with potentially deadly consequences.

Our Take: If you're in the mood for a good cry in a dark theater, it's a good watch; but it will be just as good when it is on Netflix and can be watched in the comfort of your home with your favorite stuffed animal and a box of Kleenex. Post-Credit Scene: Nope, you can run to the bathroom as soon as they start rolling.

Let us guess: you loved The Fault in Our Stars. So are you in the mood for another sick kids movie? Well, this checks all the boxes. There are kids. The kids are sick. Plus, it tugs on all the appropriate heartstrings. But if you look beyond the trope, what is there?

Here, there's actually a lot to unpack.

This was the directorial debut for Justin Baldoni (of Jane the Virgin fame) and he did a decent job putting the movie together. The cast was the right mix of a popular teenage heartthrob, a kid you remember from some show you used to watch, and a talented girl next door. There's an appropriate amount of chemistry between Richardson and Sprouse. The soundtrack assembled every indie rock song that mentioned medicine or illness, but it was employed in a very tasteful manner. There were a few moments of questionable shakey cam footage that made watching difficult. There was a scene that was purposefully dragged out for the purpose of making the audience uncomfortable in a completely unnecessary way. The dialogue was a bit weak at times, but for characters that you knew had an impending expiration date, they were all fairly well developed. It wasn't perfect, but in the grand scheme of sick kid movies, it certainly ranks and in some ways, set itself apart.

Unlike similar films of the past (A Walk to Remember, The Fault in Our Stars, and Everything Everything to name a few) this one wasn't based on a book (plot twist: there's a book based on it). It is also set primarily at the hospital and over a fairly short period of time, which tightened the narrative in a strange and at times off-putting way that other films have managed to escape. The film stayed fairly true to treatment mechanisms that are available to those with cystic fibrosis thanks to its consultant, the late Claire Wineland, though it fell into the same controversy its predecessors have by casting able-bodied individuals to play diseased and disabled characters. Some have called the film disease-appropriation, but as two people who don't have cystic fibrosis, this film did bring our attention to a disease we'd never heard of. It's not our place to say whether this newfound awareness is good, but we do hope that it has a positive impact by showing a snippet of what some people with CF deal with.

There is no way to really articulate the exact place where this movie went wrong, other than to say that it did.

It lacks the redeeming qualities of some of Blumhouse's other outings: it isn't as charming as Happy Death Day was; it's not a socially aware as Get Out or the Purge franchise; it doesn't have unique techniques the original Paranormal Activity or Unfriended did. While most of those movies have things that are wrong with them (as most movies do), they also had something that made them worth watching. After struggling to find its footing, Truth or Dare had little to nothing redeeming about it. What you're left with is a largely unsatisfying narrative with skewed (and uncharacteristic) character motivations culminating in a fairly predictable climax and then quickly falling from there to a conclusion that - while somewhat elver in its execution - made the film that much more frustrating.

In short: It feels a lot like any other teen slasher flick. They just put a different spin on things and then marketed the hell out of it.

If you're looking for something more than shallow and undeveloped characters finding an interesting way to get themselves into trouble that they can't manage to ever get out of played by B-list stars who couldn't find anything else to do after the end of their TV careers, you will be sorely disappointed. But if you're looking for strained diversity in a cast with zero emotional depth or chemistry, headed by two skinny white women - this is the movie for you. If you want petty relationship drama, alcohol abuse, bullying, scenes on a "college campus", the occasional promise of gore/blood/or anything that might actually be considered scary (followed by the subsequent disappointment in camera angels destined to keep the film PG-13), and jump scares - this movie is for you.

It really isn't for everyone, and while we can respect that there's an audience out there somewhere that might appreciate it for what it is, we know it could've been a lot better and feel justifiably disappointed that they didn't seem to try.

Featuring: Some weird facial contortions that undercut the film even further, if that was even possible.

Our take: See it in theaters and hope that the rest of the theater can stay quiet. Post-credit scene: No.

Krasinski shines in his directorial debut, keeping the audience's attention from start to grand finale. The whole film keeps you tense but also allows for moments of laughter and tears. It's shot exceptionally, and there's really nothing to complain about directorially.

It's also not often that a film is so drastically different from everything else in theaters. This one would almost be better seen at home on Netflix where a viewer could control their surroundings. At the same time, the film is exceptional on the big screen if the rest of the audience can cooperate. The film is almost entirely shot without verbalized words, but even without speaking, the characters are able to connect and communicate their devotion to one another through something as simple as eye contact, which is often taken for granted in film. Silence is often unnerving and its use in the horror genre is relatively pervasive, but to take the suspense of silence and extend it to something feature-length. The creativity and the guts to commit to something so risky really paid off.

One of the best aspects of the film is the casting of deaf actress Millicent Simmonds as the deaf daughter, Regan. Not only is the representation important, but the way Krasinski handles the character herself is impeccable. Even in the aspects of sound mixing when the movie is from Regan's point of view is amazing - there's a complete lack of even ambient noise. Following an Oscar year where the Best Picture film was both praised for featuring a character with a disability in the lead and criticized for failing to cast an actress with that disability to play her (the mute Elisa played by Sally Hawkins in The Shape of Water) it's good to know that directors and storytellers are taking the steps to ensure that not only are they including representation in film, but they are actually being representative.

Featuring: Some serious lapses in logic, but that doesn't take away from the film. It's a horror movie after all, what would it be without the need for some serious suspension of disbelief.