Though it lacks thematic polish, Brooklyn 45 gets a soft recommendation due to a number of strong creative choices.
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One of my favorite things about modern movie-making is how smaller and independent features seem to slam together a variety of modern and old visual styles. For instance, you can usually spot a 2000s horror movie or a 90s action-thriller from the kind of shots, effects or camera filters being used. But now? It's anyone's guess, and you might end up with something like Brooklyn 45, a movie that invokes post-war movies with modern horror effects.
The Setup
The film is set on December 27, 1945 where numerous WWII veterans and their friends are meeting for drinks with their friend Hock who is still reeling from his wife's recent suicide. But the meeting turns from joyous to somber and creepy when Hock insists on holding a seance and communing with his deceased wife...and her wishes.
There's a lot that I like about this movie, even if I'm unsure whether or not the movie has a strong central idea. So to highlight the cool stuff and get into why part of this movie didn't work for me, let's divy things up into sections.
Cool Thing #1: A Solid Older Cast
Something about this movie that stands out right away is that all of the main cast are middle-aged people. Not only is that cool for a genre (horror) that tends to ignore older folks or only use them as a harbinger of doom or a source a knowledge, but it all adds credibility that they were in higher up positions during the war and made impactful decisions that they're still dealing with. And it also aides the movie's retro style in both dialogue and visuals that aims to recreate the feel of old black and white Hollywood noirs in color.
Cool Thing #2: A Fun Blend of Styles
The baseline for Brooklyn 45 is something akin to a Philip Marlowe mystery like The Maltese Falcon where everyone speaks in code to their secrets with era, or at least movie-era appropriate dialogue styles. As a recreation it's very fun, and I imagine fun to write and perform, but it works even better when the movie slides into more aspects of horror.
For instance, almost every violent incident within the film is way gorier and bloodier than you'd expect and the language goes from cordial to vicious and epithet-laden in a hurry. They're both great ways to unsettle the audience and keep them on their toes.
Cool Thing #3: Single Location Tension
Another thing, that I almost didn't realize because it's done so smoothly, is that almost all of the film's action takes place in a single room, Hock's parlor. I have an affection for this kind of limitation because it means the writer and filmmaker can show off by providing a series of twists and revelations throughout the film.
Brooklyn 45 does this incredibly well, both by providing the groundwork and tensions between everyone before things go off the rails and then providing a series of pay offs either in a secret coming loose, someone revealing their true character and beyond.
The Question: What Is This About?
I think this movie might be torn between being a movie taking place in the past commenting on modern times vs. a movie that's commenting on the post-war period.
But to do that I've got a light spoiler ahead. So...you've been warned.
The majority of the group's conflict comes from Hock who is clearly drinking to excess and misses his dead wife. Hence the seance. But there's a problem. Hock's wife was mentally unwell and seemingly drove herself mad by believing a neighborhood German woman was a Nazi, despite no evidence to prove her claim.
Which means her ghost is an unwell spirit that also doesn't have a rational basis for its rage. So how do you placate an irrational unwell spirit? Considering the modern political climate where a new boogeyman is created almost everyday by perpetually online people, this rings really true and the monologues about who's guilty and why or what drove Hock's wife are all really effective, especially when it's paired with a lot of character's strong sense of guilt and duty.
The problem is that this is standing up next to a bunch of WWII veterans who seemingly want to leave the war behind but can't. While all of them make allusions to their pasts, they're all keeping at arm's length, at least until these supernatural circumstances force it upon them.
So now we're blending the idea of PTSD, trying to appease the unappeasable, responsibility and a bunch more ideas into a blender. Hell the whole thing could be a metaphor for war where people are forced to become more monstrous versions of themselves to survive and why that's bad. Again it's a bunch of loose ideas.
It feels a lot like the plot beats, which all work, were laid out and then some of the broader ideas and themes were brought in afterwards.\
This isn't to say the movie is bad, but this is why I was left with a feeling that something was missing when the credits rolled.
The Verdict: A Solid Idea
Though it lacks thematic polish, Brooklyn 45 gets a soft recommendation due to a number of strong creative choices. 6/10
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