Movie Man Darian Watching All Night Long

Extremely Wicked Shockingly Evil And Vile

This is a film that had me satisfied but couldn’t help feeling that I needed more. This is a telling on the story of Ted Bundy told from the perspective of his longtime girlfriend Liz. Right their you have a interesting concept on how to approach the story from a different perspective. I liked that aspect which was the concept of how the narrative was told but I felt it lacked substance in areas. As this is coming from the filmmaker who did the documentary the Ted Bundy tapes which had so much information you would of thought that filmmaker would of injected so much of the information from the Documentary into the film. And he does but the thing is that everything is touched upon but it simply scratches the surface to a deeper dive it could of taken. That’s another reason why I was afraid this film was way to short to tell a bio pic as it clocks in at 1h and 45m which isn’t a lot of time to introduce the main leads and then start the story from its beginning which is 1969 all the way to 1989 I feel it was rushed and could of benefited from a lengthier runtime As since the runtime was so rushed I didn’t feel like the film gave me the full story instead it gave me the story we all know but just the shorter version where as everyone knows the Bundy case wasn’t a simple story and so it definitely fell short on delving into the subjects story more deplete then it did and also not having a longer runtime for more breathing room to elaborate on more context of the story. 

Secondly, That being said I did still enjoy the film due to the committed performances from its cast. As Zac Efron and Lily Collins give incredibly emotionally strong performances that really in a large credit carries the film as to me they were the best aspect of the film as their terrific performances kept me intrigued in the story at hand as they captured their characters extremely well onscreen. The supporting cast also do a good job but it’s the main leads that truly capture the screen with great charisma and emotional strength that shows through the screen. 

Lastly, The film suffers from a lack of depth and really getting into more detail as it did feel touched on but very lightly and the runtime could of been a lot longer as it’s short runtime made the story rush through a lot of important details. I do like the fact we find about his partner and her experience she had through it all mentally and emotionally that was well done and respectfully well done but the overall narrative was rushed but due to Zac Efron and Lily Collins’s  strong wielded performances that pop off the screen in fantastic layered emotion it is the glue that keeps this film intact an overall fine bio pic of Ted Bundy that could of been told narratively so much better but still enjoyable. 

Rated R : disturbing images, language and sexual content 

This film tells the story of one of the worlds most known Serial Killers Ted Bundy and his story told from the perspective of his longtime companion Liz 

Zac Efron : Zac gives a convincingly terrifying performance of Ted Bundy. I was excited to see Efron tackle dramatic ground as he hasn’t really explored that territory before. He has dabbled In it a bit with Charlie St Cloud and Me and Orson Wells but that’s about it and here he tries to do the Matthew McConaughey affect which is when Matthew transitioned from Romantic comedies to dramatic heavy films and showed he can do more then just one genre and that’s exactly I think what Zac is trying to do is break out of that cookie cutter cute boy look and try more serious and heavy material with his work. Here he takes it head on with the role he’s portraying onscreen first off he doesn’t make you sympathize for him he shows Bundy as he was manipulative, terrifying and he also brings this scarily charming vibe to him that Bundy himself also had with the general public which is what made him also get away with so much for so long. Zac is incredible in this film I’ll say this film has its fair share of issues and flaws but Efron is not one of them he is purely committed to every frame and aspect of this role he’s putting onscreen. He has a chilling resemblance to Bundy if you look at a photograph or footage of the two side by side it’s a chilling comparison. Zac brings his A game and really goes head first into uncharted territory that we haven’t seen him bring to the surface onscreen before and it’s so shockingly brilliant what he showcases here. He’s able to walk the fine line of being charming but also very mysteriously Eerie and he does it so well as he makes the words fly off the page with such believability and emotion you genuinely believe every word he utters as Efron holds nothing back and delivers on every level possible. Their are moments in the film that he shares with Liz where you can see his connection he has with her but at the same time he wears another mask when he’s not with her and he shows that rage and that anger in terrifying passion that seeps off the screen and gets into your bones. He’s so emotive without having to be so obvious about it as he’s emotionally reserved but also shows great lengths of emotions without making it over the top and it’s perfect. When you see his darker moments in the film Zac has an ability to just switch and make his eyes just go black and it’s truly terrifying as you forget it’s Efron and that’s due to his great performance at hand is the amazing commitment he took to completely escape into this performance and give the most authentic and honest portrayal of this person as possible and he does so in spades. Zac was able to show such a charming and likeable side when he needed too and the interesting thing is when he was being charming I found it absolutely terrifying as us the audience knows his intentions and we know he isn’t the good guy that he gives out to people when he sees them as we know he had a very darker and sinister personality underneath the surface and Efron channels that perfectly through the performance at being able to shift through so many layers of emotions and being so effective onscreen. This is a performance and territory we’ve never seen Efron in before and it’s incredible I hope he can truly do more  dramatic heavy work as he shows here that he’s so capable at doing it too and he’s truly terrific in the film. 

Lily Collins : Collins gives an emotionally battered portrayal of Bundy’s longtime partner. Collins has been doing masterful work recently as she stunned me with her work in To The Bone and Okja and again she dominates the screen once again with another emotionally strong performance in this film that truly is brilliant. She first plays it very naive as she’s in love and she wouldn’t imagine her loved one being capable of such vicious acts of violence and then she starts to sink into this hole of denial then came heartbreak and lastly coming to the terms of what the facts are. Those stages that she goes through is acted magnificently by Collins as not only dose she give justice to the person she’s Portraying in a very respectful way but she also sheds so much emotional vulnerability through the film. As you can see in her eyes the love she had for this guy and how she grapples very strongly that everyone must be wrong and then when the damming evidence comes in she has a hard time dealing with it and how Collins brings all that emotional pain to the full front of the film is very powerfully shown. As when she speaks in denial and pain it feels so authentically real as she brings such a honest and raw passion to the dialogue that makes you really feel for her as she does go through hell and back emotionally and mentally and Collins takes that emotional weight on in her performance and makes it crackle in such incredible ways. She has a very deep character arc we follow her on as we do see the moments of her in love with Ted which hurts as we know what the outcome is before she does and she’s able to just transition through the film in such grippingly strong emotional layers that she keeps pealing back and back and it’s terrific due to the great performance at hand that is Collins’s performance she truly gives another powerfully acted emotionally raw onscreen performance that will break your heart but also amaze you for what she’s bringing to the screen. 

Joe Berlinger : Joe gives good direction that could of had some tweaks that could of been better. Joe is a documentary filmmaker which he’s best known for so that’s why I was left a little surprised at the lack of substance that was given to the film. For the reason that he did the Ted Bundy tapes documentary film that came out earlier this year and I saw it he delved into the entire history of the subject so I was kind of wondering why wouldn’t he delve into the history of Bundy in the film for the most part he does and he tells the complete story from Liz’s point of view which is narratively interesting but it’s that he merely scratches the surfaces when I wouldn’t of minded if he went deeper into the story at hand as I felt like I learned about it but I feel at the same time I learned more in the documentary then I did in the film. And I know it’s a dramatized version of the events I get that but their also is a point where you need to give more substance to the story so people also can grapple onto the story and really invest in it. I was able to as I saw the documentary before hand but people who haven’t known about the Ted Bundy story and just want to see the film won’t be told the entire story which sucks because this film does work in parts it still is enjoyable but that glaring flaw is hard to ignore. As the performances he captures from his leads are fantastically done and the tone he uses for the film is very appropriate and handled very well all of that is done very strongly done it’s just if he could of fixed some portions of how he tackled the subject and how deep he did it would of left me more satisfied then I did. I do still like his direction he brought to the film I would still watch it again but the direction could of been stronger as he is a fantastic documentarian and was surprised to be let down a bit with his direction here as I know he’s capable of great filmmaking his documentaries show that so to wrap this up Joe gives good direction which had all the right tools to be great but sadly fell a bit short due to the lack of substance with its narrative.