By: Xavier Carwell
Los Angeles, CA (The Hollywood Times) 12/13/24 – In ‘All You Need Is Blood’, the protagonist is played by Logan Riley Brunner (Stranger Things, The Marvelous Ms. Maisel). Brunner’s performance as Bucky was accurate in the sense he truly seemed like the dorky aspiring film director that the plot depicts him as. But consequentially, Bucky is the kind of protagonist whose best trait is that he has more interesting characters around him. Still a young actor, Brunner showed promise in his starring role. Neel Sethi (The Jungle Book) plays Vishnu, Bucky’s best friend. Somehow without any speaking role, Vishnu is one of the brighter spots in this movie. Emma Chase is promising in her first professional role as June, an aspiring actress. Chase’s portrayal of June instills a sense of confidence in her future success as an actor. There was an abundance of head scratching moments as well as scenes that made me avert my gaze in secondhand embarrassment. The plot direction is aimless but clearly took influences from 1980’s slasher horror movies and the black comedy style of an A24 movie. Although the humor in this movie was similar in style to A24, it was nowhere near the same quality.
While creative and willing to take risks, the plot falls flat in many areas. Dialogue is the most glaring weakness in the script. The way characters interact makes it seem like they are caricatures of 1990s stereotypes. This can be entertaining at times. Mena Suvari (American Pie, Psych: The Movie) depicting a narcissistic Prima donna was one of the ways that leaning into absurdity paid off. Standup comedy legend, Eddie Griffin, had a performance that was out of place, but not unwelcome. His comedic timing made it possible for a speech about how lying is like consuming cake with a slight amount shit in it to not be cringeworthy. Director Cooper Roberts is commendable in his courage to create and execute an original project. Similarly to Bucky, Roberts has the potential and vision to create good films but must significantly refine his script writing before then. In the future, hopefully this film will be a pleasant reminder for the cast on how far they have improved.
