The Faculty [R] [1998]
Overall movie: ****
EJW content: Major character, good comedic and physical acting. With multiple viewings, it's possible to see more depth in Casey than is evident at first glance. (And when I added that last sentence, I also added a star.)
I usually avoid horror movies, which is how this one was billed, so I wasn't quite sure what to expect. But it's really more science fiction than horror, even paying some honor to a couple of classic science fiction stories (particularly Invasion of the Body Snatchers). It was also a lot funnier than I expected.
It's rated the obligatory R, which some moviemakers seem to think is necessary to attract the teenage audience. But the rating's mainly based on technicalities that were probably tacked on just to get the R: a liberal sprinkling of the "f" word, a case of full nudity (from the back, no sex involved), sexual banter among the characters, and mild drug use. There is some violence and gross-out alien stuff, but not much (if any) stronger than what you'd see on The X-Files. Many R-rated movies (including The Ice Storm and Black and White on this list) are a lot more disturbing than this one.
It says something about the actor we're dealing with, that we have to give him points for trying something different when he's in a not-too-serious teenage monster flick. It's kind of backward from what actors usually mean by "stretching." This isn't one of Elijah's best movies - or acting jobs - but it's adequate and fun and probably increased his audience of people in his own age group (something of a consideration, I imagine, when you've spent most of your childhood making movies aimed at adults, but one this particular actor probably isn't worrying about anymore). [Note added later: As is not unusual with Elijah's acting, multiple viewings of The Faculty brought me to a much deeper appreciation of Casey.]
The characters include the usual list of high-school "types." Elijah's character is the "type" that gets bullied physically, but he speaks up for himself when given the chance. The character's also a klutz, which leads to some physical humor, although it's pretty obvious Elijah's not doing all his own stunts (true of other actors in the movie, as well). [Note added later: When able to watch this on DVD rather than VHS, I discovered Elijah was doing a lot more of his stunts than I originally gave him credit for.] I would like to know how they shot his "collapsing bleachers" scene, which needed some pretty good timing.
In this movie - as opposed to North - Elijah's deadpan verbal humor works. I think that's because the actors are more of a team on this one, so are better at reacting to each other and getting their comedic timing right. Of course, he was also an older and more experienced actor by the time this movie was made.
For those interested in other actors in Elijah's age group, this movie features Josh Hartnett in a pre-Pearl Harbor role as the "brilliant-but-misguided" type of high school student.
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Also mentioned above:
Invasion of the Body Snatchers: DVD
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Invasion of the Body Snatchers: VHS
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