Becky is an angry teenager spending the weekend with her father and her beloved lake house when she gets multiple unexpected surprises that make the weekend go from bad to worse, including a visit from a group of escaped inmates who belong to The Aryan Brotherhood. If you are familiar with Becky as a colloquialism, not a name, you may briefly wonder if they will get along, but they make a fatal mistake.
I am the target audience for Becky. I love girl or women protagonists, especially when they unexpectedly turn the tables and violence is involved. I like an unlikeable protagonist. I am extremely comfortable with including anger in my emotional palette to the point of savoring and encouraging it in other women because we are socialized against it. The villains are easy to root against. It has echoes of The Hills Have Eyes. There is nothing rapey in the story. After I watched the movie, I found out that the directors, Jonathan Milott and Cary Murnion, are the same who directed Bushwick, which I adored. It did not work for me.
After I saw Becky, I had a theory that could maybe explain the story. Now that IMDb does not have message boards, I found myself on Reddit, and all of us had imagined varying better storylines than the writers, Nick Morris, Ruckus Skye and Lane Skye, who underwrote the story and used the criminally overused How We Got Here Trope, which is the portent of weak stories. Becky as a character never felt like a complete, feasible, psychological profile that would work in the world. My theory is a supernatural explanation since Nazis were heavily involved in the occult. I figured that the story was building on the popular culture foundation that the Indiana Jones franchise lovingly built up over the course of nearly a decade, but if it is, we never get explicit confirmation though it is heavily implied.
We see different aspects of Becky during happier times in the past then quotidian and stressful times in the present, and the characteristics do not add up to equal this girl. I actually know plenty of women who were this girl to varying degrees, and if posed with the same challenges, even with rage as your secret superpower, none of them could have pulled off what Becky did. My suspension of disbelief really wanted to go there, but it did not feel credible on a human level. The girl who made that song and loves her dogs and mom could not wreak the physical havoc that she did. A person who has always been psycho could, and if they had written her that way, I could have cosigned it and enjoyed the movie, especially since she is framed as a type of Michael Myers.
Becky just was not written well as a character. There were a couple of times that she just seemed stupid. Any idiot could expect what her father was going to announce at that table. When one of the henchmen mentions her family, she genuinely seemed to believe that he was referring to someone who died, but girl, he does not know you. Maybe it was the direction given to the actor, or Lulu Wilson is not a strong actor, but her performance should have transcended the flaws in the writing. Usually actors bridge the gaps by creating biographies for their character, and it did not feel as if Wilson did that. I would put her in the Tobey Maguire school of acting-at the extreme borders of emotion, but never exploring the lighter notes that she should pass during that journey.
The violence and gore are the best parts of Becky. There are so many great gruesome moments: Chekhov’s s’mores, the fort from Die Hard, a car confrontation from Ready or Not. I could go on. There were occasions when I questioned the practicality and sharpness of a couple of blades that Becky used, but it was so over the top that I went with it. There is a chef’s knife that no one should ever use again—not since ER has there been such an extended scene involving that body part. My only caveat is that one dog dies, and another dog is put in danger far more than seems healthy or survivable; however one could say the same about the main antagonist, which was a point against the movie. He is not Jason or Michael Myers. Come on!
Becky’s antagonist, Dominick, did not work for me either, but I am only going to blame the writers. A lot of his motivational, sinister speeches sound as if they listened to too much Taylor Dayne’s Prove Your Love and Rent. Is he a white supremacist or an aspiring inspirational coach from The Voice? I hated his dialogue. They imagine Dominick to be an eloquent mastermind, but huh? I need you to lay the groundwork for how it is possible to be an imprisoned, white supremacist and smart. Treat me like a dumb kid. Also if he is so smart, you stop making your point when you get a yes. I know that he needed to commit that stupid senseless act to get to the rest of the movie, but you do it after you get what you want.
Other than Joel McHale, who has played the same character regardless of the role (loved him in Community), Becky’s supporting characters, including the other white supremacists, were reliably intriguing, relatable and credible. Amanda Brugel was my favorite as an innocent bystander caught up in the middle of the mayhem. Even though her character was definitely underwritten (sorry, the black woman would have picked up the knife and phone then tried to find a back door if there was one), it felt as if she was the only one with a full understanding of how the movie should unfold and maybe should have directed/in addition to acting. Ryan McDonald as Cole, a henchman reasonably tired of the demands of this job, other than the dog murder, being an escaped prisoner and allying himself with a white supremacist, was me. James McDougall as Hammond cracked me up, and if Veep was still on, I would petition for him to get a job there. Robert Maillet as Apex touched my heart. Apparently I have seen Maillet in a ton of movies and television series, but because he is a character actor, he is not recognizable, which is hilarious because he has a distinct look: 300, Sherlock Holmes, Merlin, Once Upon a Time, Pacific Rim, Haven, The Strain, Deadpool 2. All the reviews talk about Kevin James playing a villain for the first time, but I am over here saying give Maillet more of a showcase to express his talents than just being a giant. Even before he explicitly expressed his feelings, I was prepared to write a letter complaining about stereotypes against big, threatening looking people. They can be nice!
If you are so into gore that you can overlook a severely lacking story, then definitely see Becky because it does a superb job with the killings, but if you need to believe that your protagonist exists, skip it because she would not. It was a severe disappointment for me because I wanted to like this movie.
