Bod­ies Bod­ies Bod­ies – first-look review

Everyone’s ear­ly twen­ties are weird. You’re still try­ing to find your­self and your place in the world, usu­al­ly with the help of peo­ple you might con­sid­er your friends. How­ev­er, not many peo­ple in their twen­ties in the grand scheme of the world have to deal with a mur­der mys­tery dur­ing a hur­ri­cane party.

This mys­tery is at the cen­tre of Bod­ies Bod­ies Bod­ies, an uproar­i­ous satire of Gen‑Z nihilism and the fragili­ty of mod­ern friend­ships by actor-direc­tor Hali­na Rei­jn. Sophie (Amand­la Sten­berg) is in the midst of recov­er­ing from addic­tion and has found solace in her new girl­friend Bee (Maria Bakalo­va). When Sophie and her long-time friends get togeth­er for a hur­ri­cane par­ty pass­ing through the night, what starts off as an innocu­ous game of Bod­ies Bod­ies Bod­ies turns into a who­dun­nit with increas­ing stakes.

A key theme through­out this year’s SXSW film line­up is self-aware­ness, with films such as Every­thing Every­where All at Once and The Unbear­able Weight of Mas­sive Tal­ent either pulling real-world ele­ments into their sto­ry or lean­ing into their story’s silli­ness. Bod­ies Bod­ies Bod­ies is a dif­fer­ent kind of self-aware­ness – instead of pok­ing fun direct­ly at itself, it embraces the absur­di­ty of the group’s sit­u­a­tion, as well as the ongo­ing online cul­ture Gen‑Z is expe­ri­enc­ing. While the usage of buzz­words like gaslight­ing and tox­ic might lead to some cringey dia­logue, it knows that these char­ac­ters are using it in a mis­placed or weird way, lead­ing to some pret­ty fun­ny moments.

Anoth­er key aspect of the film that brings it ten­sion and humour in equal spades is its cast. Every­one in the eight-strong cast is deeply com­mit­ted to their char­ac­ters’ respec­tive bits – Chase Sui Won­ders’ Emma can­not stop being pas­sive-aggres­sive even in the midst of dan­ger, while Lee Pace’s Greg car­ries him­self as the ulti­mate 20-year-old-chas­ing holis­tic himbo.

How­ev­er, it is Myha’la Herrold’s Jor­dan that emerges as the shin­ing star in a com­mit­ted per­for­mance that pulls back the cur­tain on the silli­ness of the film and show­cas­es just how dire of a sit­u­a­tion these char­ac­ters are real­ly in. Watch­ing her descent from the medi­a­tor of the group to the per­son who could tear it apart even fur­ther was not only dark­ly enter­tain­ing but also weird­ly trag­ic in a way that only Herrold’s per­for­mance could evoke.

While the who­dun­nit ele­ment is effec­tive for the vast major­i­ty of the movie, it does start to lead into some ques­tion­able optics towards the end. Of course, the inher­ent nature of a who­dun­nit is to not eas­i­ly trust any­one, but it’s anoth­er thing alto­geth­er when the rea­sons why a char­ac­ter shouldn’t be trust­ed include their own per­son­al strug­gles. Even if the expec­ta­tions that arise in the film aren’t ful­ly elab­o­rat­ed on, it was still sur­pris­ing see­ing a movie that claims to under­stand how Gen‑Z treats soci­etal top­ics still por­tray­ing some of those top­ics so stereotypically.

Despite this, plen­ty of view­ers won’t be immune to the infec­tious fun of Bod­ies Bod­ies Bod­ies. The jokes come nat­u­ral­ly and are deliv­ered with dead seri­ous­ness. The film’s pac­ing also helps to flesh out the sto­ry – every plot beat feels smooth­ly inte­grat­ed, with vir­tu­al­ly no aspects of the sto­ry or char­ac­ter­i­sa­tion feel­ing tacked on at the last minute. It’s easy to get swept up in the film’s vibe, so why both­er resist­ing? Just sit back and relax, but make sure that your family’s nov­el­ty weapons are safe­ly stored before you do so.