The Mosley Review: Reinfield
It truly has been a long time since we've had a vampire film. It seems that the genre hasn't truly come back to the big screen in so long and there have been so many failed attempts to reintroduce it in a big tent pole connected universal type of story. For all intensive purposes, that attempt failed miserably and well, all of the vampire stories were delegated to television series which is fine. This film brought back that genre in a fun and insanely gory way that was over the top, but fun. I didn't expect the same level of excellence Francis Ford Coppola's 1992 Bram Stoker's Dracula was. This was gonna be something more of the fun Friday night action horror comedy with an almost grindhouse feel to it and that's exactly what it was. I loved the beginning love letter to the 1931 Bela Lugosi classic and how it spun off from that into a more modern take. It stayed true to that style in many great ways when dealing Dracula, but it also introduced a fascinating look at his most loyal assistant. I believe that is what made this film special and different amongst the rest of the more serious adaptations.
Nicholas Hoult was absolutely charming, fun and loveable as Renfield. The amount of guilt he feels while serving his master was interesting to explore through the many therapy sessions in the film. What I really loved about him is the amount of heroism he exhibits while he actually does some good even if he's brutally murdering the bad guys. I loved that he doesn't enjoy it too much though. His comedic charm is ever present in so many great scenes of him trying to get his life together. Nicolas Cage was excellent and so much fun as Dracula. He exudes the elegance of Bela Lugosi while giving it his own stylistic flair. You get to see him dance between being goofy and then ruthlessly creepy. The chemistry between him and Renfield was the heart of the film and you get a true look at the toxic and abusive relationship they have. Awkwafina was good in the film as Rebecca and I liked that she wasn't as overly jokey as she could've been. She has her moments of repetitive disbelief to the violence around her and I didn't always buy into her in some of the action scenes. Her comedic charm held one particular scene together in a good way and I liked the quick friendship between her and Renfield. Shohreh Aghdashloo was perfectly classy and elegant as the crime boss Bellafrancesca. There really wasn't much dimension to her character, but she made it work. Ben Schwartz was perfect as the spoiled, constantly winey son of Bella, Tedward. This is the most manic and loud I've ever seen him and he was surprisingly fun to watch.
The score by the great Marco Beltrami brings to life the elegant style to the Dracula scenes and the bombastic sound of the many action scenes. There is a warmth as well that he brings with the many scenes of Renfield's life reconstruction. My favorite piece is the soulful "Renfield Blues" score. The action in the film was ridiculously blood soaked and very stylized in a way that was on the cusp of being the horrible shakey came style that I hate. The makeup in this film was amazing as you see Dracula heal back to his prime self. It was both fascinating and disgusting to witness and Nicolas Cage’s performance through the makeup prosthetics was a master class. I did have fun with the film, but it felt as if there was alot of it that was cut out, which I think was smart. This was a perfectly paced and healthy dose of vampiric fun that I wasn't disappointed with. Even though the plot was severely predictable and the comedy didn't always land, I still had fun. This film definitely will make for a great drive in experience with tones of popcorn or even a decent matinee. Let me know what you thought of the film or my review in the comments below. Thanks for reading!
