Tag Archives: KiKi Layne

19Oct/22

We Were Warned About Don’t Worry Darling… I Should Have Listened

Kiki Layne as Margaret and Florence Pugh as Alice
Photos courtsey of Warner Bros

Synopsis: A 1950s housewife living with her husband in a utopian experimental community begins to worry that his glamorous company could be hiding disturbing secrets.

Starring:  Olivia Wilde, Florence Pugh, Harry Styles, Olivia Wilde, Gemma Chan, KiKi Layne, and Chris Pine. 

During the trailer for Don’t Worry Darling, we can see the character Margaret, played by KiKi Layne, shoving a hand from her face. Indicating she is not feeling what is going on and that something isn’t right about the neighborhood they live in. She was warning Alice, played by Florence Pugh, but after watching the film, I thought, “ Why didn’t I listen to Margaret before finishing the movie? Because Don’t Worry Darling showed promise with its star-studded cast, a budget, and lots of money put into marketing, it did not meet the mark. I’ll just have to go down the list of what went wrong with this film. 

First, I liked the videography, and the visuals were stunning. The moments where the lead character, Alice, experiences random experiences like drowning a body of water out of nowhere or being smushed by an imaginary wall. Or even the haunting images of the ghastly-faced dancers in her visions, all are what lured me to the film and kept me interested as to whether this was in her mind or was this all just an alternate reality. Either way, these scenes were something cinemas lovers would go crazy for…if it weren’t for the plot.

Florence Pugh as Alice
Photos courtesy of Warner Bros

Here is where the movie falls short. From the first act, I felt that something was off and that Alice would eventually have to face whatever reality or intriguing plot reveal was to come. Instead, the audience was duped by a rushed third act. Even the performance of Chris Pine as Frank, who was set up to be an influential cultish leader, is wasted when you find out the truth about the almost perfect life of these characters. Harry Styles’s performance was subpar and less convincing as the story progressed. 

There were some beautiful wide-shot scenes in the desert and of the perfect neighborhood where most of the story takes place. The transition from the dark and browns colored environment to the colorful scheme of the clothing, cars, and houses was appealing, making me feel the story took place in the 1950s. Two of the other things I loved about the film was the music selection, which they played during the special NYC screening I attended. The costume design felt vintage, making the character fit the era they modeled their existence after. 

With all the actors involved in this project, one would expect a lot of great performances; unfortunately, the film’s best performance was by Pugh due to the suffering plot. She was very convicneing in her performance, especially when the character felt her reality was blurred. KiKi Layne’s short screen time did stand out as her eyes were I need to tell the fear and concern she had about their existence. Harry Style was serviceable in his performance, I think he could’ve delivered a little bit better when he betrayed his wife, but besides that, he was not bad. All the other actors were decent and did not take away from the film. 


Gemma Chan as Shelley and Florence Pugh as Lisa
Photos Courstey of Warner Bros

This film is a slow burn carried mostly by Pugh, but it just doesn’t turn out to be the film I expected, and I think many will agree. The film’s third act was so rushed and a mess that it looked like it went through a rough editing process. Don’t Worry Darling would have been a better film had there been a better payoff at the end. It makes me wonder if the outcome of this film led an all the media hoopla. This tells me that if a Black woman is warning you in a movie trailer, pay attention because it means someone will suffer, and this time it was the viewer. 

Anyway, I would catch Don’t Worry Darling when it starts streaming because it’s not worth watching in the theaters. You can watch films like the Surrogates or Stepford Wives to fulfill your appetite for a good sci-fi domestic film.

25Jul/20
old guard

Old Guard Was a Great Film but Would Be Better as a Series

old guard
THE OLD GUARD (2020) – (L to R) Matthias Schoenaerts as Booker, Marwan Kenzari as Joe, Charlize Theron as Andy, Luca Marinelli as Nicky, Kiki Layne as Nile. NETFLIX ©2020

Synopsis: Led by a warrior named Andy (Charlize Theron), a covert group of tight-knit mercenaries with a mysterious inability to die has fought to protect the mortal world for centuries. But when the team is recruited to take on an emergency mission and their extraordinary abilities are suddenly exposed, it’s up to Andy and Nile (KiKi Layne), the newest soldier, to join their ranks, to help the group eliminate the threat of those who seek to replicate and monetize their power by any means necessary. Based on the acclaimed graphic novel by Greg Rucka and directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood (LOVE & BASKETBALL, BEYOND THE LIGHTS), THE OLD GUARD is a gritty, grounded, action-packed story that shows living forever is harder than it looks. 

First off, I want to say that I was excited to see the film, Old Guard, was directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood. If her name sounds familiar it’s because she helmed the classic film, Love and Basketball, one of my favorite films. I also saw the trailer featuring budding actress KiKi Layne and the talented Chiwetel Ejiofor as the co-stars, thinking “Oh, Netflix might have a nice action film on their hands?” As I read more about the comic-based film, I knew I had to see if I would recommend it or tell my friends to pass on it. 

What Worked? * Spoiler Alert *

The opening action scene with the immortal protagonists was awesome, one of the best fight scenes I have seen in a Netflix film. I mean it was crazy how the crew revived a la wolverine style and beat the living mess out of the special ops unit sent to “kill” them. Charlize Theron has done some decent action scenes in previous films, but Gina Prince-Bythewood had her looking like she could be Neo from the Matrix. 

Nile, Kiki Layne’s character, was also well developed. Seeing her character struggle to accept her newly developed immortality and adjust to killing was interesting and made the character more compelling. If I spontaneously became immortal and had to leave my life behind, it would definitely cause some inner turmoil. Especially knowing that I would have to watch people around me die and kill people for the rest of my life, that would be crazy! 

The plot twist involving Booker and Copley was one of the best parts. Their hope was to utilize the immortality as a means to find cures for diseases and ailments. I found this twist to be something that would cross my mind if immortality existed. Working in healthcare and experiencing the loss of loved ones due to aliments is rough so if we help people live longer through science, why not try to use the immortals DNA to help the medical world? The only problem, which is explored in the film, would be the greed and possible monopoly involved. I was truly irked by Booker and Copley for their betrayal but I could understand their perspectives. 

THE OLD GUARD – CHIWETEL EJIOFOR as COPLEY in THE OLD GUARD. Cr. AMY SPINKS/NETFLIX © 2020

“It’s such a universal story and it’s certainly been a theme in my work. But also inherent in my work is the normalcy of women being warriors. I love to reframe what it means to be a female, and I feel that movies can absolutely change the narrative and the conversation. Courage has no gender. Badass has no gender. It just is.” – Gina Prince-Bythewood.

Why It Would Be Better As A Series? 

The time travel element could be explored more and there are so many stories that could be told without giving away too much of how the heroes possessed immortality. I really felt act two of the film was a bit slow and had the interesting storytelling of the soldier who was left behind. I can imagine how great these stories could be explored in a series, like Highlander, you could span the centuries following each of our heroes’ origins. I understand Netflix is doing a sequel but I think they could pull off a series that would be just as interesting and would draw an excellent fan base. 

THE OLD GUARD (2020) – KIKI LAYNE as NILE. Photo Credit: AIMEE SPINKS/NETFLIX ©2020

I would love to see Nile’s life before she becomes one of the immortals, I would love to see Andy’s travel through time as a badass fighter and I would love to see the how each character dealt with the relationships they had (and lost). There was so much in the film that would be interesting to see in a series and director Gina Prince-Bythewood could bless the audience with more of her talents. 

In the end, Old Guard had some great action, strong plot points and the fight scenes were on point. I just felt, going into the third act of the film, Old Guard would’ve been better as a tv series. There was a whole world to explore, so many great stories to tell, and the film did an awesome job of covering it all, but a series would do the franchise more justice. I still enjoyed watching Gina Prince Bythewood put together a dope action film and can’t wait to see the sequel. Check out Old Guard now on Netflix.

Directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood 

Screenplay by Greg Rucka 

Based on the Graphic Novel Series by Greg Rucka and Illustrated by Leandro Fernández

Starring: Charlize Theron, KiKi Layne, Marwan Kenzari, Luca Marinelli, Harry Melling, Van Veronica Ngo, with Matthias Schoenaerts, and Chiwetel Ejiofor