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ARCHENEMY (2020)
Archenemy poster

CAST
SKYLAN BROOKS
ZOLEE GRIGGS
JOE MANGANIELLO
GLENN HOWERTON
JOSEPH D. REITMAN
PAUL SCHEER
PAUL SEIMETZ

STORY BY
ADAM EGYPT MORTIMER
LUKE PASSMORE

SCREENPLAY BY
ADAM EGYPT MORTIMER

EDITED BY
CHRIS PATTERSON
LANA WOLVERTON

CINEMATOGRAPHY BY
HALYNA HUTCHINS

MUSIC BY
MATT HILL (UMBERTO)

PRODUCED BY
JOE MANGANIELLO
NICK MANGANIELLO
DANIEL NOAH
KIM SHERMAN
LISA WHALEN
ELIJAH WOOD

DIRECTED BY
ADAM EGYPT MORTIMER

GENRE
ACTION
CRIME
THRILLER

RATED
AUS:MA
UK:NA
USA:NA

RUNTIME
90 MIN

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Archenemy image

Violent, neon drenched inversion of the classic superhero tale, Archenemy proves to be the gritty, punk rock answer to an overtly commercialised genre of film.

2020 proved that it had to take a pandemic to halt the superhero movie juggernaut. With not one Marvel film released and Wonder Woman 1984 pushed to the end of the year (on a streaming platform, no less), it is up to those little superhero films to fulfil the taste for capes and leotards that so many have grown accustomed to.

Enter Archenemy. Written and directed by Atom Egypt (Daniel Isn’t Here), Archenemy proves to be the neon-lit punk rock alternative to the classic Superman story, a Hancock-style superhero film without the compromise and a portion of its budget, yet with an ingenuity at its core that makes its 90 minutes worth watching and then some.

The films star Joe Manganiello as Max Fist, a homeless and possibly schizophrenic derelict who will tell anyone who listens that he is a superhero from an alternate Earth, and has found himself alone and powerless after a battle against his arch-enemy Cleo (Amy Seimetz) concludes in their falling into an interdimensional portal.

Befriended by aspiring social media journalist Hamster (Skylan Brooks), Max once again finds purpose in his life when Hamster and his sister Indigo (Zolee Griggs) are threatened by drug kingpin The Manager (Glenn Howerton), setting up a confrontation between good and evil that quickly takes on different shades of grey.

Mortimer successfully messes with genre conventions to create a unique superhero movie that has much style as it does grit. Deceptively simplistic animated sequences portray a world of pinks and blues, akin to Krypton meets the neon-age, in which the mythological foundations of this superhero story are portrayed. Mortimer wisely leaves us guessing as to whether this is a reality or the schizophrenic delusions of a broken man trying to find his place in the world, resulting in a superhero movie where the existential journey holds as much importance as any action scene. These in turn are presented as blood-soaked battles of high stakes and ferocious savagery, set within a grungy world of little hope or grace.

Manganiello is ferociously good as Max, a man who cannot let go of a once glorious past in which the fate of the world rested on his shoulders (or did it?), searching for the “cosmic blood” that once ran through his veins and is now replaced by Jack Daniels.

Manganiello could have easily taken the safe, beefcake route ala Chris Evans and Chris Hemsworth to superhero glory, yet has instead chosen a path much more compelling and interesting. It says much about him as an actor, and indeed Archenemy as a film that refuses to play by the rules in a genre of film that has become too homogenised and corporate. Mortimer has provided us with an alternative to the usual superhero tales, and it’s a damn fine one too.

 

***1/2

 

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